AZSA Rules, Edition 1.0.0

Principles
AZSA is a shooting sport where participants dress in costumes reflecting the time surrounding the Prohibition era and shoot period correct guns in competition. It is not the intent of AZSA’s founders to promote a sport that necessarily tests a shooter’s skills more than it is to get like-minded, good people together, in a safe environment, role playing a time in United States History. AZSA is still a competition with winners and losers but there will be less emphasis placed on difficult marksmanship and more placed on fun.

Safety Regulations
Shooting is a potentially dangerous sport and should be treated as such! The most important aspect of AZSA is safety! Below is a small list of rules that must be followed at all times during the course of an AZSA match. Any safety violation will result in disqualification (DQ) from an AZSA match. Subsequent safety violations can result in loss of AZSA membership! Any DQ may be disputed amongst the shooter, Range Officer (RO) and Match Director. The Match Director makes the final decision in a shooter’s DQ.

1. All participants must be familiar with NRA Gun Safety Rules
2. All participants must complete a safety class prior to shooting a match. Current members of IDPA, IPSC, SASS or USPSA may participate without taking an AZSA safety course.
3. Eye and ear protection must be worn at all times! This includes spectators within close proximity.
4. All AZSA matches are considered “Cold Ranges”. No shooter may handle a firearm outside of a designated safety area unless instructed by the RO. Pistols may be carried in a holster, unloaded with the hammer down. All un-holstered guns must be stored in safe locations until ready for use.
5. The point at which a shooter is downrange defines 180 degrees. If a shooter’s muzzle breaks the 180 degree mark (the muzzle is pointed 1 degree up-range), it is a match DQ.
6. If a shooter fires a gun while not engaging a target it is considered an Accidental Discharge (AD). An AD is a match DQ. To avoid AD DQs the shooter must keep his finger off of the trigger until a target is engaged. The RO may call “Trigger” to warn a shooter of an infraction. If the RO feels it is necessary to DQ a shooter because of too many “Trigger” calls he may do so.
7. A shooter that crosses the path of a gun’s muzzle with a human body part is referred to as sweeping. Any shooter that sweeps himself or another person will be DQ’d! The exception to the rule is drawing an unloaded gun from a shoulder holster.
8. Pistols will be drawn from holsters. Because AZSA is a costuming sport and shoulder holsters fit the roles, guns may not be drawn with a round chambered! The reason is because of potential sweeping with a gun drawn from a shoulder holster (see rule 7). To be consistent and fair, this will include all auto-loading pistols drawn from ANY holster. Since it is difficult to have a revolver in an un-chambered condition they may not be drawn from a shoulder holster. Revolvers can ONLY be carried and drawn from hip mounted holsters!
9. AZSA is a multi-gun sport. Based on course design, guns may be abandoned during a Caper. Abandoned guns must be left unloaded with the chamber empty and pointed in a safe direction. It is permitted to abandon a gun without unloading it first if a host club provides a safe area to do so and it is left with its safety “ON”. After a Caper is complete, the shooter, RO and score keeper must retrieve all abandoned guns and if necessary, unload them. No other persons may be downrange during this action. If an abandoned, loaded gun is retrieved with the safety “OFF”, the shooter will be DQ’d.

Costumes
AZSA is a costuming sport. All AZSA shooting participants MUST wear a costume! Guns and holsters are part of a shooter’s costume. A shooter’s costume may reflect any person or type of person from the 1920s and 1930s. A shooter’s costume becomes his character. A shooter’s character takes on a persona of either good or bad. Participants may adopt more than one character. Costumes may not hinder a shooter’s ability to safely handle a gun or participate in any way at an AZSA match.

Guns
Tommy Guns and 1911 style pistols are the primary guns of AZSA but any large bore (9mm/.380 or larger) pistol and large bore, pistol cartridge firing rifle produced before 1939 or replica of such may be used. Guns may not have modern upgrades that appear on the outside introduced after 1939. Remember, this is a costuming sport and guns are part of the costume. Any type of Tommy Gun may be used, including full-autos and SBR semi-autos, if they are legal and the host range permits their use. Pistol magazines cannot be loaded with more than 7 rounds. Matches may include era correct guest guns supplied by the club (i.e. shotguns, Derringers, BARs, etc) in their Caper designs.

Holsters
Any type of era correct pistol holster may be worn for the use of carrying a pistol by AZSA participants. With the exception of revolvers, which may not be carried in shoulder holsters, ALL pistols must be drawn with an empty chamber for safety’s sake. Because some costumes (i.e. flapper’s dress) may not be appropriate for the use of a holster or magazine pouches, all Capers must have provisions for un-holstered pistols and extra magazines to be used during the course of fire.

Competition
AZSA matches incorporate multiple stages which will be referred to as “Capers”. Capers have designated points from which shooters start and then engage targets by a specified course of direction as quickly as possible until that shooter is finished or stopped by the RO. Shooters compete in 2 divisions, Pistol and Rifle-Pistol. Both divisions will compete in the same Capers. There are 2 basic Caper types: Good-Bad and Normal. Good-Bad Capers are configured so that good characters engage certain targets and bad characters engage others. Good-Bad Capers should have a balanced number of targets for both character types. This insures fairness and proper scoring. Normal Caper designs will be shot by all participants in the same manner. Clubs may also hold fun or side matches and can use any era correct guns they wish. Fun or side match scores will not be recorded in the AZSA shooter database.

Un-sportsman like behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Any AZSA participant may report another to the match director for actions he may feel are un-sportsman like. Only the match director may reprimand or DQ a shooter for this behavior. It is at their complete discretion.

Caper Design
1. AZSA will utilize USPSA metric paper targets and large steel targets until it develops its own.
2. Steel targets cannot be engaged at a distance of less than 7 yards.
3. Pistol targets may not be placed in such a way that they must be engaged beyond 10 yards. Rifle targets should not be engaged beyond 20 yards.
4. Pistols may only be fired with one hand unless it is to engage longer distance targets intended for rifles.
5. Caper design...for more information please visit the AZSA website.

Scoring
1. All Capers are scored by time only.
2. A shooter’s time starts at the sound of a timer’s signal and ends with the last shot fired.
3. Failure to follow Caper direction will result in a procedural penalty for every shot fired during the infraction. Procedural penalties are typically shots fired while a boundary is crossed or if targets are engaged in an order not specified by the Caper’s design. Each procedural penalty will result in 5 seconds added to the shooters time.
4. Failure to engage a target adds a 15 second penalty to a shooters score. Failure to engage is defined as a shooter not shooting at a target. This may result from a shooter forgetting a target or targets remaining by not finishing a Caper.
5. Each missed target adds a 10 second penalty to the score. If a steel target does not fall, it is recorded as a miss. Targets, walls and props are considered impenetrable. If it is determined that a shot hitting a target passed through an object considered impenetrable, it is a miss.
6. Any single hit...for more information please visit the AZSA website.

Hierarchy
AZSA’s founders are the sport’s originators and owners. They have the final say in all of its functions. AZSA will be divided in the United States by each state (foreign countries are their own separate entities and do not require any further division). Each state will have one elected director that will report to the AZSA founders. Elected local club presidents report to the state directors. State directors and local club presidents are elected by individual AZSA members. All AZSA elected officials may serve for a one year term from the day they were elected. Officials may serve for as many terms as they wish if they are voted back into office.

Conclusion

This is AZSA’s first form of rules. As with any other sport, the rules will change and amend as time passes. Any member of AZSA can make a rule recommendation at any time. Rule revisions will be made by a majority vote by the state directors. A tie will be broken by the AZSA founders. As before mentioned the AZSA founders have the final say in all of its functions. The founders may veto any change to the rules. Any changes made to AZSA rules will be noted on its website and reported to the state directors.

Colorado, January 19th 2009

American Zoot Shooters Association

Henning Wallgren aka “The Undertaker”

Jason Huss aka “The Hustler”