The last time I was at a match and was made head referee we had a ruling. Now remember the head ref is normally the tie breaker and the person who guides the other 2 refs on the rules. The incident was 4 shots on the backer, (well know shooter). You look on the target first, you see 5 possible rings, the backer becomes a mute point. All I could see was 4, the backer showed 4, my instructions to the other 2 refs was, that if any of them saw a possible 5 shots, I would back the shooter, they both said 4 and the penalty was awarded. Another incident of which I was not part of, involved giving a 5" penalty to a shooter, (this cost him the 2 Gun) where the target crew put the wrong target on the target board. Competitor 115 shot the target on target board 115 but the target was 114, he was deemed to have crossfired. Now remember the range officer did the "check your competitor number" routine and technically the shooter should have seen it. But what happens if the mirage is so bad that you can't see the numbers on the target. In this case, had I been the referee I would have just change the competitor number on the target in question, why? the shooter shot on his legal target. again it is the ranges duty to make sure the correct target is in the correct frame. This is what referee are needed for. To act as a go between the rulebook and what really happens. When it was pointed out to the refs at a later time on what I would have done they tried to change the ruling, and I informed them that they can't change their ruling unless something comes later to indicate a malfunction, that was not apparent at the time of the ruling. Will I ever be a referee again?? "A BIG F_______G NO" Going back to the first incident, the shooter in question threatened me on several occasions in front of the Director, who did nothing. 1 of the other refs, a week later, told this shooter that he though there was 5 but I had bullied him into 4, (this particular person has always been a weasel) so it did not bother me. I believe in the NBRSA rules, the regional director picks a referee, the range picks a referee, and the 2 referees pick a 3rd. Now all clubs in this region can not pick a club member as a referee. I believe in what you are saying re the rulebook, but there could be certain circumstances come up that the rulebook has to be set aside, and common sense applied.