Update from IDPA Headquarters, CCP Division Wins

[Mr_White]

Though at least USPSA lets me carry aiwb somewhere.

Isn't it kind of sad that that fact is such a bright and shining aspect of USPSA, in the overall world of action pistol competition? I find myself loving USPSA just for the fact that they have a division where I can compete with the gear I want to use.

I've never even been on a range at the same time that a USPSA match was taking place. I'm only minimally familiar with their rules.

USPSA rules: Go shoot As from within the shooting area, however you see fit to do that.

That's quite an oversimplification, but I think that's the essence.

Give me GSSF. I don't have to run.

For real. If we were going to run in order to deal with the targets, we could be using machetes and spears and numchucks and switchblades. We have guns so we don't have to chase stuff to poke a hole in it....

But seriously, I hate running too. I do love shooting enough to run around in USPSA so that I can shoot the targets though.

[jlw]

For real. If we were going to run in order to deal with the targets, we could be using machetes and spears and numchucks and switchblades. We have guns so we don't have to chase stuff to poke a hole in it....

But seriously, I hate running too. I do love shooting enough to run around in USPSA so that I can shoot the targets though.

If I am running in a gun fight, it is darn near certain that I am running away...

[jlw]

It occurred to me today that if the point of the matches, at least the sanctioned ones, isn't about winning and match bumps, then why are divisions needed? If it is all about the intrinsic value of the match, why not go shoot your Shield 9 up against the G34s? You don't need a cut-out. Just go spend hundreds of dollars for the match and enjoy your shellacking.

[cclaxton]

It occurred to me today that if the point of the matches, at least the sanctioned ones, isn't about winning and match bumps, then why are divisions needed? If it is all about the intrinsic value of the match, why not go shoot your Shield 9 up against the G34s? You don't need a cut-out. Just go spend hundreds of dollars for the match and enjoy your shellacking.

jlw,
It's not a black/white single objective to go to a sanctioned match. I go hoping for a match bump, but for all the reasons I listed earlier as well. Divisions are needed to adjust for innate differences in equipment. Just like it's not fair to compare a revolver and semi-auto competitor, it's also not fair to compare a 8+1 shooter to a 10+1 shooter (where reloads make a diff). Now for SSP and ESP, I think the differences in equipment are so minor that they should be combined.

Now for classifications, that has more to do with rewarding achievement over what is normally a many-year process to get to Expert/Master for someone who starts at Novice. Most sports have multiple levels of classification that you must work through. There is a important psychological factor. If you had everyone shoot in one big class, then most shooters in the lower half will not work as hard to compete as those near the top. By establishing classes, winning or placing in a particular class results in people working harder to get the trophy as opposed to moving up a few positions over the last match. This results in competitors improving more by trying to win a class than if they were all in one large class. This is scientifically verified psychological research. This is why you see classifications in just about every single type of sport.
Cody

[Urban_Redneck]

The pretense of a vote aside, I think production optics didn't get the nod because it would require a new box and open yet another debate whether aftermarket magwells ought to be included in said box dimensions.

If IDPA wanted to make a more "realistic" CCP division they might have required the often slower to load, single stack mags, only.

The only "painless" division change might have been to have a new revolver division that was 140 PF, and allowed moon clips OR a MRDS. No one cares what the revo guys are up to

Since IDPA is much more so a "gateway" shooting sport than USPSA, AIWB will remain a major liability concern and likely persist in be being ,just a small dot on the horizon for quite some time.

My IDPA duffer $0.02

[Casual Friday]

Color me excited. The CCP size guns are what I shoot and carry so a division for those makes me happy. Not that I wouldn't shoot in SSP against bigger guns, but CCP makes me feel like they created a division just for this special snowflake right here.

I carry IWB at 3:00, but alas my preferred spare mag position of between 11-12:00 wouldn't be allowed, but I digress.

[ToddG]

From IDPA HQ:

There were only a couple of 4” semi-auto firearms, out of 355 total entries in the 2014 IDPA Nationals, but the equipment survey indicated that the Glock 19 is the most popular firearm carried by those that shot that Nationals. The combination of membership requests, significant difference in Classifier times, and the equipment survey all added together were compelling reasons for the new CCP division and for CCP to include 4.1” barreled firearms. Nearly every manufacturer makes one or more firearms with a barrel length around 4”. We expect the competition should be great.

IOW, everyone is carrying a G19 but no one is competing with a G19 because: game. So now they're giving people an option to play the game but with the gun they normally carry. Because: whole purpose behind IDPA being formed in the first place.

[Mr_White]

IOW, everyone is carrying a G19 but no one is competing with a G19 because: game. So now they're giving people an option to play the game but with the gun they normally carry. Because: whole purpose behind IDPA being formed in the first place.

The internet has told me a number of times that most/many people shooting IDPA aren't carrying a G19 either - instead, an LCP, j-frame, something similar, or nothing. Not that I know what the truth is with regard to IDPA match participants. When you were shooting IDPA, did you think everyone/most/many carried a G19 or another similarly sized handgun?

[ToddG]

When you were shooting IDPA, did you think everyone/most/many carried a G19 or another similarly sized handgun?

It varied quite a bit, especially as time went on. In the beginning, there were a lot of guys carrying Real Guns every day and a lot of guys who competed with Real Guns but carried j-frames. Later on once there were a lot of sponsored shooters and IDPA was at the height of its popularity, most of the top guys probably didn't carry at all while most of the MM/SS level shooters had become more consistent about carrying G19-sized guns every day.

I'm willing to take IDPA HQ's report of its survey at face value. The response was that the G19 was the most popular EDC pistol among the competitors at Nationals.

I think IDPA is a very specific and non-representative slice of the average gun carrying public. If you asked what the most popular carry gun was among the average joes who show up at a practice range once every month or two to shoot their 1911s and Glocks, I'd guess "j-frame or tiny auto." It would be very interesting to see how the folks at this year's USPSA Nationals matches answered the question.

[rob_s]

The internet has told me a number of times that most/many people shooting IDPA aren't carrying a G19 either - instead, an LCP, j-frame, something similar, or nothing. Not that I know what the truth is with regard to IDPA match participants. When you were shooting IDPA, did you think everyone/most/many carried a G19 or another similarly sized handgun?

so, then, according to the internet the poll-takers are liars?

while I realize that IDPA is the new whipping boy of "serious shooters", my experience at the local club and at various sanctioned matches over the last decade, has been at the very least that the G19 is the gun that the particpants *want* to carry, even if they don't carry every day, and that the number of IDPA shooters that carry ANYTHING is exponentially greater than the number of USPSA shooters that carry, as 'round here the USPSA is treated much like golf, and the guns considered like clubs.

I suspect, however, that it's like most things, and people see/hear/conclude what they want based on the preconceptions they arrive with.