In typical PF fashion, all opinions are not created equal and I want to say how I know what I know.
I’ll make a sidebar for @
GyroF-16
1. When I started training for a classification goal, I hadn’t shot a match and I didn’t know anybody at the local clubs. I wasn’t thinking about the sport like we traditionally do. I was just thinking of trying to train for the standard, like I would for a FAST or a Vice Card Challenge or some other technical benchmark that would be shorthand for pistol proficiency.
2. I knew it would be paper GM, but that was okay with me knowing that my field course performance would be something that came with more experience and squadding with the people who were crushing it. But I was time limited and I don’t travel to away matches due to family responsibilities.
3. So from that standpoint, I was content with a paper GM card. It was only a goal for proficiency validation of the stand and shoot skills. I see the field course stuff as a separate sport.
4. I didn’t know if I would like the sport per se, that seems to be very club dependent. Turns out I love the guys and gals locally and I love shooting matches. So my field course skills have been working up to my stand and shoot skills. If I had it to do over again, I think I’d still have done it the same way. Paper GM means you’re fast with a killer index and reloads and that’s a great place of foundation to work field course prowess with.
5. So I’m currently doing my field course training alongside my long gun training and a pretty evenly matched M in field course and on demand classifier performance in PCC. Someday when I get to GM field course and classifier in PCC, then I’ll take the field course skills back to CO and I won’t be a paper CO GM anymore….