Originally Posted by
rob_s
I've gone both ways on this, and have wound up somewhere in the middle.
Early on, when I was drinking all the training/defense/SHTFantasy/ccw koolaid I firmly believed that one should be competing with their exact carry gun, in their exact carry holster, with their exact carry clothes, every single time. I also thought I should creep around stages like a ninja, never take a walkthrough, cry about the gamers winning, claim because:tactical when I lost, etc.
I slowly moved on to drop all the tactical ninja sneaking around and tried to game the stages with my carry gear. Match placements increased dramatically.
Then I moved on further and bought a dedicated gamer gun in the form of a CZ. I bought dedicated gamer support gear, holsters, etc. there is no doubt whatsoever that y performance at matches improved. A lot. I think this is the A-answer for someone that shoots a lot. The CZ, for me, is a no good for carry so my Glocks remain my carry guns in the form of a 19 and a 26 (and soon to add a 42 and 43). When shooting a lot, I saw no problem going back and forth, and just u derstood that I shoot the Glocks a little slower and a little less accurately.
Then I stopped shooting as much.
So now I'm on to a Glock 34 instead of the CZ for no other reason than cost and having money tied up. I can use one mag ouch type, one bunch of spare mags, the carry guns will fit in the gamer holster if I want it to, the gamer gun will fit in the carry holsters if I buy them with open bottoms, etc. saves me having an extra $2k tied up in sole-use gamer gear when I only shoot a couple of matches a year. Gamer gear is also multi-purpose for IDPA, UPSPSA, or 2/3-gun (if I ever get into it again).
For the guy just starting out, my suggestion is to use carry gun/gear/concealment (on,y use concealment in IDPA where required) and not to ninja-around but to go out and try like hell to win. I don't really believe in competition-generated "training scars" or "competition will get you killed on the street" anymore since (a) you're not very likely to ever use your gun on the street and (b) I've never been able to find any documented examples of a competition shooter getting killed on the street solely because of competition "training scars".