Why is Reloading a Big Part of Many Drills/Standards?

[powell556]

Competition is a lot better if it’s entertaining, and two-to-four round realistic scenarios make for very little entertainment. People like to bust caps. That leads to high round counts which leads to reloads, and a reload takes so much longer than shooting a target that it is a disproportionately valuable skill. That’s just how shooting competitions are. The best way to avoid needing to be good at a bunch of useless bullshit and still shoot well under stress is to get involved in a training group and shoot surprise stages and man on man drills. It kicks the shit out of competition for skill building but is hard to hold together.

One reason some people incorporate reloads in drills is that it forces a regrip or a disruption, and that has value. I prefer when it’s done with movement or the like, but it’s fine.

Could a reasonable alternative be that each "stage" of the competition requires only the number of rounds in your gun without reloading? And then you administratively reload between stages? Then you still have the same round count and the same number of reloads, but the reloads aren't counted as part of the competition?

Perhaps you have three different "divisions" a 6-round, a 10 round and a 15 round, where if you run a J-frame or G43, you have stages that have exactly 6 rounds.

Because I don't see the practical value in being the absolute fastest mag reloader, it is a turn off for me that I'd be negatively scored due to slower reloads than someone else. I'm not saying my reloads are trash, but they'll never be as fast as someone who practices them a lot more. So that might be 0.25 seconds to 0.5 seconds advantage to someone who spends the time practicing mag reloads.

What if it takes them 1 second to reload and it takes me 1.25 seconds (round numbers, I don't know what's considered "good" or average). I am penalized by 0.25 seconds because I choose to use those 10 minutes a day of training time to something else like pummeling for underhooks or BJJ shrimping. Who is better off in a real life self defense encounter, someone who pummels for underhooks for 10 minutes a day or someone who practices mag reloads 10 minutes a day? Everything is a trade off.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

One can also make the point that by practicing fast reloads when shooting, one can spend more time shooting.

This is the answer as far as I'm concerned. No, you probably don't need to reload in most SD encounters. But people who compete are better than people who don't, and if you will only compete in games with no reloads, your competition options are limited.


I rarely compete myself, but it has nothing to do with skill set, and everything to do with not wanting to be around other people. But the price I pay is not being nearly as good as I have been or could be.

[nwhpfan]

Yeah, don't worry about it. When you are just reloading between strings of whatever...that is good enough as long as your are practicing proper technique. Especially since you don't carry a reload.

Once you bore yourself with Turbo Pin speeds on the Gabe White Standards, work on that Fast with malfunctions instead of reloads. Weak hand malfunction clearance drills, whatever, it doesn't matter.

Gun games might not be for you. But if you just want to see how fast and accurate you can shoot testing your technical ability to run a gun AND you don't want to reload, you can always shoot Speed Steel. And if you shoot a Glock you can shoot GSSF.

[olstyn]

it is a turn off for me that I'd be negatively scored due to slower reloads than someone else.

Sorry to be blunt, but get over yourself. *NOBODY* is going to win right away when they've either just started or have been away from competition for 20 years, and that doesn't matter at all. If you come back to it, you'll have all kinds of low hanging fruit to work on, and honestly the reloads will probably take care of themselves over time even just doing a few of them every match, at least to the point where you won't feel like they're making you lose. It's just not something you should be worried about.

Get out there, have some fun, and become a better shooter in the process.

[revchuck38]

One of the reasons for on-the-clock reloads that I haven't seen comes from the roots of the "combat" shooting sports. When this stuff started, defensive handguns were revolvers (five or six shot) or 1911s (seven plus one). The possibility of needing a reload in a defensive situation was higher then than it is now with higher-capacity handguns. Then as now, more shooting = more fun, so reloads were part of the experience, and since it was a competition, reloads were practiced so the shooter would score better. So, a big reason that reloads are still an integral part of competition is:



IDPA/USPSA/whatever matches are competitions. As such, they have rules and conventions. Reloads are part of them. If you want to compete, you have to accept them as they are.

[BehindBlueI's]

Could a reasonable alternative be that each "stage" of the competition requires only the number of rounds in your gun without reloading? And then you administratively reload between stages?

Steel challenge is what you're looking for. Unless you miss, you don't reload, and if you miss you probably weren't going to be competitive anyway.

Or, start your own local defensive competition. There's a gun shop around here that runs a "defensive league" that is much lower round count, although they sometimes incorporate a reload on a stage.

[Alpha Sierra]

F-it not worth it

[RJ]

Sorry to be blunt, but get over yourself. *NOBODY* is going to win right away when they've either just started or have been away from competition for 20 years, and that doesn't matter at all. If you come back to it, you'll have all kinds of low hanging fruit to work on, and honestly the reloads will probably take care of themselves over time even just doing a few of them every match, at least to the point where you won't feel like they're making you lose. It's just not something you should be worried about.

Get out there, have some fun, and become a better shooter in the process.

This.

One of the great things I've found about USPSA, is the stark realization of how much I suck at shooting. I remember my first time, thinking, "you know, compared to the people next to me at the stalls in the public shooting range, I am not bad. At least I am hitting the paper. This can't be this hard...BEEEEEEEEEP!!!"


...And then finishing 57 out of 58 in the match, just above the guy who DQ'd, is a sobering revelation.

You show up, shoot your stages, and get your score.

No do overs.

No "Hey hold on, my gun jammed."

The importance of attempting to complete a skill (any skill) related to shooting, on the clock, should not be minimized.

[Jim Watson]

A couple of pointers from old hands that apply here.
One instructor said, "Don't think of a match stage as a sustained firefight against multiple determined opponents, consider each target array as a separate problem."
And, since such arrays are spaced apart, the single stack era competitor's policy applies: "If my feet are moving, I am reloading."

The main training advantage to a match - USPSA, IDPA, IPSC - is that every stage is different, you will seldom see the same stage, you will likely never see the same match. Sure, you can expend the same amount of ammo in a quarter the time in the solitary vice of shooting drills and exercises, but you will not be surprised or have to make a decision.

[olstyn]

Sure, you can expend the same amount of ammo in a quarter the time in the solitary vice of shooting drills and exercises, but you will not be surprised or have to make a decision.

^
All kinds of this. Matches test how you react when some part of your plan goes sideways, and knowing that either a) you can handle it or b) you have work to do is valuable.