New Gamer

[Odin Bravo One]

Took my awesome gamer rig (see gallery) to an IPSC match in NW Arkansas this weekend, and met a great group of shooters, and had a pretty decent time. Certainly it is a slower pace of shooting than I prefer, but it beats staring at the walls in my hotel room 24 weekends a year. This was a pleasant surprise, in light of two IDPA matches I had attended, 200+ miles apart where the shooters were a little too big for their britches, who didn't even hide behind the rule book, just babbled on about the "real world" and "real gunfights"..................and couldn't shoot all that great to boot.

I squaded with a couple of DOE instructors, and some other pretty legit shooters. We had all levels of ability and experience from what I guessed to be about a 10 year old girl running a pink tiger striped G34, to old timers with one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel shooting JMB's gift to the shooting world. I played my rookie card, and the experienced guys were more than happy to help talk me through the various hurdles. Well, for the first stage anyway. Guess the rookie card expired after I was all "A" zones with the fastest time.

I won't join the travelling circuit, and won't win any trophies, but I'll keep coming back to this group, and the local matches they host. Nice ranges, good folks, easy to have fun and burn a little powder with people from all walks of life, many of whom I would never have any interaction with. Not at all convinced I needed to buy an Open Class gun for this. In fact, I know that I didn't. But it's not for sale just yet. As much as I believe in "train like you fight", I'm out to have fun, not train, and make no mistake.....IPSC is NOT training, regardless of what class you shoot.

Thanks to those members here (JV, Caleb, and the others) who answered my ridiculous emails and PMs about random match related stuff. 22 years as a professional gun handler, and it took this long to find a place in the US where shooting was actually fun.

[Lomshek]

Sean, If you're willing to drive 2 hours north of Fayetteville we have a pretty good group that shoots USPSA on the first Sunday of each month just north of Pittsburg, KS. I've heard there are some good groups in the NW AR area too. Mind sharing the name of the club/range?

[Odin Bravo One]

Old Fort Gun Club near Ft. Smith. We had a decent sized group that showed up from Little Rock today.

And I am willing to make the drive. I am in Ft. Smith, so an hour south of Fayetteville, but I'll drive to wherever as long as someone else is paying for gas. Which they are. I am working on getting more guns, ammo, and gear down here to open up various gaming options. If I am not working, then I am bored to tears, and will drive 6 hours round trip to shoot.

Maybe this is more offline, but if you shoot me the club info in Kansas, I'll add it to my list and potential dates to my calendar.

[LittleLebowski]

If going through Fayetteville/Springdale area, be sure to visit the AQ restaurant.

[jetfire]

Glad you made it out to a match. I generally have a blast shooting USPSA, because I like the freestyle problem solving. "Here's a stage, solve it" appeals to me.

[JMS]

I cut my teeth on competitive events at a "diet" IDPA event run at a local indoor range this past Wednesday (2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month). Only 4 stages, and fairly simple ones to boot, but it was enough for me to dip my toe. Random observations: I'm 42, and was the youngest one on my squad...by a decade; I thought there'd be more of a mixed bag. I was also the only one that drew from concealment.

That last was the only real departure from the rulebook I saw; they stayed pretty true to it, otherwise, particularly in regard to conduct-of-fire and penalties. I had to ditch my usual AIWB holster, of course, and dig out my Minotaur...which I haven't worn or practiced with in nearly a year....THAT was a hoot.

Definitely had a good time, met a couple of decent cats, went away knowing that I'd done well despite my jitters. Turns out that I placed 1st, out of 14; not that big a field, but doing that by a fair margin in spite of everybody else shooting slick....? I'll take it.

Will definitely be doing that again, and now know that I should research swimming in a bigger pond...whatever local official matches I can find, KSTG, and the like.

[LittleLebowski]

I cut my teeth on competitive events at a "diet" IDPA event run at a local indoor range this past Wednesday (2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month). Only 4 stages, and fairly simple ones to boot, but it was enough for me to dip my toe. Random observations: I'm 42, and was the youngest one on my squad...by a decade; I thought there'd be more of a mixed bag. I was also the only one that drew from concealment.

That last was the only real departure from the rulebook I saw; they stayed pretty true to it, otherwise, particularly in regard to conduct-of-fire and penalties. I had to ditch my usual AIWB holster, of course, and dig out my Minotaur...which I haven't worn or practiced with in nearly a year....THAT was a hoot.

Definitely had a good time, met a couple of decent cats, went away knowing that I'd done well despite my jitters. Turns out that I placed 1st, out of 14; not that big a field, but doing that by a fair margin in spite of everybody else shooting slick....? I'll take it.

Will definitely be doing that again, and now know that I should research swimming in a bigger pond...whatever local official matches I can find, KSTG, and the like.

Keep me updated if you run across anything closer to my AO.

[TheRoland]

So how'd you do in the end? Anything you found especially hard or easy, given your background?

[Odin Bravo One]

Me?

The thing I found the hardest was to not tune up those standing around while the same 4 people taped and re-set the stages between shooters. But I give two of them a pass. That they didn't die during the match was good enough for me.

As for the shooting stuff, there was nothing out there that was terribly challenging. I guess the swinging Texas Star was semi-difficult as it took me 8 rounds to finish it. But other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary, or so overly challenging that I couldn't perform at an acceptable (to me) level. I could have used one more mag pouch, but that is neither here nor there. I guess the truly hard part was sorting out the scoring. I can shoot as many as I want on this stage, and only the exact rounds called for on the next. Made no sense to me, and they called them by name (Limited Vickers, Comstock, etc) and since I don't know them, I just winged it by watching what other shooters were doing. Of course, that was somewhat of blind leading the blind.

I don't know what the results were, pretty sure they are still figuring them out. I'll let you know when I know.

I know I wasn't first, and I know I wasn't last. Somewhere in between. I am guessing top 10 or 15 of about 65 shooters. I had a few procedural/rule penalties, so I am sure that brought me down as well.

[GJM]

You going full gamer -- special outfit, lycra shirt, etc.?