AIWB in IPSC Limited/Limited 10

[ChrisG]

I know there are several board members who have used AIWB carry rigs in IPSC. I'd like to try this route in order to get more practice in gunhandling and shooting skills under competition pressure. For those who have trod this path before, I have a couple questions:

1) Do you compete in Limited or Limited 10 and why?

2) Do you primarily use in-battery reloads or do you shoot to slidelock, and why?

Slidelock reloads are a higher priority skill for me, and I'd like to avoid carrying a huge number of extra mags. On the other hand, using in-battery reloads would make it easier to compare my overall time to other competitors. What say the pistol cognescenti?

[Prdator]

I have no idea what "category" I have shot in, nor do I care. The IPSC guys let me shoot from AIWB, and didn't laugh at me after the first stage. I ran to slide lock every time, on the reloads.

Im only competing to make ME better. In my First "big" IPSC match I was teamed up with some really good guys, one is a GM and I got in a "A game" pool with him, most hits to the A's get lunch bought, I lost by one, and we were Well ahead of the pack.

[Shokr21]

If you want to compete shooting from concealment from an AIWB rig you're obviously not "too" worried about where you place among the other competitors. Seems to me, like you stated, that you want to get some of the pressure of competition and others looking on while you shoot how you carry. Nothing wrong with that, compete against yourself.

To follow that line of thinking I'd shoot limited. You can then load up your mags, as you would when carrying, which would also limit the amount of mags you have to carry. Which getting back to the shoot how you carry theme would seem to make sense.

In regards to slide lock vs battery reloads, do your stage planning and figure out what makes the best sense.

[Mr_White]

I compete with my carry gear in Limited. I use an internally-stock Gen3 G34 in a Keeper AIWB holster concealed under a t-shirt.

My preference is for Limited over Limited-10 because there is usually more and stiffer competition in Limited than in Limited-10. Also, since I carry two spare magazines in normal life and I can fill those magazines to capacity in Limited, I don’t have to add any additional mag pouches and mags that I don’t normally have on me.

I am kind of half-in, half-out of the game of USPSA. I play the game as a game. I make no pretense of tactics at all and I plan and walk-through and air gun stages like everyone else.

But I insist on using my carry gear from concealment to play the game with. I care about my score and try to improve it. I know that hamstringing myself by shooting Limited Minor from concealment is crazy for placing well in the game, but I find shooting this way very satisfying and challenging.

Shooting competition increases my competence and confidence. When I am all done with the match, put on my (99% identical) carry gun, and walk off the range, I should have the same technical potential (difficulties of real self-defense aside) that I had in the match. There isn’t any doubt in the back of my mind about whether I can shoot my carry gear as well as my match gear.

Shooting with self-imposed disadvantages puts that much more pressure on me to shoot better and faster than other competitors. That’s the only way I am going to do well or win. I have to shoot all As or nearly so, and can’t waste any time doing it.

So, to answer your second question (in-battery or slidelock reloads), I do whichever is dictated by what I believe to be the high-flyingest stage plan. Sometimes that means I need all 18 rounds in the gun, need to not shoot any bad shots whatsoever because there’s no extra ammo for make-up shots, and shoot to slidelock and reload from slidelock in order to shoot the stage as efficiently as I can envision. More commonly I reload in-battery when moving to another position to avoid a standing reload in the middle of an array, same as other USPSA competitors typically do.

When I practice reloads, I practice slidelock reloads exclusively since they are slightly more complex and have more potential for error, and encompass in-battery reloads within the slidelock reload technique.

[JodyH]

I ran my P30 AIWB (concealed) in Limited because I like loading my mags to full capacity.
I haven't been to an IPSC match since I traded the P30 for a P2000, but will probably shoot it in Limited as well (even though the 13 round mags will be an even bigger disadvantage).
I shoot to win, but I prefer to do it with my daily carry setup (have to add an extra mag carrier for some matches).

[Alaskapopo]

I know there are several board members who have used AIWB carry rigs in IPSC. I'd like to try this route in order to get more practice in gunhandling and shooting skills under competition pressure. For those who have trod this path before, I have a couple questions:

1) Do you compete in Limited or Limited 10 and why?

2) Do you primarily use in-battery reloads or do you shoot to slidelock, and why?

Slidelock reloads are a higher priority skill for me, and I'd like to avoid carrying a huge number of extra mags. On the other hand, using in-battery reloads would make it easier to compare my overall time to other competitors. What say the pistol cognescenti?

In real life I would also like to avoid shooting to slide lock and tac reloads take too long. Speed loads are very viable. If you have fired rounds and are not sure how many you have left dump the mag and put in a fresh one. Intentionally shooting to slide lock is stupid in my opinion and one of the reasons I am not a big fan of IDPA. I shoot it but hate there rules regarding reloading. Also shooting A's is great but speed is just as important as accuracy. I know the saying speed is fine but accuracy is final but frankly I don't agree. If your too slow to hit the threat before he hits you your not going to have the final results you want. Speed and accuracy are an equal footing. You can not place one above the other.
pat

[Odin Bravo One]

Agree 100% with avoiding a slide lock reload. If someone were to go back in time, and see when that stupid ass rule was popularized and ultimately included in IDPA, it was around the same time the military made the same stupid knee jerk reaction decisions with magazines and reloads. I was around for the incident that caused all of the excitement, and to this day still have no idea what hanging onto a few extra rounds in a mostly empty magazine does for me.

Disagree 100% on placing speed equal to, or higher than accuracy, if we are talking about shooting a game stage for your own personal growth as a serious defensive shooter. There are certainly lots of variables and factors in walking out of gunfights unscathed, but getting a bunch of weak peripheral hits really fast has yet to be the deciding factor for success in any of the incidents I have personal knowledge of.

[Corlissimo]

...I insist on using my carry gear from concealment to play the game with. I care about my score and try to improve it. I know that hamstringing myself by shooting Limited Minor from concealment is crazy for placing well in the game, but I find shooting this way very satisfying and challenging.

Shooting competition increases my competence and confidence. When I am all done with the match, put on my (99% identical) carry gun, and walk off the range, I should have the same technical potential (difficulties of real self-defense aside) that I had in the match. There isn’t any doubt in the back of my mind about whether I can shoot my carry gear as well as my match gear.

As I see it, you're giving yourself just about every "real life" advantage if you were to ever be involved in a gun fight. How many of your competitors would be able to truly perform in a real life gun fight as they do in competition? And, how many just pack up their "game guns" and walk out unarmed into real life? I like your logic and approach as it's exactly what I've been making arrangements to emulate and why I too was curios about using AIWB in gun games.

To ChrisG: Thanks for posting what I hadn't gotten around to asking.

[Jason F]

...I was around for the incident that caused all of the excitement, and to this day still have no idea what hanging onto a few extra rounds in a mostly empty magazine does for me...

I guess this was a bit before my time because I have no idea what you're referring to here Sean. Are you being vague because of OPSEC issues the aforementioned incident, or is it something widely known about that I just haven't heard of?

Just curious as the shoot to slide lock and reloading rules in IDPA drive me nuts. If there's a reason they came about, I'm curious what they are and what they're a reaction to.

[LOKNLOD]

Disagree 100% on placing speed equal to, or higher than accuracy, if we are talking about shooting a game stage for your own personal growth as a serious defensive shooter. There are certainly lots of variables and factors in walking out of gunfights unscathed, but getting a bunch of weak peripheral hits really fast has yet to be the deciding factor for success in any of the incidents I have personal knowledge of.

Though it's often discussed as balancing the speed and accuracy, I think that leads many to assume that the fulcrum must be in the center of the plank...