Shooting well vs being a good shooter

[Glenn E. Meyer]

When I shoot my Gen 4 Glock 17 with stock sights, I can match the As with most in our local group. My times suck as a major component is hustling around between positions. I can't do the track meet. Wah, wah. If I could I would be in the middle of the pack. My orientation is SD competency with some fun. My carry holster is CCW compatible. We all dp what we get out of it. Still comparing the SRO gun vs. the Irons - 25 years of irons is hard to break. Wobbling the dot, still a problem for old me.

I see the major emphasis before a stage in micro planning the reloads, an irrelevancy for my interests. I'll do it a bit, but if I shoot to slide lock it's not a tragedy. I regard C hits off to the left and right as bad and I might make them up. Just me.

Watched a young kid (to me) shoot a G48 with a Holosun. Oh, to be young, fast and accurate with a realistic carry gun.

[fatdog]

advancements in ammunition have gotten us to the place where, for anything greater than 9mm+P, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

I see that as the thing that has turned the whole world of defensive pistolcraft on its ear. In the era when much of the 9mm ammo was perceived to be "not so good" the major power factor calibers like .40, 10mm, 45 ACP were perceived to be have really relevant differences and "worth the squeeze" by many opinion leaders. So maybe people were willing to do more work to be able to manage them shot to shot, etc. That mindset is pretty dead. I can remember a lot of the "influencers" a decade ago saying shit like "all real guns start with a "4" cupcake".

As for the game, I remember when major PF dropped to 165 & 160 and that made a big difference in terms of what people had to do to run major. In 1996 running a .40 major meant you were handloading (no loaded .40 ammo on the market made 175 PF) and really pushing it to make PF with a margin. 9mm major was unthinkable (and not legal then) because you were pushing .38 Super to its limits to make 175 pf and have a margin. That PF drop and allowing 9mm major removed a lot of barriers for shooting major pf, and probably kept major pf relevant for a whole lot longer for a lot of people, just to pick up a few extra points.

I think Nils recent win running minor PF in limited sorta puts the exclamation on major PF and those few extra points not being so terribly important in the game as we thought it was for many years.

[CCT125US]

Another observation, is that some need a specific setup to shoot well. Hand a good shooter something with a trigger and sights and they will make it hum.

[mmc45414]

I am not an active USPSA shooter, but seems to me like the power factor for minor got kinda low. Was this based around cheap commercial 115g ball velocities?
I have been happily evolving to be pretty much a 9mm shooter, but my 147g reloads are at about 990fps, matching what I clocked from G2 (5" M&P).
People matching velocity to spring rates and squeaking by the PF seems just like people switching to compensated 30 Supers back when I was that bushy hair kid that could hardly afford to keep shooting 45acp.

[Bergeron]

I see that as the thing that has turned the whole world of defensive pistolcraft on its ear.

Very much concur. My first competitive pistol pursuit was bowling pins, where 9mm, even with +P JHP, wasn't quite enough (believe me, I tried).

I remember some American Handgunner article from back in the late 90s that shot then-modern JHPs in 9mm, .40, and .45 (was it Dick Metcalf?) into ballistics gel and measured the permanent wound cavity. There were (apparently) real differences back then, and .40 was closer to .45 than to 9mm.

I still like and shoot 10mm and .45, but for no-kidding defensive pistolcraft, it's a 9mm world through-and-through, and I think that's really helped people. It reminds me of a story about Olympic clay shooters, where the max loads were reduced, and then scores went up. We'd all like to believe that we can psychologically overcome recoil, but in reality, less recoil appears to be one of the most direct paths to better scores.

The question ends up being how far down that reduced recoil rabbit hole is it reasonable to go? And that'll be different person to person.

[JCS]

The game has shifted more to speed not because of heavy guns, but because of dots and visual speed/processing. Now Ben teaches target focus even for irons.

There’s no easy button gun-wise. My journey into 2011s has taught me that. But that said, I’d much rather shoot it than a polymer gun for sure. But I wonder if the differences between polymer and heavy guns is more apparent to the very high level GM shooters than it is to everyone else.

I think that’s something that gets lost in convos on podcasts that are usually between extremely highly skilled shooters. What they are talking about doesn’t matter as much to me, a b level shooter.

[gomerpyle]

To me this kind of post feels like cope. "Yeah you beat me but you were shooting on easy mode". Silly mindset.

Not necessarily. There's something to be said about heavier guns imparting an advantage. Stoeger concedes that a heavy pistol helps with reaching out to far targets at competition pace. And Alex Gutt earned a 4th place finish at Nationals with a Glock 34 before adopting a Tanfoglio Limited Pro, winning Production Nationals, and beating Stoeger.

Of course, a compelling counterargument is that 1) second place finisher Shane Coley lost only by a fraction of a percentage AND also beat Stoeger and 2) Coley's teammate Ashley Rheuark was high woman, all at the same Nationals;.

[okie john]

In my mind this all comes to two things: appropriate goal setting and no-bs reality checks.

This.

DVC came from the Columbia Conference in 1976. The whole point of practical shooting was to identify fight-winning gear and techniques. DVC still matters, but “Vis” has always been “enough power to stop a fight” and today that's a 9mm.

To identify fight-winning shooters, contestants should show up at each match unarmed. The match director should issue pistols, holsters, belts, and ammunition, conduct a 10-shot familiarization course, and let the games begin.


Okie John

[gomerpyle]

To identify fight-winning shooters, contestants should show up at each match unarmed. The match director should issue pistols, holsters, belts, and ammunition, conduct a 10-shot familiarization course, and let the games begin.


Okie John

I like this sentiment. A close one would be that everyone shoot Single Stack, major power factor. Long live SS!

[Clusterfrack]

I like this sentiment. A close one would be that everyone shoot Single Stack, major power factor. Long live SS!

Muzzle loaders.