IDPA new 2024 rule book: holsters

[leekellerking]

now, if they show up with a Serpa holster, we're going to have a short conversation about safety and finger placement.

if you want to be a "gamer", great, go for it. if you want to test your daily carry rig and your ability, great, go for it.

Which is why my only complaint about the monthly local IDPA match I shoot in is that I can't carry appendix. All of my self-defense training has been drawing appendix and I carry appendix 7 days a week, but I can't even finda place in Houston to practice my draw with live fire. 😒

I enjoy competition and may try USPSA (if I can find some convenient matches), but my number 1 area of concentration is self defense and that means appendix carry. Oh, well, back to dry fire. :-)

[leekellerking]

Hmm... thank you! Looking at that target though, I feel the "A" zone is too generous. I'd be tempted to draw a line across the neck/body line and reduce the "A" even more. Easily done though.

John Hearne has a simple solution that is cheap as hell. Take a standard 8/1/2 x 11 sheet of paper; fold it lengthwise so you get an 4 1/4 by 11 piece; staple or paste that over a standard IDPA or USPA target so that the top if it comes to the base of the throat. Then you have a target where all the good stuff is hit (heart, aorta, spine).

Easy peasy, and the IDPA or USPA target can be one that is basically shot out and otherwise useless as a target.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Our USPSA matches allow AIWB (not for me). There's a young lad who shoots a G43 AIWB and smokes the gamer rig guys. Speed of youth. Usually quite accurate. He's an engineer.

Query - empirically - how many wieners have been lost in USPSA, IDPA or other matches with AIWB? Versus, I shot my leg with various OWB, IWB on the side o'clocks? Discount Serpas, though.

[Jim Watson]

IDPA now allows bellybutton carry.
8.5.1.2 Must be a strong side hip holster worn inside the waistband (IWB) between 12 and 4 for right-handed shooters, or outside the waist band between 2 and 4 for right-handed shooters.


So does USPSA
5.2.6 USPSA Competition matches will not require the use of a particular typeor brand of holster. However, the Range Master may deem that a competitor’s holster is unsafe and order that it be improved to his satisfaction, failing which it must be withdrawn from the match. Divisions may restrict a specific type of holster. Providing the Division does not restrict the type or physical location of the holster, IWB or concealment holsters are legal, as long as the firearms can safely be drawn and replaced, and so doing does not break any safety rules


You may run into a timid Match Director who thinks it unsafe.

[MVS]

Our USPSA matches allow AIWB (not for me). There's a young lad who shoots a G43 AIWB and smokes the gamer rig guys. Speed of youth. Usually quite accurate. He's an engineer.

Query - empirically - how many wieners have been lost in USPSA, IDPA or other matches with AIWB? Versus, I shot my leg with various OWB, IWB on the side o'clocks? Discount Serpas, though.

Who knows. I haven't been competing that long, about 7 years combined first USPSA then IDPA and have never saw anyone shoot themselves though I have seen a number of ND's.

[Bucky]

Who knows. I haven't been competing that long, about 7 years combined first USPSA then IDPA and have never saw anyone shoot themselves though I have seen a number of ND's.

Hopefully you never will. I had been shooting for 22 years before I witnessesd someone shoot themselves. Then a few months, the second one happened, though I didn’t witness it, I was in the next bay.

10 years later, no one has been shot / shot themselves at a match I was attending (at least that I know of).

[CraigS]

I am finding that I really like the holster position rules now. Butt must be above the belt is real easy to see if you meet that one or not. Outside of the holster has to be 3 inches or less from the body is easy also. Not so much possibly checking it at a match but while putting it together. I make my own kydex shells and have been using a paddle mount from holstersmith.com. I mod the mount a little w/ a piece of kydex. See the green arrow;

The edge hits my hip bone when I draw and really helps keep the holster from trying to rise as I pull against the slight retention I use. More is better but how far can I go w/ the width? Easy, I just hold the holster against the side of my toolbox and measure. 2 7/8" I am legal.

I would love to run the holster lower but then I need more offset so I can get my thumb between the grip and the holster. And I am at the offset limit now. This last is my wife's holster which would be my ideal but the offset is too much. She only shoots at our IWLA matches which are idpa oriented but not officially affiliated so drops and offsets and thigh straps are OK there. It uses a Blackhawk duty type mount w/ a kydex extension for the thigh strap.