Shooting is shooting, competition to the streets

[Drogo Bunce]

Learning to manipulate you equipment is never a bad thing, neither is working your brain. Competition provides both. When I was competing back in the bronze age, Competition equipment wasn't radically different from everyday gear at least if your were plainclothes or something.

Every year when I show up for the old geezer LEOSA shoot, I'm the only one who'll be drawing from concealment.

Even within a given match, you will find different shooters with different goals. In our local "Ringing Steel" matches, when you sign up online, you choose a relay/squad, and can see who has signed up for which relay/squad. So each one has developed a "personality". One of the squads is the serious competitors: dedicated competition guns and rigs, all about speed. The squad/relay my wife and I join is NOT competition oriented. It's a mix of elderly and practical shooters, who aren't chasing every fractional second, but in developing gun handling and accuracy. Oddly, one of the regular shooters in our "practical" squad/relay is a friend of mine, shoots his carry gun from concealment, and is generally one of the top three shooters overall. We used to shoot the local IDPA match, and got weird looks because we "sliced the pie" and moved from cover to cover rather than just running through the stages as quickly as possible. Some of the other shooters understood what we were doing, some didn't.

Competition is what you make of it. You can make it Golf With Guns, or you can make it good training.

[DDTSGM]

Competition is what you make of it. You can make it Golf With Guns, or you can make it good training.

This is my way of liking twice.

[mmc45414]

Learning to manipulate you equipment is never a bad thing.

I always knew how to operate an AR, but damn if I wasn't quite as slick as I thought I was after the timer made that beep noise!

So each one has developed a "personality".

We are in a squad full of guys that figured out Squad #4 starts on Stage #4, so that we do not have to walk up the hill when we are hot and tired and when we are finished we will be right next to our trucks. You can probably make an accurate assumption about the age group...

[Glenn E. Meyer]

While some competitors spend their time figuring out their reload strategy, my squad of buddies in TX IDPA spent our time figuring out how to end up on the easiest stage to tear down.

Yes, being in the 'competitor game boy squad' is annoying for me and annoying for them. Being in the relaxed squad is better. Come to the match and everybody in your squad is wearing tight shirts with equipment logos and their name in big letters - OY!

[CraigS]

I always knew how to operate an AR, but damn if I wasn't quite as slick as I thought I was after the timer made that beep noise!
We are in a squad full of guys that figured out Squad #4 starts on Stage #4, so that we do not have to walk up the hill when we are hot and tired and when we are finished we will be right next to our trucks. You can probably make an accurate assumption about the age group...

Us too. Stage 1,2,3 are in one location and 4,5,6 in another far enough one needs to drive. We have figured 2 things; 1,2,3 are generally cooler so we start on 4 which works whether it is summer or winter. 4,5,6 has a porta john close by so my wife can visit it before we drive to 1,2,3.

[The Rat]

I use my daily carry gear for IDPA most of the time. Every once in a while I'll bring my PCC for shits and giggles, but other than that, I treat it as training.

3-gun, I'm the idiot wearing kit leftover from contracting a decade ago.

Every time I've bought/tried to use any competition-specific guns/gear, it's bit me in the ass hard, so I stick to the more reliable grunt work kind of stuff. I'm not gonna take first, but screw it, still having fun and getting the reps in.

[CraigS]

I shoot 2 local idpa-ish matches each month. I treat the one as practice for the other. Wife and I usually practice once per month and she shoots more than I do at the practice since she shoots just one match each month. We are lucky being retired that we can go to the iwla range where we shoot the matches. PVC/snow fence walls and target frames are stored right in a pistol bay so we can set up a stage however we like.

[Jim Watson]

We used to shoot the local IDPA match, and got weird looks because we "sliced the pie" and moved from cover to cover rather than just running through the stages as quickly as possible.

I'm confused. IDPA hereabouts REQUIRES "slicing the pie" and going to cover. True, some of the more agile guys can get from PoC 1 to PoC 2 very quickly.

My only change in match equipment has been to go from IDPA CDP to ESP as my recoil tolerance declined, and from USPSA Single Stack to Limited.

There is an outlaw club near here that used to put on concealment matches. I shot it with a G43 and an OACP, but the last time, I shot a revolver. I don't think a lot of those guys had ever seen a speedloader.

[CraigS]

Jim how we shoot it at both clubs I shoot with is slicing the pie is only required when there is a stick on the ground usually at the end of a wall that you are shooting around. We also shoot in the open sometimes at the start, sometimes at a 'window' cut into a pvc/snow fence wall. There it is usually near to far, closest target first. Today we had a wall we had to lie down and shoot under at 3 targets so we were exposed to all three before we would get the first shot off. In general a stick means slicing the pie, an open shooting position means near to far. One other thing is, the individual stage instructions generally trump all the standard rules other than safety.

[Sal Picante]

How do I get started learning how to shoot USPCDA competition?

So…

I have renewed my USPSA membership and I’ll say this. USPSA shooters are emotionally fragile. Dude - I don’t know what it is but they do get very emotionally invested. Which is cool I get it. But some of the attitudes I see at matches just make me laugh.

I think that a lot of the people that have gotten into sport in the last 2-3 years represent a generational shift of people. A lot of GenX'rs didn't need that external validation - a lot of us just showed up and did the stuff, trying to learn how to do it better. I think we were very process focused.

I think a lot of the millennials and genZ folks focus a lot on the outcomes and the pageantry. IDK. I just show up, try to help out the range master, run the timer in a fair and efficient manner, help the n00bs that are on the struggle bus and just enjoy the camaraderie. When I'm running the show, I don't allow for a lot of unfounded complaints, reshoots, etc.