Yesterday
I shot in the local IPSC Production division competition. It was fun,
got to practice a bit and (allow me to brag a bit) I did end up in first
place which is always nice.
I was planning on writing this post
before I knew the results though, mostly because I feel that this kind
of competition, done right, greatly improves your defensive shooting
skills.
A few points I’d like to make:
1)Train as you fight
Practice
with the kind of gun you’re likely to carry, which means you’ll most
likely compete in Production (meaning common guns with little in the way
of mods or custom jobs)
The only customisation my Glock 17 has is
Mepro tritium night sight. I did install a ZEV V4 race connector a few
weeks ago for 25m precision shooting competition but I got rid of it. It
did improve the trigger pull but it also caused a noticeable click
before resetting the trigger that was driving me nuts. For IPSC I didn’t
see any noticeable improvement anyway and its not allowed as a
modification for Production division anyway. For precision shooting at
25 meters the Glock 17 simply isnt the gun for that kind of thing either
so there’s not much of a point.
You have to be honest regarding
what you are trying to achieve here. If you want to train for defense or
if you just want to win competitions, which is your priority. You CAN
win with your stock Glock. I did. Other shooters had nicer Sig Sauer x
Fives, Tanfoglios. Do these give you an edge for the competition? Maybe,
I don’t know. The shooter is the one that matters the most though, and
if you are doing it for the training like I ‘m doing, you simply won’t
care. Whatever your carry gun is, if permitted in the production
division, that’s what you should use. Same goes for holsters, their
location, mag carries, even clothes, everything should be as close to
what you wear and use on normal basis as possible.
2) Different stages, skills, learning to think
The
mindset aspect of how to resolve a stage is also interesting. What
sequence is more effective, faster or easier. For example, if you shoot a
popper that will bring up another target, then you want to shoot that,
shoot another card and only then go back to the new target that popped
up so as to save time. Little things like these are mental exercise for
your shooting brain. The you get to practice more typical stuff of
course like drawing, reloads, shooting with either hand single handed in
some cases, going prone, dropping to one knee, shooting around corners.
Its fun but you also practice memory muscle that adapts to potential
real world scenarios.
3) Fitness
Something
else IPSC reveals is how good or bad your fitness level is. Sure, some
stages have more running, kneeling or other physical requirements than
others, but fit people do move faster and cut time, end up with faster
and more accurate reflexes as well in general.
4) Working with stress
It
may not seem like much but having a small crowd behind you and someone
timing you does add a significant amount of stress, especially for new
shooters. This stress serves as practice. If a timer stresses you then
you don’t want to know what someone shooting at you will do for your
nerves. The more you practice, the better you learn to control your
stress. Sport and actual fighting aren’t the same thing, but this is
just like a boxer going against someone that trained self-defense moves
but was never in an actual fight (even one in a ring) Believe me, the
guy that stepped into a ring for a few years always beats the one that
never set foot in one.
The more you practice and compete, the better you get at shooting accurately and fast.
5) Meeting like-minded people
And
of course there’s meeting people with your same interests. There’s
usually a number of LEO and military, but then you just have guys (and
women of course) from all walks of life with shooting as a common
denominator. Shooters are pretty peculiar people in some cases. I at
least have a bit of a problem making friends with people I have little
in common so I tend to gravitate towards people that like firearms. This
social circle can mean not only friends to shoot and hang out with, but
also people you can count on when you need them.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”
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