At what point is it not worth it?

[Racinready300ex]

Like the title says, is there a point it's not worth it to you? Let me explain, I'm signed up for my "local" USPSA match in a couple weeks. I'm going, I'm sure it will be fun. But my "local" match I'll drive a little over 2 hours in each direction. This is a 6 stage match, probably about 120-130 rounds. 5 Squads, 20 shooters to a squad. That's a looong day, 20/squad is brutal.

 

Is this the norm for most USPSA clubs? Or is this more of a Area problem?

 

Side note, I think adding more divisions is the best way to grow the sport.

[Beef15]

That's about it, 2 hours one way is my hard limit for a "local", working 2nd shift getting up any earlier is out of the question. That puts at least four outdoor matches a month in range, used to be five, one shut down, another started but then moved further away. 

 

The 20 person squads would be more likely to stop me, specially in Summer, but if it was well run so I was rarely there super late it might be ok. Or if it was my only option and just once a month.

 

The two I most often attend are right at an hour one way, 6+ stages, squads fill at 15/16.

[usmc1974]

That is about it for me to. 150 miles one way. I get up M-F at 3:30 am it is very hard not to sleep in till. 6 or 7 am on Saturday and Sunday.

[davsco]

six stages why not six squads?

 

i'm fortunate to have three clubs right at the one hour mark (each way) for me.  occasionally i'll hit two more at the two hour mark.  in prior years i have driven 2.5-3 hours each way to find a match but lately have just found something else other than shooting to do vs 5-6 hours on the road.

[MikeBurgess]

It all depends on the quality of the match.

There are matches that have 20 shooter squads because they put on a great match month after month and it is "THE" match everyone wants to attend. There are also matches where they are the only one in the area so they get a ton of shooters for that reason, but the match sucks. 

I hope your "local" is the first kind.

I feel pretty lucky because all the local matches to me are within 90 min, with the next closest matches more like 3 1/2 hr each way so pretty easy to opt out of those.

[Flatland Shooter]

I have several matches closer but my favorite is right at 1 hr 20 min out (62 miles).  I've shot the closer matches and if time and attitude permit, I will shoot them.

 

The match I try to make every month has great stages and is at a great facility.  They will always include a classifier and they turn it in quickly.   More than enough to get me out of bed early on a weekend.

 

 

[titandriver]

4 minutes ago, Flatland Shooter said:

I have several matches closer but my favorite is right at 1 hr 20 min out (62 miles).  I've shot the closer matches and if time and attitude permit, I will shoot them.

 

The match I try to make every month has great stages and is at a great facility.  They will always include a classifier and they turn it in quickly.   More than enough to get me out of bed early on a weekend.

 

 

An hour and 20 minutes to drive 62 miles?

[Racinready300ex]

They do put on a good match. I don't think that's the reason so many show up, we just have that many people shooting USPSA in the area. It's the closest match to me, but people who live north of the range have lots of options, and I think all of them fill to capacity or close to it every month.

 

I live in a crappy area geographically, (at least for uspsa) there is another good club probably 30 miles from me, but it's a 4 hour drive each way. I recently found another club in the 2 hour range it's small but I might start shooting it to see how it is. If I drive 3 hours that opens up two more clubs. And 4-5 hours might get me a couple more. But, 3+ hours isn't realistic for me to go to a club match. That's 6-7 hours in the car, and a 10-12 hour day depending how long the match takes. All to shoot 120 rounds.

[Racinready300ex]

13 minutes ago, titandriver said:

An hour and 20 minutes to drive 62 miles?

 

Do you see that as good or bad?

[jkrispies]

I have several clubs that are 2 hours (with no stops) that I almost never attend because of the drive.  1 hour 15 with a wakaround break in the middle for breakfast is common.  Part of the issue for me is sciatic nerve issues, which are aggravated by having to sit for extended periods of time. Anything more than 45 minuets straight, and I’ll be limping enough to affect my match performance. 

[waktasz]

You need to move north bro. There are matches every weekend (except this weekend, which is fine because I have to work, ha) within an hour drive of where I am.

Edited April 12, 2018 by waktasz

[T-Free]

Indoor matches over the Winter we have 25-30 people and shoot 3 stages and classifier. Start at 10a.m. and done around 3:30-4:30 p.m. It makes for a long day to shoot 4 Stages, but the are always fun stages so it makes it worth it. As far as drivng goes 1 1/2 hours to reach the other clubs in the area with a shooting buddy goes pretty quick. Get to talk about reloading/ guns on the way out and the match performance on the way back.

[SCTaylor]

We' have 5? quality USPSA matches within 60 miles of downtown Houston, much closer if you're on the west side. We average 6 stages with 90 shooters, hammer down at 9am, bagged & done by 2pm.

 

I'd say it is a geographical thing.

[swordfish]

I dunno, an hour 45 is normal for me, unless the one indoor place decides to have a match. One weekend I got lucky and there was one Saturday night and one Sunday morning so me and my buddy just rented a hotel between the 2 locations, maybe 45 minutes apart. Even worse for ICORE, not a match within a 2.5hr drive.

 

One time we drove 2 hours to PA to shoot for an hour and a half and then drive back. Got the bug. Not really necessarily about the time spent, but the quality of what you're doing and what your goals are. Nothing inherently has value, only what you put to it. The only thing is mindset. I drove 8 hours to shoot a team match with a couple dudes who weren't competitive at all. We sucked, and I had an awful time and promised never again. They just wanted to go have fun and my mood brought them down. This year I changed my thinking, and wanted to just goof off the whole time, and embrace that no one would shoot well on my team. Show up in a banana costume, f*#k around, etc. Sadly I can't go this year because it's the same weekend as IPSC nats, but I was really looking forward to it.

 

If it ain't worth it, and you can't convince yourself to go and try to have a good time or you might learn something or meet someone cool, stay home. Find something else to do.

[Racinready300ex]

8 minutes ago, swordfish said:

I dunno, an hour 45 is normal for me, unless the one indoor place decides to have a match. One weekend I got lucky and there was one Saturday night and one Sunday morning so me and my buddy just rented a hotel between the 2 locations, maybe 45 minutes apart. Even worse for ICORE, not a match within a 2.5hr drive.

 

One time we drove 2 hours to PA to shoot for an hour and a half and then drive back. Got the bug. Not really necessarily about the time spent, but the quality of what you're doing and what your goals are. Nothing inherently has value, only what you put to it. The only thing is mindset. I drove 8 hours to shoot a team match with a couple dudes who weren't competitive at all. We sucked, and I had an awful time and promised never again. They just wanted to go have fun and my mood brought them down. This year I changed my thinking, and wanted to just goof off the whole time, and embrace that no one would shoot well on my team. Show up in a banana costume, f*#k around, etc. Sadly I can't go this year because it's the same weekend as IPSC nats, but I was really looking forward to it.

 

If it ain't worth it, and you can't convince yourself to go and try to have a good time or you might learn something or meet someone cool, stay home. Find something else to do.

 

I probably wouldn't stay home, the other option in my mind is drive 30 min. to a club I'm a member of and practice for a couple hours and come home. Save time, and money get home the wife sooner keep her happy and she'll be less upset when I want to spend a weekend somewhere for a major match.

[swordfish]

Just now, Racinready300ex said:

 

I probably wouldn't stay home, the other option in my mind is drive 30 min. to a club I'm a member of and practice for a couple hours and come home. Save time, and money get home the wife sooner keep her happy and she'll be less upset when I want to spend a weekend somewhere for a major match.

Even better idea. I know a ton of pro shooters that just don't shoot local matches anymore. Easier to spend less time at a range getting better practice time in than standing around all day pasting targets and shooting for a combined 8 minutes.

[Racinready300ex]

30 minutes ago, waktasz said:

You need to move north bro. There are matches every weekend (except this weekend, which is fine because I have to work, ha) within an hour drive of where I am.

 

Or south, really anywhere but right here. Although with rumors of Bill getting a match going in DE things may change. That range is a very reasonable drive from here.

[motosapiens]

i wouldn't go to a match with 20-person squads even if it was right next door. ain't no one got time for that.

[titandriver]

1 hour ago, Racinready300ex said:

 

Do you see that as good or bad?

Neither - just seems like a long time to go 62 miles to me - my nearest club is roughly 105 miles and it takes me about an hour and fifteen to get there. 

[CHA-LEE]

One of our local clubs here in Colorado regularly produces 20+ shooters per squad matches. These can be long days on the range if you allow it to be by standing around and whining about how long its taking. If you stay diligent in working (Taping, Brassing, ROing, Resetting, etc) then the time seems to fly by. Its funny how there is a correlation between the people whining about how long its taking are the same people that are usually standing around and chit chat with their buddies instead of pitching in and helping make it happen. If you are not actively involved in pushing the squad through the stages by working then you are part of the problem.

 

As for the drive, I am lucky that the furthest "Local" club match is about 90 miles away with most of them not further than 50 miles. If I was faced with a decision to drive 2+ hours for a club match verses go practice that decision is easy. I am going to practice instead. But then again I am not starving to attend local matches either as we have USPSA matches happening every weekend.

[SCTaylor]

48 minutes ago, CHA-LEE said:

One of our local clubs here in Colorado regularly produces 20+ shooters per squad matches. These can be long days on the range if you allow it to be by standing around and whining about how long its taking. If you stay diligent in working (Taping, Brassing, ROing, Resetting, etc) then the time seems to fly by. Its funny how there is a correlation between the people whining about how long its taking are the same people that are usually standing around and chit chat with their buddies instead of pitching in and helping make it happen. If you are not actively involved in pushing the squad through the stages by working then you are part of the problem.

 

 

Dang Charlie, been a bit salty lately.  It's not a matter of how long it "seemingly" takes, I'm taking time away from my wife and son and normal daily duties to go shoot.  If I had the option to help setup/shoot/teardown in ~7 hours versus 9-10, I'm taking the 7 hours. I could care less how quickly it seems to go by, I already help do the reset stuff anyhow.

 

Point is, 20 person squads are huge! We take roughly 4 minutes per person per stage with a 12 person squad over 6 stages and we are pretty efficient.  Jump that by 30 minutes per stage, come on man that's a LOT of time.

[Racinready300ex]

1 hour ago, titandriver said:

Neither - just seems like a long time to go 62 miles to me - my nearest club is roughly 105 miles and it takes me about an hour and fifteen to get there. 

 

You'd have to average 85 miles per hour to pull that off, in my area you can't do that. Most highways around here the speed limit is 55 mph, and when you get into towns that drops. And between the state troopers, and local PD's you will not have  a license long running around at 85+.

[Racinready300ex]

1 hour ago, CHA-LEE said:

One of our local clubs here in Colorado regularly produces 20+ shooters per squad matches. These can be long days on the range if you allow it to be by standing around and whining about how long its taking. If you stay diligent in working (Taping, Brassing, ROing, Resetting, etc) then the time seems to fly by. Its funny how there is a correlation between the people whining about how long its taking are the same people that are usually standing around and chit chat with their buddies instead of pitching in and helping make it happen. If you are not actively involved in pushing the squad through the stages by working then you are part of the problem.

 

As for the drive, I am lucky that the furthest "Local" club match is about 90 miles away with most of them not further than 50 miles. If I was faced with a decision to drive 2+ hours for a club match verses go practice that decision is easy. I am going to practice instead. But then again I am not starving to attend local matches either as we have USPSA matches happening every weekend.

 

I like how you imply that I don't help even though you've never met me.

 

Also, I've noticed with 20 people to a squad you get in each others way and nothing is very efficient. 20 guys walk down to paste 12 or 13 targets, everyone is just standing around waiting for the RO to get to their target to score it so they can paste. You can move through 20 shooters pretty fast, but it's still going to be a long day no matter how you cut it. And just pray none of the stages have a problem that causes a back up.

[Racinready300ex]

43 minutes ago, SCTaylor said:

 

Dang Charlie, been a bit salty lately.  It's not a matter of how long it "seemingly" takes, I'm taking time away from my wife and son and normal daily duties to go shoot.  If I had the option to help setup/shoot/teardown in ~7 hours versus 9-10, I'm taking the 7 hours. I could care less how quickly it seems to go by, I already help do the reset stuff anyhow.

 

Point is, 20 person squads are huge! We take roughly 4 minutes per person per stage with a 12 person squad over 6 stages and we are pretty efficient.  Jump that by 30 minutes per stage, come on man that's a LOT of time.

 

Exactly my thinking, a day at that match for me is a solid 10 hours with driving time. Doesn't matter how I feel it went.

[gerritm]

3 hours ago, titandriver said:

An hour and 20 minutes to drive 62 miles?

You have to stop @ Buc ees on the way to the match.

 

We are lucky with so many great matches close to Houston. We drive between 1/2 hour(Galveston) to 2.5 hours to CCC in Navasota. With a stop at Buc ees. 

 

gerritm

Edited April 12, 2018 by gerritm