Schutzenmeister

@RJH With all respect ... My reading of your previous post(s) gives me the impression you neither see nor appreciate the concomitant skills of being in an awkward position at the start, the need to retrieve a firearm - which may very well (by law) be unloaded, load it and engage someone breaking down the door to your bedroom in an expeditious matter. These are skill sets endemic to the art of Practical shooting. My reading of your post(s) imparts to me that we should be shooting nothing but full-tilt run-and-gun 32-round stages. (Perhaps I exaggerate slightly. If so, please forgive me.) While I enjoy these, there is limited ground, if any, to call these “Practical.” These are fantasy, pure and simple. Fantasy can be fun, but I submit the ability to respond quickly and decisively to a more “normal” threat level (say 3-5 targets) is far more realistic and, in my experience, far more difficult to so do with a winning HF. There’s simply NO time to correct a bobbled load or to hesitate on a target. Generally speaking, there’s some time you can make up in a longer course by being able to, for example, out run your competition over 50 yards. (I speak from experience … I used to be younger and I used to do that!) Nevertheless, that doesn’t make the course defensive OR practical. Can it be fun. Sure. But we also need some courses in there that test other skills too. (I include SHO and WHO in this category, to a reasonable extent.) Let’s not through out the baby with the bath water!

I submit you are wrong ... Either you don't know and/or appreciate the history of the sport, or you do not care. History of the sport: History of Practical Shooting Practical shooting is a sport that evolved from experimentation with handguns used for self-defense. The researchers were an international group of private individuals, law enforcement officers, and military people generally operating independently of each other, challenging the then-accepted standards of technique, training practices, and equipment. […] History of Practical Shooting - USPSA.ORG The sport of practical shooting originated from competitions in California in the 1950s with the goal of developing handgun skills for defensive use […] International Practical Shooting Confederation - Wikipedia Charging 50-100 yards to engage a target is NOT defensive, FULL STOP. It is offensive. Charging into a house full of hostile opponents is not defensive, or even sensible, FULL STOP. It is SUICIDAL. Storing your firearm unloaded may not be practical, but it may be the LAW (in some jurisdictions.) Learn to deal with it! We engage in fantasy for the most part and, I’m willing to accept, enjoy the fantasy. But to put down the essential fundamentals of the sport is, at best, unwise. Some dose of it is useful. Clearly, Your Mileage Varies …

Actually, yes it is. The P in IPSC and in USPSA stands for Practical. It is quite practical, in a defensive situation, to be able to get up quickly and respond to a situation. It is quite practical to know how to load your firearm quickly to be able to respond, again to a defensive situation. (Many jurisdictions require(d) your gun to be stored unloaded and the ammo separately.) It is very practical to be able to engage a limited number of hostile targets by yourself. What is not practical in a defensive situation? Having to charge 50-100 yards to engage a numerically superior foe. If you have to charge them it's no longer defensive. Charging into a crack house with 12-15 hostiles ... All by yourself. Not much defensive, or even smart about that. Remember ... The root of the sport is the best equipment, techniques and skills to resolve a Defensive encounter. A lot of what we do is more in line with what a SWAT TEAM is supposed to be doing. Some skill sets are basic and should be tested routinely.

'98 North American ... I remember it. Still have the jacket. Surprisingly, it still fits!

You're going to see some of that in a couple of weeks at the US IPSC Nationals. The stages are posted on the match site.

40 somethings? You an I passed that mark a couple of decades ago!

My gawd ... I never knew Eric had a stroke!

My condolences ... I'm sorry you live in the People's Republic of (pick your state ... or Canada, for that matter!)

Never had a problem with my 40 making major ... even when the PF was 175. Never had a problem getting my 625 to make major (at ANY PF) or having my 627 to make minor with reasonable .38 Special loads. As the lady used to ask ... Where's the beef?

Point in fact ... This already exists in IPSC.

Yeah, I had both eyes done 10-12 years ago. I also do quite a bit of photography. I was STUNNED at the difference it made in my perception of color. Before, everything had a yellow tint. You don't notice it because the shift was so slow as your eyes changed. But ... BAMM! Suddenly you see things correctly. I had to readjust my approach to everything, color wise.

Ah ... I'm awake now. I would have thought pool was the playing field ... and they're generally level - by design! (LOL) It's the competitors that aren't level! But I get your point now.

The ability to reload, under pressure, is, IMHO, an integral part of practical shooting. That's not to say it should be carried to extremes, however. (Ten round limits are silly!) The antithesis of that today seems to be PCC. This division (in the US) allows any size or capacity magazine and encourages a “spray and pray” mentality in the sport. Sensible course design and sensible load limits (by restricting magazine sizes would be my preference) encourage both. And yes, to that end, I would actually favor eliminating “big sticks” in Open (for all but single stack guns) and limiting all double stack magazines to 140mm. I might even support that for PCC. Just my opinion … YMMV.

If I may ... The IPSC rule was intended to level the playing field (equipment wise) and prevent a "capacity" arms race. Under a box or mag length rule you have every manufacturer engineering things to squeeze in one more round than the competition. This was seen as contrary to the original intent of the division. A little research showed that virtually all of the stock out of the box production guns at the time could hold at least 15 rounds. Hence, that was adopted as the limit for the division. That made a lot more sense than our '94 ban limits of 10 rounds, from a competition point of view ... especially after the silly ban expired. Just citing what happened ... Again, YMMV as to approval or not.

I voted in favor for three reasons: - Normalization w/IPSC Rules - The 10 round limit was a genuflection to the (BS) '94 federal ban - The (BS) '94 ban EXPIRED 20 years ago The fewer reloads thing was a by-product and a gift. YMMV

OK ... I recognize the names and all. But it's early and I've only had one cup of coffee. So maybe I'm caffeine deficient, but the analogy just went straight over my head.

Legal or not ... That's an example of piss poor stage design.

Strangly enough, this topic is more or less coming around again in a review of a proposed stage. I was there at the time. I saw Jerry's run. (Arnie Christenson was the CRO.) Yep, it was ugly. Jerry appealed and lost the appeal as previously stated. (I still think he should have prevailed ...) Jerry packed up and went home, as I recall. He did not participate in the firing squad. The squirrel was a plastic, life-size ornament filled with pea gravel. The top 16 men plus the top 8 ladies formed a firing squad and, on signal, executed the blind-folded, cigarette smoking squirrel. After about the first second the squirrel and his pea-gravel guts essentially exploded in a cloud of smoke! FWIW, my youngest boy had a novel approach to handling the squirrel on hs run ... He grabbed the squirrel's tail in his teeth and proceded to shoot the entire stage that way. Silly teenager!

That's going to vary GREATLY by where they are.

Clearly ... You neither live in nor know anyone who lives in a state where carrying a loaded firearm is defacto ILLEGAL! It's also possible that a given range simply does not have an area they can designate for this on the premises ... Hence they EXPECT you to show up cold!

I've actually had to deal with this more than once ... mostly in 3rd world countries. My advice: DON'T ARGUE WITH THE COPS PATROLING THE MATCH WITH SLUNG SUB GUNS! Also ... Not joking. Otherwise, @RangerTrace nailed it.

Gee ... Isn't this basically the current NROI Question of the Month?

I think that was in executive session ...

I'm pretty sure it's tonight ... Not sure of the time.