RickB

No list of allowed guns. Just about any centerfire handgun of "service pistol" size is going to be legal for ESP division. You see Glocks, M&Ps, CZ75s, XDs, Hi-Powers, medium-bore 1911s; just about any 9mm that holds at least ten rounds has some amount of popularity. You do see some .40s and .45s, but there's no scoring advantage for larger/more powerful rounds, so just about everyone shoots 9. Striker-fired and DA guns, with an ever-growing list of allowed modifications, are allowed in SSP. I sometimes call SSP, "ESP without a magwell", as so many mods are now allowed in "stock" division, that there really isn't much difference, anymore. You see the same guns, other than single action only guns like the HP and 1911, as you do in ESP. CDP is essentially ESP with 8-round capacity limit, and only .45 ACP. So, a stock(ish) Glock 21 can be shot in SSP, ESP, and CDP, since it's striker-fired, mostly stock, and chambered in .45 ACP. Your Trojan is legal for ESP, and that's it, since it has a single action trigger and is not chambered in .45 ACP.

For a number of years, I shot two USPSA matches a week, and one IDPA match a month, and transitioning rarely caused a problem. Wearing a vest, which covered a gun behind the hip, trying to do a personal walk-through without anyone noticing, was enough to remind me that I wasn't playing USPSA. For a while I played both basketball and volleyball, sometimes in the same gym, but when I walked out and saw a net stretched the width of the court, I knew which game I was going to play. Someone above mentioned "cues", and that's about right.

You're being obtuse, or you want to know the IDPA rules for awarding prizes? If everyone has a chance to win, then by your reasoning, everyone should be attracted.

These are nice: https://www.facebook.com/ShotMasterApps

10mm and .400 Corbon were both CDP legal, back in the day. "The story", fifteen years ago, was that some famous shooter, the name changes depending who's telling the story, convinced Bill Wilson that .40" guns would chase .45 from the sport if allowed to stay in CDP. Nobody was shooting .40 out of a 1911 (real, single stack 1911) at that time, and hardly anyone was shooting 10mm either, but someone argued convincingly that everyone would abandon .45, so every other round was kicked out. It seems that raising the power factor to 190 for CDP would have been easier to do, and makes a lot more sense than me having to shoot my 8-shot, 225pf 10mm in ESP.

Sticking out any toe, or any number of toes, has always been worth three seconds. If it didn't get called in the past, and it got called at your last sanctioned match, then that's progress. My complaint with IDPA has always been the willingness of both shooters and SOs to ignore rules, rather than the nature of the rules themselves.

The problem for most seems to be that cover existed relative only to the targets being engaged from that spot, so nobody ever "left cover". You have to look at it as after engaging all threats visible/available from a certain spot, you are still at cover.

I think it's extremely unfortunate that no movement is allowed even while at "continuous" cover. The rule change was to prevent reloading while moving between the cover position where you are, and the cover position that are going to move to. The definition of cover had evolved to mean "anywhere that I can't see unengaged threats", so people were shooting from one position, and then reloading while moving to the next position, since no unengaged threats were visible during the move. To prevent reloading while moving across open ground between shooting positions, the flat-footed reload was introduced; you have to reload before you go (leave cover), or reload after you arrive (at cover). Not being able to do a moving reload while at cover is unfortunate. Your example of ducking under a port while reloading, and popping up on the other side of the port with a loaded gun, seems like the prefect time/place to reload, but apparently for consistency's sake, no moving reloads. This includes the last shooting position on the stage; even though there's no place to move to, you can't move while reloading. You can shuffle your feet while shooting at a bianchi barricade, so nobody should have received a PE on the second stage. Rule 3.9.4.1. Exception: The shooter may shoot around both sides of a Bianchi barricade or barrel, including shifting their feet and knees without penalty.

We usually give away a dozen or more guns each year, so it's good to know we can stop. Maybe the problem is the press likes to stay home? I've been following college football recruiting the last couple of weeks, players are rated on a "star" system, and if certain colleges extend a scholarship to a given player, they seem to be rewarded with an extra star. Maybe if the shooting press would give a star to west coast matches, more "name" shooters would show up? The eastern matches aren't better matches, they're just more easterly.

A lot of arguing that standing flat-footed is "unrealistic", by people who want to charge downrange with a down-loaded or unloaded gun, searching for threats that are assumed to be static while engaging the other threats? Who's being unrealistic? Why would anyone go looking for a threat? That's not defensively sound. When you are closing on that threat, which in "reality" would have moved as soon as the bullets started flying, you go with a gun that's empty or down to one round while you reload? The big complaint used to be that you couldn't reload until reaching cover, because nobody would wait to reload? Well, who in their right mind would leave cover with insufficient rounds to deal with a known number of threats? That's even less realistic.

Anybody who's traveled the country shooting IDPA, knows that the rules regarding "reloading behind cover" have been interpreted in different ways. Over the years, the definition of cover had, in some areas, come to mean "I can't see any threats, so I'm behind cover". This extended to moving from one shooting postion to another, allowing moving reloads as you covered open ground between two shooting positions. As was pointed out in Ms. Wilson's letter to the membership (4th Qtr, 2013 Tac Journal?), this was never the intention; if you are at cover, having engaged targets from that cover, and are moving to cover, the space in between in not cover. The flat-footed reload rule was to steer the sport back in the direction that was intended all along. I'm not sure that merely lifting both feet should be the standard for "moving", even at the last shooting position on a stage (where would you be moving to?), but it should at least be consistent.

The match is full! Looking forward to seeing 170 shooters and staff in a few weeks.

No "weak hand-only reloads" are done in IDPA. Since both hands are usually used to manipulate the gun during reloads, it might be hard to determine how a "strong hand" reload is done, but I'd consider a weak hand reload to be one in which the gun must be reloaded differently than when the competitor is allowed to do reloads "freestyle".

No changes in those rules. If the safety is off, it's not "locked". If the hammer is down, you have the option of engaging the safety or not, but if the hammer is cocked, you must have the ability to "lock" it with the safety, and you must do so. Same as before.

Why should different actions get different divisions? I found it strange that Glocks come under SSP and XD's come under ESP. Both are striker fired weapons that bring the striker back to some extent every shot. Both shoupd be in the same division. I find it strange that Glocks and XDs aren't in one division (ESP . . .), with DA/SA and DAO in another division (SSP)?

I'm not trying to be a smart-adz, I'm really trying to get an insight into the theory of "not done", in case it comes up. I can easily imagine someone pulling the stunt I described - dropping a mag on the ground, and claiming that they hadn't done a reload, so how can I penalize them for doing the wrong reload, or reloading in the wrong place? - I was just thinking out loud about it. I don't see room for it in the rules, but people used to perform IPSC-style speed reloads at the last shooting position on a stage, and argue that since they hadn't left the location, the partially-filled mag on the ground had not been "left behind". I'm just filing away the "not done" theory, in case it comes up.

now you are just being silly... So he removed the mag from the gun, dropped the new mag and because he started the reload that means it is done? So he can shoot now with no mag in the gun... Seriously? Just trying to apply your logic... your case would be covered by the all reloads must BEGIN and end behind cover if there is cover available... My point was, you can be penalized for not performing a proper reload, even if you don't reload. The idea that a mag on the ground means that no reload was "done" is an argument that I had never considered, as it relates to beginning a reload or completing a reload. So, where's the definition of "done"?

If he'd pulled the mag out of the pouch while exposed to an unengaged threat, he could avoid the penalty for not reloading behind cover by dropping the mag on the ground, ducking behind cover, then using a different mag to complete the reload? I'm trying to apply the "reload had not been done" logic to another situation. Drawing the mag from the pouch is the start of the reload, and I don't know that you can unstart by drawing a different mag and reloading with that.

August 17-18, 2013. Renton Fish & Game Club, Renton, WA Fourteen-Sixteen stages, 180 rounds. Match fee includes Saturday lunch, and guns on the prize table. http://www.nwppa-idpa.com/waidpac13/index.php

Wow, I would have thought the 2"-thick "rule book" would have been an obvious clue. And if not that, then the mandatory knee pads. And if not that, then the swapping of weight limits in CDP and ESP. And if not that, then the . . . Well, you get the idea. Not even the "Happy April 1!" was enough? Sorry for any grief caused to anyone by our attempt at a bit of humor. Rick

If you are shooting two or three different loads, do you go through chrono two/three times? At a sanctioned match, I think you'd have to.

I've found that the biggest difference is the extent to which the courses of fire are scripted. Yeah, you have to use cover, and yeah, you have to perform the appropriate reload, but IDPA is more about execution than imagination; you can rarely beat someone by coming up with a better plan, as the scenario and prodedure dictate how the stage will be shot.

If followers and a slide stop will allow the gun to lock-back normally, why doesn't it lock back now? That is, just about everyone seems to disable the slide lock-back on their S_I, because the possibility of premature lockback, or bullets bumping the slide stop, are issues more likely to cause trouble during a match than is accidentally running your 22-rounder dry? So, why would those potential problems go away when you load ten rather than load to capacity?

It would certainly clear things up if all courses of fire had designated reloading points - one for every six rounds expended - at cover, but that works only if cover is a place. Otherwise, reloads might take place any- and everywhere, depending on capacity and each shooter's perspective on "cover".

I take spare parts and some tools to every match, but have taken a spare gun only once. Had a new barrel fitted, and though the gun ran fine during a 50-round test session the day before heading to the airport, a little voice told me the gun might not work. Sure enough, three malfs on the first day of a major match. With the new chrono procedure, I'd bring a spare, 5" gun to any match out of my local area, as I often shoot a 3.5" gun that won't make power factor.