I need help with my gear

[JKW]

What part of Houston? If you want to try IDPA, WHIDPA has a match every Wednesday evening. And though it may be too late, don't forget Comp-Tac for holsters and mag carriers. They are local and offer very good Kydex gear.

I live in the Richmond / Katy area. I shoot at American Shooting Centers but you cant do rapid fire or any drills so I need to find a place to practice. Where is yalls match?

The matches are out at Impactzone just north of Brookshire in Hempstead. There is a 3gun match happening on Saturday if you are interested. All of the info is posted on WHIDPA's site. I will be out there shooting... I'm slow and bumbling, but make up for it by being a really bad shot.

[BigBaker]

What part of Houston? If you want to try IDPA, WHIDPA has a match every Wednesday evening. And though it may be too late, don't forget Comp-Tac for holsters and mag carriers. They are local and offer very good Kydex gear.

I live in the Richmond / Katy area. I shoot at American Shooting Centers but you cant do rapid fire or any drills so I need to find a place to practice. Where is yalls match?

The matches are out at Impactzone just north of Brookshire in Hempstead. There is a 3gun match happening on Saturday if you are interested. All of the info is posted on WHIDPA's site. I will be out there shooting... I'm slow and bumbling, but make up for it by being a really bad shot.

I've been wanting to come to the impact zone. Its about 30 miles from my house. This saturday might not work for me but I'll try to make it out there. The 3 Gun sounds really fun.....I have an AR but I dont have a shotgun (That probably sounds weird). Whats a good one/stye to have? I might start looking for one or borrow one of my buddys.

I would like to come to the Wednesday match for sure. What time do you get out there? I'll bring my gear but I might just watch this first time since I have never been to anything like this before.

[JKW]

Come on Saturday if you can. I'm a relative noobie out there but have been made to feel welcome from my first visit. Opinions on shotguns vary widely and for these small local matches you can get by with just about anything. The first one I shot, I used a buddies 870. It was ill fitting (he is 6'5" with long arms and has extended the stock to fit him)and hard for me to shoot but I had fun none the less. Tomorrow I'm shooting my new Mossberg 930 which is mostly untested since the modification work I recently completed. Who know what will happen? Like I said, come Saturday.....Heck, you might get a good laugh out of the deal.

[Vincerama]

I shot my first two matches (2 hour drive to the range!! ARGH!) at a range where my coworker goes.

Don't worry about being embarassed. In one stage, there was a "polish plate rack" which is this rotating propeller thingy with 8 plats on it that spins as you knock off plates. I hit the last plate with the LAST ROUND of my LAST MAGAZINE. I think I used up 40 rounds to hit those 8 plates!

The experienced shooters didn't mock me, they just said "Hey, way to stick with it and not give up! Good work!" and that slight praise made me feel pretty good, even though my time was SIX TIMES longer than the fastest shooter!

So yeah, don't worry about embarrassment, everyone starts as a newbie!

I use a nylon Uncle Mikes holster (don't use this, get that bladetech!) it really slowed me down as it was so high up on my hip that it was hard to draw and really awkward to re-holster. I bought $10 nylon dual magazine pouches... they have flap on them that I had to tuck back behind the belt! Ugh! Then my first belt was a $15 nylon riggers belt (sort of), I immediately went and bought a dual belt, BUT I didn't get an expensive CR speed or DA belt, I bought a $10 duty belt from a surplus store...very stiff, but also 2 1/4" wide, so not many manufacturers make stuff for a belt this fat, luckily the bladetech tech-lok will fit I think, that's my next purchase. I can live with the clumsy nylon mag pouches for now!

You know what? Regardless of my newbie equipment and crappy shooting, I had an amazing amount of fun! You don't need to practice for 2 months. I took a safety course on Saturday, and shot a match on Sunday and I was almost last, but I didn't really care!

Just get out there!