Which class to shoot to learn and progress fastest?

[ScottQ]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a bad habit of switching from one gun to another, one class to another, etc. from match to match, but I feel like that's been slowing down my progression, so I've determined to pick one gun and one class and stick with it for a while.

The question is, which one?

Initially I thought Production. So for the last few weeks I've been exclusively focusing on Production. I currently shoot an EAA Tanfoglio Stock 1, though I doubt if that's really relevant. Keep it simple, no race holsters, no need for high capacity mags, plenty of practice with mag changes, etc.

Recently, though, two of the better shooters are our regular weekly match suggested that if I wanted to improve faster, I should switch to my Open gun. It was their opinion that I would make faster progress in Open for several reasons. Without having to worry so much about mag changes, I would be able to focus more on footwork, transitions, movement, and stage planning. With the dot providing near immediate feedback, things like good trigger press and a good grip would improve faster. Basically their logic was you can more quickly learn to shoot faster with an Open gun, and once you learn to shoot fast, moving back to Production, Limited, or Single Stack would be easier.

Given that these two are both regular Open class shooters, though, I was hoping to get a broader array of thoughts and opinions. So if your goal is to learn, improve, and make progress the fastest, which class would you shoot? Or does it even matter? If it helps, I tend to fall much more on the "Slow but Accurate" side than the "Fast but Misses A Lot" side of things.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

Scott

[dsa]

I don't think it matters which division you pick. The important thing is to pick one and stay with it.

[Hi-Power Jack]

If you have an OPEN gun, I don't know why you'd want to shoot anything else.

I have a bunch of guns, but shoot ONLY my TruBor 9mm major - it's too much

fun ....

[ScottQ]

Yes, I have a nice Hardy Mongoose (purchased from another shooter here on the forums), an STI Edge for Limited, and a Springfield 1911 for Single Stack, as well as the Tanfoglio for Production. I like shooting them all, but I need to pick one!

[trgt]

Are you able to practice with the open guys / get a little coaching/mentoring during the practice? Seems like that would be huge, their feedback, plus you watching them in practice and being able to compare to what you are doing, approach and times.

[JHicks8h]

Everyone will give you a different opinion, but I know at our club level I have seen people choose different classes for a variety of reasons. Those reasons have varied from health, not wanting to worry about calculating reloads, and more focus on certain fundamentals better than others. As far as a personal opinion I think PRD and SSTK seem to force you to focus harder on alot more of the fundamentals for classfiiers than something like limited / open. If you can reload your PRD/SS gun well and manage the recoil of a stock gun I personally feel it is A LOT easier when switching to limited. That is most likely due to the fact that you have had to focus hard on all the fundamentals to get an edge on your competitors. At the end of the day you should probably prioritze what you want to focus on and what gun/class gives you the most enjoyment out of the sport. When I first started PRD was the least popular division in our local club and has grown to be one of the most popular with a lot more competition than the other divisions.

Good luck.

[kneelingatlas]

There are always two schools of thought on this issue, one uses the words "fun" and "easy" while the other uses words like "force" and "focus", you decide

[Supermoto]

Open will teach you faster. It is the fastest way to learn the proper grip because the dot give you a ton more feedback. I never notice when my grip becomes lazy when shooting irons, but it is instantly noticeable when I pick up my open gun. Plus with fewer reloads, it is easier to concentrate on shooting and movement

[Nimitz]

Pick whichever gun you like shooting more since that's the one your most likely to be willinging to put in the large amount of training required to improve. The fundamentals of being able to shoot accuractly at speed are the same no matter what division you shoot ....

[mildot1]

Pick whichever gun you like shooting more since that's the one your most likely to be willinging to put in the large amount of training required to improve. The fundamentals of being able to shoot accuractly at speed are the same no matter what division you shoot ....

Please don't take offense.

What you like shooting more does not always translate into what is best for you. If you cannot get the proper feedback off irons that you can see with a dot how can you ever correct your errors? Should I keep burning rounds when I don't know what the problem is?

If moving to an "open gun" can show you that you are actually pulling the gun off target as you fire the round then that "may" be what you need to shoot until you master trigger and grip control.

If you take those two things with you when you move to a iron sighted gun, theortically you should only have to worry about the sight's as you have already mastered the first two.

On the other hand I sometimes find myself when moving to limited from open looking to hard at the red F.O. and forgetting the rear sight.

FWIW

Mildot

[ScottQ]

I definitely appreciate all of the feedback and thoughts. Ironically (or perhaps not so ironic) the open shooters at my regular club match all seem to feel like I'll progress much faster shooting open. The non-open shooters (production, mostly), feel pretty strongly that the open gun is not the way to go.

At this point I think I'm leaning toward giving the open gun a shot for a while, as I think it may help me improve the weakest parts of my shooting. Some of my weaknesses are mostly just a matter of more practice (faster draw, faster reloads, continuing to improve footwork), but the biggest one that I seem to be stuck on is basically seeing and shooting faster, and calling my shots. I think the feedback from the open gun should help with that.

We will see. Wish me luck!

[robg2008]

I started in limited. I wanted to use the "tacicool" stuff. Magwells, extended mags etc. Its all about trigger time. Get out there and shoot!

[kneelingatlas]

At this point I think I'm leaning toward giving the open gun a shot for a while

Welcome to the dark side

I have a dozen iron sighted guns collecting dust in the safe, there's no going back!!!

[Nimitz]

No offense taken but I disagree that a dot gun is 'easier' to understand what you are doing wrong. When I pull the trigger it is very obvious to me what my sights are doing becuase I'm watching them and I have trained myself to 'see' what's going on .... Did they track straight and down or move left or right or whatever. I don't really see any difference between 'seeing' a dot move around and understanding what that means than seeing the post on irons move around and understand what that is telling me.

The only thing I do agree with (I shoot an open SC gun and Production in USPSA) is that if you have vision issues and have difficulty changing focus from near to far to near than yes, and optic is probably 'easier' since there is only one focal plane. But if you have issues with your shooting fundamentals it doesn't really matter which type of gun you shoot, I don't believe you will be better off in open.

Unless you have a real physical limitation then I believe desire conquers all and that means picking the gun you like the best ...