Why do I really shoot?

[usmc1974]

On 10/5/2016 at 11:16 AM, Crispin1025 said:

 I enjoy the challenge, the action, and most of all the people. 

It is the people! Seriously, gun people and dog people are about the only people left in the country with common sense. They know who to vote for and what bathroom to use. They love America and the Constitution and respect them that has laid down their lives to defendant it.

 

Well that, and I don't have the money to drive race cars, and I don't know how to fly an airplane.

[Frankly]

Never liked cops until I shot with them.

 

Of course cops who don’t shoot are TBD haha. 
 

Seriously it is the higher quality of the people in this sport that is attractive. Most are really good parents, veterans and citizens doing it better than I do. And it’s better to be around aspirational people who bring you up rather than the opposite.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Frankly

[MILDOTS]

I started shooting when I was16 I would shoot 10 rounds after school ever day and I kept the targets to be able to see my improvement. When I got out of the Navy my brother in law and I would compete with our newly acquired Gold cups. That led to how do I stack up with every one else. So I competed in Bullseye, pistol silhouette, uspsa,3-gun, and now cowboy action. I guess I’ve always liked guns and competition.

 

[Aggieddad02]

I have always been around guns.  My father instilled gun safety in my brother and I at an early age and made it a point to get us involved in hunting.  As I grew older my interest in guns continued to grow and when my son came home one weekend and told my about his new hobby I was hooked.  I believe in my case the biggest draw is the folks in the shooting community.  I have never met one that I have not enjoyed being around.  

[synchronicity]

When I was 5, maybe 6 Grandpa made sure that I got the BB gun. I recall how difficult it was to cock. At 8 I was shooting sparrows off of tin roofs with his 22 short Remington. By 9 it was pheasants and turtledove with a single shot 410. At 10 I got my Nylon 66 and the opportunity to shoot his 28 gauge. I never wondered why his choice for a shotgun fit me so well. At 16 I began the slaying of Deer and Elk which continued until 41 with various 99E's and Ruger revolvers. At that point, I had killed enough animals to not need to do that again. I owned shotguns and pistols for varmints and security as I lived a rural lifestyle. About 2012 I developed an interest in the 50BMG and began 600 and 1000 yard competition with the FCSA. In 2017 after purchasing a 625 that had caught my eye for NO apparent reason, I found a local (45min) club with a 900yd range for practice and load development. After joining, I have had my rifle there once but became a Very Active IDPA shooter. Whooda Thought. I think my Grandfather would be proud.

[Lesliet]

Why do I really shoot?  I find that when I am in the shooter's box, I usually enter a high quality meditative state, and the annoying little buzzing thoughts just go away while I'm doing the thing. My head becomes very quiet, my attention narrows down to a very small set of " things that matter right now".  Having concrete things to look at later, times and accuracy of hits, satisfies the analytical part of my mind that we're doing something productive, so it becomes " Meditation with a metric". 

 

  A couple of years ago, now, I did a meditation on " What would I like to do that would rate as a true indulgence, something I would love so much that practice wouldn't be an onerous chore?"  The answer turned out to be shooting guns, and eventually competition. I had been away from shooting for most of my adult life, so I am amazed to find myself now competing at the local level for " win, place, or show" spots. 

[kryo]

Honestly I really shoot because I saw T.rex arms on youtube, went to a match and have been hooked since.

[bimmer1980]

For fame and chicks...

[wgj3]

13 hours ago, bimmer1980 said:

For fame and chicks...

 

Thought this was the only reason that anybody does it...?

Edited April 30, 2020 by wgj3

[Glockster1]

It's how we relax away from our wives 

[David.Hylton]

17 hours ago, Glockster1 said:

It's how we relax away from our wives 

I met my wife at a match........

[Solvability]

On 4/30/2020 at 6:15 PM, David.Hylton said:

I met my wife at a match........

You guys need matching outfits!

[hello0o0o0o]

the zen is what really keeps me motivated.

Couldn’t have said it better.

Whenever I explain to people why I fell in love with the sport and shooting, I’m at a loss for words to describe it. But it’s literally the indescribable, it’s the loss of yourself into action. It’s the adrenaline and hyper focus. It’s beautiful and exhilarating and cathartic.

The zen is what I experienced at my first match 3 years ago. I knew then that I had falling in love with the sport. The best part is that every match is that return to zen.

[Seery]

I shoot to relax, have fun and be around friends and familiar faces. 

[will77]

I grew up shooting and hunting with my Dad some of my fondest memories are from that time.Taking my son who just turned 10 to his first match this weekend local steel match,he’s super excited I am to ha He’s called me 3 times today reminding me we need to practice this evening.

[Tango]

I started shooting because I always liked guns and wanted to be proficient with it. I then got hooked up and became competitive, and started having fun. So much fun that my other hobbies (like working out at the gym) went away. I also started thinking too much about it, and it became a detriment to other things that require my mental energy. It is an escape, fun, zen moment, relaxing etc etc. So, it clearly has its benefits as a hobby. However, I won't allow it to come at the expense of other things like staying healthy, spending time with family, social life, work, etc. So, at the moment I am trying to put it in its place as a fun hobby, nothing more and nothing less. As for people, I met some really nice people and it exposed me to a segment of society that I did not know about. I also met some really trashy low quality people too. I just dont understand when guys say gun people are the best; there are clearly bigots, low lives, good for nothing type people among them (just like in any other sport). Overall, I think starting competitive shooting had a slight net positive in my life, and I am trying to make it a bigger positive by balancing it with everything else I need to do.

[MHicks]

I shot quite a bit as a kid and teenager, some hunting, birds and varmints. I hadn't shot much as an adult but decided I should have something for protection. Then I discovered cowboy action shooting and the thought of a 44 or 45 cal single action was exciting.

 

After shooting those matches and then getting a 1911 I searched for what competition I could shoot with it. IDPA and then USPSA. The bottom line to me was that whichever competition you find first it makes you realize that there are others out there. Way more fun then plinking at the range. I used to golf and it was fun but my wife figures this is fun and practical at the same time.

[TheChewycookie]

I was competitive as a kid, but never really did sports, and not really competitive in swimming for the 2 years I did it. Attempted filling the gap with piano and playing trombone in high school bands. I got hooked once I started shooting as a Boy Scout, and I knew that was going to be my lifelong hobby. Hit college and I started watching Hot Shots on YT and realized I wanted to do practical pistol competition.

[Gunsnjeeps]

It was supposedly cheaper than therapy...

[Carbine_Philosophy]

To use my guns. It got really frustrating to buy something for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, and just have it sit in the drawer, closet, safe, whatever. After that, it got really tiring to simply shoot at paper for no reason. So, I looked for activities in which I could use my guns in. Competition is much more abundant than training in my neck of the woods, and this is where I am right now in my journey. Maybe I'll get good enough to care about actually winning matches, but I'm just happy seeing how little by little my guns get scratched up, polished in contact points just due to actual USE. Few things irk me more than seeing a super-clean, unused Safe Queen.

[C-Money]

I shoot because it is a bit of order in a sea of chaos. It is a martial art, a way to focus mind and body and hopefully to become a better person each day than I was the day before. I shoot local matches because they are familiar and safe. I shoot majors because they are new and scary. 

 

I try to meet new friends and be a good friend to people I know because both are hard for me. Shooting is how I focus my external self outward and participate in the world. 

 

Also, guns are cool. Shiny guns are even more cool. It's like a magic wand: Pull the trigger and holes appear far away. A stage shot well feels like how I imagine a dolphin feels jumping into and out of the water. It is a flow in which the self is subsumed by the task. For someone like me with an overactive internal monolog, it is a joy to simply exist and to do something without conscious thought. The verbal mind sits back and observes, at least when things go well. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Twinkie

[BritinUSA]

Great post

[BillChunn]

1968.  The riots were burning down the city of Detroit.  We lived in a southern suburb less than 10 miles from the Detroit border.  Local businesses were boarding up their store windows.  The next door neighbor distributed the contents of his gun safe to the neighbors he felt were confident with a firearm.  My dad was a bit reluctant as there were kids in the house (I was 15).  So all of a sudden, there was a 410 double barrel under his bed, loaded.  That was the moment that I realized that a gun might come in handy in certain situations.

 

Fast forward to USPSA / SC competition.  That Zen moment everyone has posted about, standing in the starting position, cleansing breath, focus, relax.

 

Have made quite a few friends over the years and those are the people that make returning worth the effort.  

 

BC

[j1b]

47 minutes ago, BillChunn said:

Have made quite a few friends over the years and those are the people that make returning worth the effort.  

 

BC

 

It's a very interesting dynamic and I, like you, have met some incredible people in this sport. Amazing, amazing people. Many of whom are on these forums.

 

I would say most of my shooting today is driven by the social component. I love competing. I would like to do a little better than I have been doing. The reality though is that I don't put any effort into shooting outside of matches. And the matches I shot this year when a couple of my core peeps weren't there were not quite as enjoyable. It's a simple fact for me. So shooting is largely social.

 

Back 100 years ago I would have said it was two fold. I LOVED the social circle I was in and that was really, really core for me. But I was also wanting to get to the peak of what I could do. I was dry firing every day. I was shooting several days a week and I was going to a match probably 2-3 times a month... at least. Not including a rinky dink indoor match every Friday night. So my goals then were different. Social and performance. 

 

Interestingly the social component got very complicated back then. And in many ways it got, if not toxic, then at least highly undesirable. At that point in my life I'd completed college and my professional life was right in front of me. I had to move states, had a new job, and again there was just some issues on the social side of the sport. For me at that time it was very, very easy to just hang things up and let shooting be a very inconsistent hobby. I'd come back, get a glimpse of things, and bow out again.

 

So today I'm just more mature. I control me so much more. And I shoot because I want to shoot. If I don't want to, I don't. This last Area 7 was super fun. Had a great squad of really good and fun people. And I bumped into an old friend that I'd shot extensively with back in the day (a super good dude who was not a contributor to the other dynamics). Best part of that match? It wasn't my performance because I sucked pond water. Nope ... it was running into my good friend Jay. That made all of it worthwhile.

J

[ParrytheWind]

It's waking up in the middle of the night remembering a stage or array from the day before,.. it's the drive to perform better than the last match,.. to see your results improve as a result of the work you've been doing,.. because that steel is not going to shoot itself,.. and finally for all the free ammo!