Get me started

[RippinSVT]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. So, I've never attended a USPSA match and know next to nothing about scoring and procedure, but I'm thinking about trying it out since EVERYONE shoots it. I'm a very accurate shooter and fairly fast I think, having shot a good amount of Bianchi matches and such. I've got guns for any/all categories of about every shooting sport, but I don't know where to start in USPSA. I guess what I'm really wondering, and don't take offense to this, but how important is accuracy in this game? I see videos of club-level guys running through stages real fast and clipping targets with C-zone hits and I have no idea if that's "good" or not. I don't know jack about USPSA, but I can do a Bianchi plate rack in about 3.5sec at 10 yards from low ready, 5 seconds at 25 yards, all-A zone Bill Drill in about 1.7sec from draw, and usually don't have any trouble shooting 8" plates at 50 yards in paced fire (shot every 2 seconds or so). I feel like these are okay skills, but I don't know how they stack up. I really don't wanna look like a fool at my first match, and it's hard for me to grasp not shooting A-zone in lieu of going fast, as I've always been an accuracy guy. If I can win the stage somehow by shooting sloppy and going fast by some scoring calculation, I'm truly not interested in it then (foggy on how it all weighs). So put me at ease here...where should I start? What tips do you have? What should I be working on prior? Is it more mental prep and stage planning than just shear shooting skills? Line me up with a 50 yard plate rack and 10-12sec and I wouldn't feel intimidated, but all this running and gunning stuff is fairly foreign to me. I apologize if I haven't been clear, I just don't know. If you feel like I was knocking your game at all with words like "sloppy", I'm not, it's just apples to oranges with what I do.

[MarkCO]

It is not bullseye, but it is fast. I came from an "accuracy" background and USPSA was at first uncomfortable. I shot Limited with a Glock for years and have since switched to Production where accuracy is a tad more important. It is not for everyone, but there are lots of action shooting sports. IDPA is a little slower with a little more emphasis on accuracy and might suit your tastes.

Be assured, the shooters at the top of USPSA are the ones who are very fast while being very accurate. They also have great stage planning and a solid mental game.

[RippinSVT]

Thanks Mark. I've thought about Production since I've got a couple dozen pistols that would fit the bill, but I've also thought about shooting Open with Minor PF loads, with confidence I could shoot mostly A's at the 3-20yard distances I typically see on YouTube videos. Would that be a terrible idea? I've got a Glock 34 "fun gun" that used to be my Bianchi Production gun that I milled the slide out on last week to lighten (lost 1.5oz) and fitted a comp to. I figured if throw a C-more on that and go play it could be fun. Basically like shooting USPSA with a Steel Challenge gun. I'm not out to dethrone KC Eusebio or Max Michel, but I'd like to do well.

[elguapo]

Hit factor scoring: points per second.

If I shoot a stage in 25.5 seconds and score 200 points out of a possible 240 my hit factor is 7.8431

If you shoot the same stage in 31 seconds and score 240 out of a possible 240 your hit factor is 7.7419 and I finish that stage ahead of you.

If you had shot the same stage in 30.6 seconds for all available points, you would have finished that stage ahead of me.

It's a balance, you get to pick which way you want to lean

[zzt]

I think you should just go out and shoot a few matches before you make up your mind. There is a lot to absorb. Use whatever you have and see how you like it.

[Smitty79]

Watch some of the early videos at www.powerfactorshow.com. Lots of good information there.

[Trent1k1]

Open is fine to start with, but understand that us Open shooters are about 25% faster on a stage with you, and we shoot for Alphas with a couple of Charlies (shooting Major). If you want to play in Open, you must be accurate, but also very fast.

Setting up in a new shooting position and getting shots off quickly is where the players will beat you. If you aren't firing with .5 seconds of stopping (after moving even 3 yards), instead of the average new shooter time of 2 seconds, that is where you will lose the majority of your time.

As others have said, it is time and accuracy.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I don't wanna look like a fool at my first match

If I can win the stage by shooting sloppy ...

Relax.

USPSA is FUN.

You're NOT going to win a stage your first time out .....

It shouldn't even be your prime objective.

Grab your favorite gun and go shoot a match or two - have fun, and

by the third match you will answer all your own questions - and have

an absolute blast doing it.

Good luck & welcome to USPSA.

[9x45]

RippinSVT " I'm not out to dethrone KC Eusebio or Max Michel, but I'd like to do well. "

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that...... First of all, get to your nearest match and jump in. Some clubs require a safety class before you are allowed to shoot, check with the match director. And don't overthink the game. 90% of shots are within 15 yards. You won't see any 8" plates at 50 yards, so that ability won't help much, it's running gun where everything is about movement. Prepare to be humbled. DVC, but mostly C!

[Gooldylocks]

I think that if you are an accuracy guy, that shooting production would be a good fit. In the other divisions, yes to a degree you can be sloppy and make up for it with raw speed and still win, because major power factor scoring (5 for A, 4 for B/C, 2 for D vs 5, 3, 1 for minor) is much more forgiving.

Let's say that you shoot a stage with 8 Alphas and 4 Charlies, in 6 seconds. Shooting major your hit factor would be 9.3333. Doing the same thing with a minor gun would be a 8.6667. That is a pretty big difference. So to do well shooting in production where everyone is shooting minor, you have to be quite accurate.

So I say grab one of your dozen production guns and go try it out! I think you will really like it.

[MarkCO]

In the Colorado State USPSA championship, I was 5th place over all. I had more points (on target) than anyone else in the division, but in the top 20, only 2 other shooters were slower than I was. My accuracy beat their speed. But the fastest (just based on time) guy still won the Division. He beat me by 12% in the match and he was 20% faster. So I was 1st in points, 18th in speed and ended up 5th overall.

Limited and Open tend to be a little more slanted towards speed than Production.

Here is the link to the match results: https://practiscore.com/results/11548?q_class=0&q_category=0&q_division=4and you can certainly go look at comparisons within the overall and divisions. The black arrow to the left of a shooters name lets you see their metrics.

[RippinSVT]

Thanks for the tips guys. I suppose I'll try out this new Sig P320 fullsize production, as I'm sort of in love with it. I'm truly not looking to make this my expertise...I can only dedicate to so many disciplines. However, I want to give it my level best.

[tarosean]

So put me at ease here...where should I start? What tips do you have? What should I be working on prior? Is it more mental prep and stage planning than just shear shooting skills? Line me up with a 50 yard plate rack and 10-12sec and I wouldn't feel intimidated, but all this running and gunning stuff is fairly foreign to me.

Practice reloads.

Dont lollygag between positions.

check your ego at the door.

have fun

Ive seen guys knock out all A's and finish dead last overall. Cause it took them an hour longer than everyone else.

Edited September 30, 2015 by tarosean

[JAFO]

Thanks for the tips guys. I suppose I'll try out this new Sig P320 fullsize production, as I'm sort of in love with it. I'm truly not looking to make this my expertise...I can only dedicate to so many disciplines. However, I want to give it my level best.

Just remember Production limits you to loading 10 rounds in the magazine. You will want at least 4-5 mags for longer stages. If you don't have that right now and don't want to buy more (or can't find them), try the gun in Limited shooting Minor PF and load the mags to capacity.

[RippinSVT]

Update: shot my first one tonight, got 1st place overall of 35 shooters by a fairly good margin I guess, some of whom were A/Master supposedly. Fun stuff. It was just a local indoor outlaw match, but I thought the difficulty was decent (further and more technical shots than I expected, generally). I chose to shoot Virginia count since that is what I'm used to, so I never took a follow-up or safety shot; I did this because I was trying to find my strengths and weaknesses on the target. I think 2nd place was 83% of my score. I shot a single D like a dummy, the rest were A's with a few C's. I went at a brisk pace but still focused on accuracy. After seeing the breakdown of stages/scores at the end, it was incredibly apparent to me how speed/accuracy related. There were a lot of real fast guys that had me saying "oh shit", then I saw they had a ton of C/D/M's. I guess I probably need to shoot some regionals and qualifiers before I get too cocky, but the bottom line is that USPSA will make me a better shooter and is a ton of fun! I am aware that the talent pool is better at a bigger match, but I needed a metric and I got it.

Edited December 21, 2015 by RippinSVT

[jsg]

Congrats. Sounds like you had fun and performed well. Now get out there and shoot some sanctioned matches outdoors.

[Thomas H]

Update: shot my first one tonight, got 1st place overall of 35 shooters by a fairly good margin I guess, some of whom were A/Master supposedly. Fun stuff. It was just a local indoor outlaw match, but I thought the difficulty was decent (further and more technical shots than I expected, generally). I chose to shoot Virginia count since that is what I'm used to, so I never took a follow-up or safety shot; I did this because I was trying to find my strengths and weaknesses on the target. I think 2nd place was 83% of my score. I shot a single D like a dummy, the rest were A's with a few C's. I went at a brisk pace but still focused on accuracy. After seeing the breakdown of stages/scores at the end, it was incredibly apparent to me how speed/accuracy related. There were a lot of real fast guys that had me saying "oh shit", then I saw they had a ton of C/D/M's. I guess I probably need to shoot some regionals and qualifiers before I get too cocky, but the bottom line is that USPSA will make me a better shooter and is a ton of fun! I am aware that the talent pool is better at a bigger match, but I needed a metric and I got it.

Do they report scores online? If we can see some scores, we might be able to give you some other useful comments about things to focus on in practice. Were you shooting Production? Or Open? Was everyone in the same division, or was it separated by division?