MilkMyDuds Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Been shooting IDPA for a year and finally I feel ready to try USPSA. For someone who shoots competitively, what are your recommendations/advice to avoid the common mistakes and pitfalls that people like me usually make? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric4069 Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 reload when moving between positions and do not let yourself go to slide-lock eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric4069 Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 (edited) Have also seen people out of IDPA habit stow an ejected mag for a tac-reload which as you know is not required in USPSA but some habits are hard to break. Eric edit: ( guess I meant to say reload with retention? ) Edited October 12, 2015 by eric4069 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkMyDuds Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 Appreciated. I really like not having to do slide lock as my small hands always struggle to rotate to hit the slide stop... I much prefer reload w/ retention in IDPA as it does not require that much grip rotation. I look forward to 0 slide lock reload As to eject mag with rounds in them, yes, that will be a hard habit to change as it has become my subconscious to stow them on my belly. Great point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racknrider Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 And don't use cover. Ask me how I know. Took me about 5 matches to shake my IDPA habits. Now I can transition from one to the other pretty easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygiant Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Another thing to keep in mind is how you run the stage (think stage planning). In uspsa you don't have to worry about "cover". Try to get in the mind set of shooting the targets that lets you for through the stage not necessarily shoot them as you see them first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 One of my mistakes has been taking everything too seriously. I'm not talking about safety; it's important to be very serious about safety of course. I told myself to have fun at my 4th USPSA match, and I did. It's all still quite challenging to me and that is part of the fun. I want to do well on the classifiers but my world will not fall down if I don't. "Trying my best" and "having fun" are not mutually exclusive, I've found. In fact, I have more fun if I try hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 MMD, the best thing you could do is actually go to a match or two and just watch what goes on. Tell the match director what division you are interested and ask which squad has a lot of good shooters in that division. Then follow them around the stages and observe. You will learn a lot about how to plan shooting a particular stage, reload points, etc. It may also help you avoid some costly gear mistakes, especially if you are not going to be using your IDPA setup. USPSA has different requirements. Make sure your equipment is 100% functional. Then, in order of importance: 1: safety, 2: speed, 3: speed, 4: accuracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Start out slow and get the basics down before trying to "go fast". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 There used to be a pinned thread by Gman on here for new shooters. Check in the forum headlines. Was awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkreutz Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 When I shot my first USPSA classifier stage, I did it in tactical priority. Gave everyone a good laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkMyDuds Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 When I shot my first USPSA classifier stage, I did it in tactical priority. Gave everyone a good laugh. A good one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkMyDuds Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Thanks for all great pointers. Although I only started shooting for a year, I have got MA in both SSP and ESP. I probably do not qualify as "new shooter" but OK shooter getting into USPSA. My concern is not the fundamentals in shooting, but rather the subconscious habits formed in shooting IDPA. I remember the only time I shot USPSA stages is when I took Ben's class. It felt really strange and awkward when I shot the stages he set up. My real fear is unnecessary mistakes due to old IDPA habits. I can imagine myself leaning and slicing the pie in classifiers, and trying to pick up dropped mags with live rounds in them... Obviously I need to train at least a few month to rid of them. Thanks all again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x45 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 There is no difference between USPSA and IDPA except the rules, to win either you have to shoot fast and accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selecw Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Dryfire at leat 3 times a week with a timer. Make sure you can draw in a second, and reload in a second. Make sure you can do a sub five second El Prez. At the range make sure you can do a Bill Drill in 2 seconds (10 yds) and .16 - .18 splits. Make sure your target transition time is about the same as your split time. Time everything. From what I have seen, a typical Master in IDPA is a "B" USPSA shooter. Oh, and I haven't even got to movement ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkMyDuds Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Dryfire at leat 3 times a week with a timer. Make sure you can draw in a second, and reload in a second. Make sure you can do a sub five second El Prez. At the range make sure you can do a Bill Drill in 2 seconds (10 yds) and .16 - .18 splits. Make sure your target transition time is about the same as your split time. Time everything. From what I have seen, a typical Master in IDPA is a "B" USPSA shooter. Oh, and I haven't even got to movement ... Great suggestions. Those are in fact the metrics that Ben listed in his book for M/GM levels, and have always been my goals. I think C class is what I am expecting to start with. What about movements? Any tips for us slow moving IDPA folks? Thanks a bunch. What about movement? Any tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Two tips -- don't stop moving from the buzzer to the last target, if you can help it...... If you're not shooting on the move -- then MOVE -- but remember to decelerate so you smoothly enter the next position...... Don't rush on exit or entry..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x45 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Dryfire at leat 3 times a week with a timer. Make sure you can draw in a second, and reload in a second. Make sure you can do a sub five second El Prez. At the range make sure you can do a Bill Drill in 2 seconds (10 yds) and .16 - .18 splits. Make sure your target transition time is about the same as your split time. Time everything. From what I have seen, a typical Master in IDPA is a "B" USPSA shooter. Oh, and I haven't even got to movement ... Wow, tough crowd you must hang with. 1 second draw to first shot and reloads, sub 5 El Prez's, sub 2 Bill Drill at 10? Clean? or maybe a couple of C's... I've seen allot of GM's make their runs since the beginning of USPSA, and I only know a handful of shooters that can do those drills cold and consistently at those times. But lucky for the OP, you can shoot USPSA in exactly the same way you shoot IPDA! Know why? Because there is no rule against it! So cover, concealment, slice the pie, retained/slide lock reloads, sequential and tactical priorities, go for it! After all, IDPA was invented by one of our greatest ever IPSC shooters, Bill Wilson. But wait, that's not all. You can even shoot full house duty/carry ammo and run an appendix holster in Limited and Open. I mean, how cool is that? Just like real life carry. From the May/June issue of Front Sight magazine, advice for newbies... "Don't give up. Learn, Train, Practice. Laugh at yourself. Soon you will suck less and win more" What my crew does is we don't judge. You screw up a stage then you alone have to live with the shame and memory until the next match. Shooting is 95% mental anyway. DVC, but mostly C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selecw Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Dryfire at leat 3 times a week with a timer. Make sure you can draw in a second, and reload in a second. Make sure you can do a sub five second El Prez. At the range make sure you can do a Bill Drill in 2 seconds (10 yds) and .16 - .18 splits. Make sure your target transition time is about the same as your split time. Time everything. From what I have seen, a typical Master in IDPA is a "B" USPSA shooter. Oh, and I haven't even got to movement ... Great suggestions. Those are in fact the metrics that Ben listed in his book for M/GM levels, and have always been my goals. I think C class is what I am expecting to start with. What about movements? Any tips for us slow moving IDPA folks? Thanks a bunch. What about movement? Any tips? Following up on one comment above - the above times are dry fire times, for me at least - except for the Bill Drill which is a "live" time.. And yes they are the Stoeger recommended times. My match times are often about 20% slower but I'm not a great shooter. There are TONS of M's and GM's that shoot those times "live". There are also certain tricks you learn to make the times matter less e.g. drawing while moving into a position. If you find any good movement drills let ME know. For what its worth, I time myself moving between positions, moving into position(s) and moving out of position(s). I vary the movement distance, I take shots at different points, and I include reloads depending on what the drill is. PM me if you are interested and I'll send you some info from my log book that has details and times achieved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x45 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 How do you time yourself moving? with a video camera? The shot timer only hears shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selecw Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) For live fire, the shot timer obviously starts with a beep. I either end the drill with a shot, or set a par time on the timer. For dry fire, I have a pretty nice dry fire / shot timer app on my phone. That uses part times. I do use video in practice and matches but mainly to examine technique. Edited October 14, 2015 by selecw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_striker Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) Learn solid fundamentals (especially grip) from the start. You might think you have a solid grip but it might actually be poor. I've gone through about 4-5 iterations of what I thought was a good grip. After 15 years of shooting pistols and 4 years of shooting USPSA, I finally think I've got a decent grip. The longer you burn in a marginal grip, the longer it takes to unlearn it. It took me 4 years of shooting USPSA to TRULY understand how important a solid grip is. Don't be a stubborn, slow learner like me. Edited October 14, 2015 by d_striker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Read the rule book a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkMyDuds Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 Thanks. I did read the rule book back to back once. Pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Gonna read it a bit more. Some newbie questions (might have overlooked some of these in the rule book): 1. Does USPSA have classifier matches besides individual classifier stages in regular matches? The rule book says "twice a year" but I looked around and don't think my local clubs are doing any of that. 2. Does USPSA have match bumps? 3. How many mags should a production shooter carry? I have seen 4 and 5 as the norm. I guess it depends on the stage round count and if the stage starts unloaded or not? 5 be on the safe side? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygiant Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I would go with 5 mags. For most stages I get away with 4, but having a 5th allows you to plan an extra reload if need be and if you struggle on a plate rack or texas star gives you a round count cushion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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