Joined Uspsa - First Impressions

[TreblePlink]

Well, I joined USPSA and shot my first match at Owensboro Kentucky a week ago. I’ve shot various pistols informally for 20 years, but had never tried an organized effort toward real skill improvement. Late last fall I became interested in IPSC, bought a Kimber gold match .45 (a big accuracy improvement over my old Government model Springfield), and got some guidance from Ghost dog about upgrading my reloading facilities. On his excellent advice, I bought a 550 and love it. Now it’s cheap to shoot enough rounds to develop some muscle memory. I’m reading Brian’s book, and watching some videos.

My first impressions from the match were about what I expected – I have a lot to learn, a lot of dry firing ahead of me, and with 8 rd mags in L10, a lot of mag change practice. The qualifier with four targets, left hand, free style, 3 rounds with mag change, then 3 more, then right hand – each in 4.5 seconds was –uh challenging to say the least!

On the positive side, the folks at Owensboro were very helpful, and provided good guidance. It was a bunch of fun and I’m going back.

On the negative side, it would seem that the real focus is shooting the 28 round space blasters in open, where one must push the pressure limits on 38 super to make major. It looked like 70 percent of the folks were in either limited or open. It doesn’t look like a standard 8 rd 1911 in the traditional .45 can compete unless one can change mags like mr. Leatham. I notice that the Single Stack Classic really does encourage 8 rounds of .45 – so I’m going.

Despite this, I’m hooked. Are these impressions accurate?

This forum is an excellent resource,

TreblePlink in Bowling Green KY.

[Gary Stevens]

Congratulations on your joining a fine organization. I know the folk in Owensboro and they will take good care of you. One thing to remember though is we shoot by Divisions. Open-Limited-Limited 10-Production-Revolver. Within those Divisions we have Classes based on your skill level. You are only in competition with the individuals in your particular skill level (class) and those shooting in the same Division, in your case L-10. All the 28 round master blaster Open guns are not in competition with you.

Concentrate on your learning curve. Ask questions of people, watch the better shooters and ask them why they do things as they do them.

Most importantly though, be safe, and have fun.

Gary

[j1b]

Trebleplink

Congrats on joining. You'll enjoy the sport a lot.

Glad to hear you had a good experience. The classifier you shot is one of my favorites because it isn't easy but really emphasises the fundamentals of the sport.

I think your observations are correct. Many years ago an 8 round .45 would be fine but the advent of high capacity guns has changed the sport a bit. It is a disadvantage but the core of what you learn will remain the same. That is to say that early on you'll learn to be competitive with the blaster you've got. Trust me, there are few things more satisfying than getting out there and outperforming half the field with a less competitive pistol.

Eventually you'll probably want to change out guns. My advice is simply to wait a bit. Learn what you want to shoot. Limited seems to be the most popular division these days, that's where I tend to shoot. You'll discover where you want to shoot and you can invest in that later.

In the meantime enjoy! You'll have a blast, learn a lot, and gather a whole new set of skills!

Great to hear you're in!

JB

[Alan Meek]

Trebleplink,

Welcome. As lon time member that has seen this sport evolve, focus on what you have and by all means enjoy yourself, you have a great gun to learn all the technical basics and I personally love the feel of a Single Stack 1911, they feel totally natural in the hand.

Practice with what you have and if you do make the jump you will have ingrained all of the basics into your style, By the way Phil Strader made master with a single stack 1911.

Alan

[BSeevers]

At most our local clubs its the opposite. Production and Limited 10 are the majority divisions. As said above remember you are only in competition against shooters shooting the same type gun(division) and in your class or skill level (A B C D etc.) PS You were watching shooters that have put 100's yes 100,000's of rounds safely downrange. That's each of them. By the way for the majority of USPSA's existance we shot a Higher Power Factor. Welcome.

[MikeFoley]

Welcome, I am glad to hear about your experience with ORPC. Did you meet Gunrunner, Gary S., and Mike W.? Those are great guys and they run a first class match.

Here in Lexington, we have a match the first Sunday of every month, this coming Sunday. Check out this link http://home.alltel.net/barrywest/ for last month's results by division, and you'll see a lot of L10 and Production shooters, and you'll see we run a lot of new shooters too. We'd love to have you shoot with us. We shoot 4 stages of pistol, one rifle, and one shotgun. The long guns stages are not mandatory, but they are great fun.

There are four more clubs in the Louisville area, one in Bardstown, and one near Nashville that are also first rate matches with a lot of diversity. You can find those at www.practicalshooters.com and www.ntps.org . You should shoot several clubs to get a wider flavor of what different shooters and stage designers do.

This forum is a great place for information as you have already discovered. Let me know if I, or anyone here in KY can help you in any way.

[tightloop]

Keep after it.....

[eric nielsen]

TreblePlink

You got some good advice on this thread, especially from Jack Barnes. A great way to learn on this forum is to click on the username - I'd start with J1B - and then click "find member's posts" and then scan through all of them, opening up the threads that are interesting to you.

Continue with Benos, T_T, MattBurkett, and other great shooters who have a lot of insight that they are generous to share with us all. If you're married, you'll soon hear, "Honey, what are you DOING in there on that computer....." but trust me you can learn enough to skip some of the landmines that many of us have stepped on. Best of luck to you.

PS - there are several loads for 38super that will make Major and are also under the industry pressure limits. Bear in mind when you witness ammo problems and gun malfunctions they are usually the child of their creator - the shooter.

[waktasz]

That classifier you did sounds like Baseball standards. That was the first classifier I shot in USPSA too...lefty 15 yard shots were just something I've never practiced (I usually shoot IDPA and left shots are only allowed out to 7 yards) It does get easier though, eventually

[j1b]

Thanks Eric - that was a great compliment. I really appreciate it.

JB

[splashdown]

Ah the Baseball standards... I shot that one a couple months ago. After the first target I removed the magazine and forgot to insert a fresh one. So the second target, the easiest one (freestyle) I got one round off and I was empty. DUH!! Welcome to the game. Don't worry about the Open or Limited guys. You're only competing within your division (L10).

splashdown

[TreblePlink]

Thanks, folks. answering an earlier reply, at Owensboro I met Gary W and Wayne P. I don't know if they're on this forum or not. I could have met gunruner, but uh I'm not quite sure yet how to translate these psuedo names - not all have real names posted. Tell me again why we have them if email isn't published?

Reading some guidance on Bill drills etc, there's often benchmark times associated with finishing the six rounds. I just got a Pact combination chrono and shot timer. Most of the times are without clear reference to class. For instance, it would seem easier to rip 6 rounds in 2.4 seconds on target at X distance with a compensated gun than it would with a L10 rig. On the draw at 20 feet (1 rnd) I'm reliably doing 1.5 seconds, sometimes down to 1.2, but its hard to gauge benchmarks. Are most of the quoted times for open rigs?

TreblePlink

[Airedale]

TreblePlink,

That was a wonderful match and the Owensboro crowd is great. Don't worry about the other divisions. Shoot what you have and enjoy it.

This weekend is Lexington-it is worth the drive. Check out the link Fomeister posted and try to get up there. They also have rifle and shotgun side matches that are a hoot. You can get hooked on 3 gun as well.

Oh, the classifier at the Owensboro match (Baseball standards) was one of the hardest I've seen. Don't let that bother you-they are not all like that.

Dave

[XRe]

Thanks, folks.  answering an earlier reply, at Owensboro I met Gary W and Wayne P.  I don't know if they're on this forum or not.  I could have met gunruner, but uh I'm not quite sure yet how to translate these psuedo names - not all have real names posted.  Tell me again why we have them if email isn't published?

"Handles" are fun But - we used to have a "Real Name" field in our profiles which was apparently lost recently during a forum software upgrade. I think Benos is still working on recovering that one???

Reading some guidance on Bill drills etc,  there's often benchmark times associated with finishing the six rounds.  I just got a Pact combination chrono and shot timer.  Most of the times are without clear reference to  class.  ...  Are most of the quoted times for open rigs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, you got the right timer Saving for one, myself.

Don't get too wrapped around the axle about absolute time on any drill - especially at this point in your shooting. It might suprise you, but at 7 yards, a GM/M class shooter's BillDrill time is going to be almost or exactly the same w/ a gun from pretty much any division. That drill, at that range, is primarily about grip, stance, timing - the basics. Develop of benchmark time for yourself in any of the drills that you're interested in - and then start pushing them. Eventually, as you learn proper grip and stance, etc, your times will improve - probably dramatically. Then worry about comparing them to these seemingly ultra-fast times you see here

There are a lot of suggestions here, and on various other web pages, about how to grip, stand, time your gun, develop appropriate focus, ideas on how to start pushing performance, etc, etc - try them out a little at a time, and find what works....

BTW - on any drill that involves < 10 shots, you can directly compare to Limited class times....

[SRT Driver]

Trebleplink,

At our club, Production and L10 are, by far, the largest divisions. Limited is popular to a lesser degree and Open is insignificant.

Welcome and good luck. You can't find a better bunch anywhere!!!

[Stuck in C]

When I first started 3 years ago Open was the largest division at our matches, followed by Limited. At the last match I went to 2 weeks ago, there were 2 Open shooters out of 30. Production and Limited 10 accounted for over half the shooters. Get yourself some 10 round mags from Wilson or McCormick and have fun-don't worry about the Open guns.

[eric nielsen]

Inside of 12 or 15 yards, Open guns are more difficult to draw, reload, and catch the needed sight picture. If an Open shooter has a better hit factor inside of 12 yards, it's in spite of his gear - not because of it.

Where optics and compensators become an advantage is with far targets, small targets, different ambient light levels at the shooting position & target position, and especially ---> calling your hits while shooting on the move.

My humble opinion, the biggest thing that holds back B - D class shooters in every division is insufficient desire to put the gun in the center of the target and hold it there until the gun fires - every shot. An Open gun WILL show you that in a more obvious way. It shouts out your problems to you.

If you want to be the best all-around shooter you can be in this sport in say 3 years time, you'll probably want to shoot an Open gun for at least a year of that. But there's certainly no need to start that right away.

As Benos says over&over - keep your eyes open and notice what's happening.

[Nemo]

Treble,

Welcome to the game, to the USPSA and to the forums! You have a pistol that works and found your way here, practice with the first one and bit by bit absorb all the info you can from these boards. You're in the right track.

Keep at it... Shoot all the matches you can, observe and learn from the folks with the space guns but don't mind their gear. Plan your shoot and shoot your plan... you'll be alright...

Save all those 8-round mags but get some 10 rounders so you're not in an equipment disadvantage in L10.

Again, WELCOME!

[MikeFoley]

All solid advice. Are you going to come shoot with us near Lexington on Sunday?

[TreblePlink]

Lexington on Sunday - I'm sure thinking about it. Unless the weather is as crappy as last weekend, I'm going to try. Let's see - leave at o'dark-thirty ...

Thanks all for the good advice. A consistent theme for beginners seems to be accuracy is everything - never mind if it takes two seconds per round to achieve it ! I just got four 10 rd metalform mags - that should help some.

Thanks.

[MikeFoley]

TreblePlink,

Nice to meet you, and glad you came to Lexington. You placed well on a couple of stages, and held your own on the others. Shooting 65% to Clyde in L10 is a really great start. Come back and shoot with us in the EST zone again. We will be shooting at the Silver Creek Conservation Club near Louisville this Sunday.

[TreblePlink]

TreblePlink,

Nice to meet you, and glad you came to Lexington.  You placed well on a couple of stages, and held your own on the others.  Shooting 65% to Clyde in L10 is a really great start.  Come back and shoot with us in the EST zone again.  We will be shooting at the Silver Creek Conservation Club near Louisville this Sunday.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the help - I felt like two of the four stages went well. What is really wierd is that on one stage I had a CLICK! which I must have cleared but just after the string I had no memory of the failure until I found my bad round amongst the brass. It all went by so fast it was as if my subconscious was doing the shooting. This mindset thing is obviously a big part of it, and I'm now begining to see how books can be written on this very abstract subject.

Another mystery is how I managed to shear off my rear sight DURING the plate rack string that I shot for fun. I thought I could just drive out the rear sight hinge pin, and then loosen the height adjust screw, but the Kimber guy said I must press out the dovetail assembly. So the Gold Match slide is back to Kimber - they were good enough to fix it under warranty.