Can Ports be used for support?

[JHFII]

When shooting freestyle through a port is it illegal or legal to use port for stabilization? 

[RJH]

If the wall is part of or within the fault line yes, if it sits outside the fault lines no. 

[Sarge]

Also, if mandated to shoot weak or strong hand only, you can't touch anything either.

[JHFII]

Thanks for the answers!

[Boomstick303]

1 hour ago, Sarge said:

Also, if mandated to shoot weak or strong hand only, you can't touch anything either.

 

Trying to learn here.  Is this a USPSA rule that mandates when instructed to shoot weak hand or strong hand only you can't use the other hand for support by touching the port or the wall?  

 

Or are you saying you cant rest the hand with the gun in the port (Standard Exercises and Classifiers may specify shooting with the strong hand or weak hand unsupported for handgun divisions)?

Edited July 10, 2020 by Boomstick303

[ima45dv8]

See 10.2.8.3.

[Sarge]

1 hour ago, ima45dv8 said:

See 10.2.8.3.

Nailed it.

2.8

If a course of fire stipulates shooting strong or weak hand only, a competitor

USPSA Competition Rules will not be penalized for using the other hand (i.e. the other arm from the shoulder to the hand) to disengage an external safety, to reload or to correct a malfunction.

However, the competitor will be issued one procedural penalty per shot fired while:

10.2.8.1

Touching the handgun with the other hand while firing shots;

10.2.8.2

Using the other hand to support the handgun, wrist or shooting arm while firing shots;

10.2.8.3

Using the other hand on a barricade or another prop to increase stability while firing shots

[Boomstick303]

Ah, Good to know.  Thanks

[ezra650]

Nice post/question. I learned something new today. When I was a novice shooter I learned 10.2.8.2 firsthand   I grabbed my shoulder/bicep with my weak hand (thumb in armpit) type grip. I won't ever forget that! Now I always just make a fist and push against the peck near my shooting arm. You can push on that tendon/muscle and it will give you some stabilizing tension. 

[Sdlrodeo]

5 hours ago, Sarge said:

Also, if mandated to shoot weak or strong hand only, you can't touch anything either.

I didn’t see where it said in 10.2.8 that you couldn’t rest against the inside of a port with only the hand specified if the port is part of a wall that is part of the shooting area. Is that what you meant by “can’t touch anything either”?

[Sarge]

1 hour ago, Sdlrodeo said:

I didn’t see where it said in 10.2.8 that you couldn’t rest against the inside of a port with only the hand specified if the port is part of a wall that is part of the shooting area. Is that what you meant by “can’t touch anything either”?

Hmmm.... seems you may have found a contradiction to the rules. One part of the rules says unsupported which to me means you can't do anything to support the shooting hand. i.e. bracing it on a wall or port. But another rule only mentions the "other hand" not touching a wall etc.

[DKorn]

7 minutes ago, Sarge said:

Hmmm.... seems you may have found a contradiction to the rules. One part of the rules says unsupported which to me means you can't do anything to support the shooting hand. i.e. bracing it on a wall or port. But another rule only mentions the "other hand" not touching a wall etc.

Nice catch on the contradiction. 1.1.5.3 says that standard exercises and classifiers can specify strong/weak hand unsupported, but nothing else in the rules (including 10.2.8 and 10.2.8.1-3) mentions the word “unsupported” at all. 
 

I suppose that means that if you’re the stage designer, and you want the shooter to shoot strong hand or weak hand only through a port without support, you have to put the wall outside of the shooting area (so that using it for support incurs a penalty under 10.2.1 and possibly multiple penalties if 10.2.1.1 applies).

[IVC]

9 hours ago, ima45dv8 said:

See 10.2.8.3.

Says "using the other hand..." (emphasis mine). 

 

The others pointed it out above too. There is nothing that automatically requires that one handed shooting be unsupported, which is logical since free style can be supported based on the location of the support. Even classifiers must specify "unsupported" if that's the intent (albeit, most classifiers that I've seen, where one-handed shooting was required, had nothing to support a hand on). 

 

 

[ima45dv8]

I know what it says. I've read it.

 

[StealthyBlagga]

Under USPSA Multigun rules, "using objects outside the shooting area to steady a firearm is permissible", but no part of the shooters body may touch (at least that is my interpretation of the still-unclear rewording of rule MG 10.2.1).

 

I know this subforum is predominantly about handgun rules, but I wanted to make the OP aware of this distinction.