Learning about the world of USPSA

[Bakerjd]

When and how did yall find out competitions, and the guns that go with them even existed?

 

For me it was mostly by chance. I was fresh out of the Navy, basicly going to work and home and being bored since it was the winter in MI. I decided one evening to go to my local indoor range. They were starting up their winter indoor pistol league and the guy behind the counter mentioned it to me. I asked what it was and how to do it. I think it was like $10 and you were in for that week's match. They had I think 10 stings of fire with various ammount of rounds fired, low ready was the start. 2 small targets. It was a lot of fun. Probably a group of maybe 20 people normally showed up. I did that all winter and started seeing different guns that looked totally different then my little bone stock glock 19. So I started asking questions and learning about the different guns and matches. Decided to join USPSA before I ever even went to my first match or practice. I looked up the local clubs around me and emailed them to see about going to a match. Ended up doing some practice sessions with one club and then going to matches. 

 

Before all this my total experience with guns was what I got in the Navy. So I knew of the M9, M4, pump shotguns, and M240B. I was ships security forces for a little over a year so I did have some experience moving and shooting from classes for that but nothing close to USPSA. 

 

Looking forward to hearing some others experiences.

[rowdyb]

I was transitioning away from bjj as a competition outlet. I had my son for his summer visit and he said "let's buy a gun". So I bought a p2022 9mm sig and we went out on the desert shooting. It quickly turned into "can you hit that? Can you shoot that?"

A light bulb went off and as soon as we got home I Googled "san diego pistol shooting competitions". I went to my first match a week later and learned about a whole firearms world I didn't know existed. 

First idpa match August 2012. First uspsa match early 2014.

[MHicks]

I shot a lot as a kid and teenager but hadn't shot much as an adult. I wanted to have something at home for protection. Soon I saw an ad for SASS and thought nothing looked cooler then a big bore single action revolver.  Got more cowboy guns and shot that. Then looking at magazines and gunstores decided I wanted a 1911. Got one.

 

 The good thing to me about competition was that once you discover your first one you now know that there are other competitions out there. Looked around at what I could shoot with my 1911 and found a local IDPA club. Started with that then found USPSA and ICORE.  Now I  shoot USPSA primarily. Single Stack and Limited. Going to check out getting a gun set up  for carry optics. The main thing was that competition is so much more fun then going plinking.

[motosapiens]

I got pistol for fun and self defense, and being a competitive person (many years of racing bicycles, xc skis, motorcycles and track/field) I soon found out people race them, and went to an IDPA match. It took 3-4 of those matches before I was placing near the front, and someone told me about a USPSA RO class. I signed up for the class, shot a uspsa match for the first time a few weeks before the class, and ended up working nationals in vegas that year 2012.

[BritinUSA]

I saw some people at my local club (England) running some practical shooting stages back around 1989, I also remember seeing photos from Nyle Leatham in some US shooting magazines around that time. I had a blast at that club, great bunch of people.

 

I joined UKPSA around 1992 and then travelled around UK for the next few years shooing matches. I competed in the IPSC World Shoots in '93, '96 and '99. Also traveled to Sweden, Greece and Germany for IPSC European Championships.

 

Moved to USA in 1998 a year after the UK gun ban went into effect, I quit shooting in September 2019. 

[Chills1994]

I had gone through junior high and high school shooting 3 position small bore rifle every Wednesday night.

 

Fast forward to 1994, I was a brand new 2Lt. In the Air Force.  So, I thought the next logical evolution would be to get an M1A and start shooting Camp Perry type stuff.

 

one night while flipping through the channels, I stopped at the one and only ESPN channel they had, and watched this:

 

 

 

i was hooked.

 

Yes, that actually aired on ESPN in the mid 1990’s.

 

There were several pawn shops/gun shops outside of Ft. Bragg.  I stopped by one of them and they had the Jerry Barnhart video series playing in the background.  They told me about “ip-sick matches” .  This was before google maps, before GPS, before mapquest, and before the internet basically.  So they had hand drawn maps they had Xerox’ed off.  They gave me a map for a match that weekend.  I think I saw a very clean cut looking PatMac there.  My memory is a little fuzzy from that time, but I was just a spectator, and there were competitors there who were trying go goad me into shooting this thing called the El Prez .  I am pretty sure I declined out of fear of embarrassing myself.
 

I gave up on the M1A and Camp Perry.

 

When I moved back to Illinois, sometime in the 2000’s I found a club that shot both IPSC and IDPA matches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RJH]

Liked guns and shooting forever. Saw SASS on shooting USA. Looked at a local match, but found out I was a couple of guns short. Had also seen USPSA on shooting USA, found out my Ruger 97 was all I needed to go shoot a match. Found some local matches online and got after it. 

[dgl503]

I think someone mentioned competitions on another local forum a few years ago. I checked out that clubs website and saw their upcoming schedule. Like someone mentioned, I realized there was this whole world of shooting I never knew existed especially so close to me. I did a little research and signed up. I didn't know any other competitors so I got a couple friends to come along and been doing it ever since. 

[Bakerjd]

Some very cool stories. Thanks for sharing. 

[pskys2]

Welllll, I was always drawn to handguns (see my avatar, even have home video at about 5 showing off my fast draw skills). I'd always thought the Hogan's Alley of Magnum Force was so COOL, dating myself,  and Guns & Ammo had this writer named Jeff Cooper, , who wrote about the formation of IPSC, so I wrote him a letter in 1978.  Bought a Combat Commander and contacted Greg Moats in KC as per Jeff Coopers reply.  Sure wished I'd kept that letter    He directed me to a local club doing outlaw combat shooting and I just showed up and shot that fall, I was 22.  Been hooked ever since.

My original USPSA # was A135.

Edited August 21, 2022 by pskys2

[Bakerjd]

5 hours ago, pskys2 said:

Welllll, I was always drawn to handguns (see my avatar, even have home video at about 5 showing off my fast draw skills). I'd always thought the Hogan's Alley of Magnum Force was so COOL, dating myself,  and Guns & Ammo had this writer named Jeff Cooper, , who wrote about the formation of IPSC, so I wrote him a letter in 1978.  Bought a Combat Commander and contacted Greg Moats in KC as per Jeff Coopers reply.  Sure wished I'd kept that letter    He directed me to a local club doing outlaw combat shooting and I just showed up and shot that fall, I was 22.  Been hooked ever since.

My original USPSA # was A135.

That is awesome. Do you still shoot?

[pskys2]

3 hours ago, Bakerjd said:

That is awesome. Do you still shoot?

Oh heck yes, just got back from the USPSA Revolver Nationals, took top Super Senior.  I am on a local USPSA Clubs Board, running their ICORE Club too.

I've been President of a local Gun Club, Kansas USPSA Section Coordinator (back in the early '90's), been to quite a few Nationals and I've even written a few articles for the USPSA Front Sight magazine.

Once I get into something I go whole hog.  So I've always been active both working and shooting since 1978.  

[Bakerjd]

2 hours ago, pskys2 said:

Oh heck yes, just got back from the USPSA Revolver Nationals, took top Super Senior.  I am on a local USPSA Clubs Board, running their ICORE Club too.

I've been President of a local Gun Club, Kansas USPSA Section Coordinator (back in the early '90's), been to quite a few Nationals and I've even written a few articles for the USPSA Front Sight magazine.

Once I get into something I go whole hog.  So I've always been active both working and shooting since 1978.  

Awesome!

[zzt]

I've been shooting something(s) since my early teens.  In 2014 at my home club they set up some two or three stage 'action matches'.  I really liked them.  They were set up my USPSA shooters.  I talked to them about USPSA, rules, and what was necessary to compete.  So I bought a CZ 75 TS, extra mag, belt, holster and mag pouches.  I shot my first USPSA match in Limited in 2015.  I broke my foot right after that.  That put me out of commission for 4.5 months, plus two more learning to walk again.  By Jun 2016 I was ready to go again and shot Limited, and later Open, every weekend I was able since.  Along the way I started shooting SCSA.  So I get to shoot 30 USPSA and 15 SCSA matches a year.  It used to be more, but everyone shuts down for the Winter now, and I won't travel more than one hour to a match.  So 30 and 15 it is.

[Toolguy]

I got started as a Wichita, KS PD Reserve Officer, then Sedgwick County Reserve Sheriff Officer, shot on both of their pistol teams. I've been shooting matches since 1979 to now. I have shot a lot of local matches, Bullseye, PPC, IPSC, Steel Challenge, Metallic Silhouette, IDPA, NRA Action Pistol (Bicanchi Cup), and ICORE. I shoot heads up with all of them using a S&W revolver of some kind. I have won my class in local, regional, national, and 2 world matches.

 

Build my own custom revolvers to shoot with. I've sold a line of Bianchi Cup accessories that I invented and manufacture to the other competitors since 1995. I have recently invented and manufacture a new S&W KLN frame hammer that makes the trigger pull get lighter as you pull, somewhat like a compound bow. 

 

I've been sort of involved in pistol matches for a while.

Edited August 23, 2022 by Toolguy

[AverageJoeShooting]

googled "pistol matches in my area" 

found a random match that happened to be uspsa

showed up with a stock smith and wesson m&p and shot production

decided after that match that i hated reloading. 

Immediately went out and spent 5k on a limited gun

shot one match with limited.

realized i hated reloading even more. 

came home and bought the first open gun i saw on this forum. 

been in open ever since. and i am 4 open guns deep at this point. 

 

I even pulled a fast one and "gave" the limited gun to my wife when she passed her CCW

 

 

 

[AzShooter]

I started late to the game.  I was an archer and pretty good at it.  My coach hated guns, always called them greasy oily things and other than hunting I never saw a pistol until I was 24.  I had to give up archery and in a fortuitous moment a guy came into my office and started talking about a little club that shot IPSC in Mesa where we shot on the police range.  It was fun and I bought my first revolver. This was back in the 70s.

 

Two matches later I had to have a 1911 and bought one from one of the guys.  I was hooked.  Eventually it became USPSA and we had organized shooting with rules and everything.

 

It's been 50 years and a pleasant ride.  I can't shoot the action type matches anymore do to injuries but I now shoot Steel Challenge twice a month.  Not as good as I once was but I enjoy it so much.  I'm now shooting SC with my 617 and my times are actually better than my times with my Black Mamba.

[Bakerjd]

Some awesome stories here. And talent. I'm very much enjoying here these stories. Thanks

[Dr_Z]

Moved to US in 2016, stayed in CA for 6 months. I bought my first gun in 2017 as soon as I moved to MI, started doing some basic training myself. Started shooting IDPA sometime in 2018, because I heard it is a gateway to practical shooting competition. Joined USPSA at the end of 2018 but did not take it seriously until somewhere mid 2019, stuck with it ever since. 

[obsessiveshooter]

I wonder how many others are like me, that found out about USPSA through the show Top Shot? Once I googled it and saw YouTube videos, I just had to try it.  

[Bakerjd]

On 8/30/2022 at 10:32 PM, obsessiveshooter said:

I wonder how many others are like me, that found out about USPSA through the show Top Shot? Once I googled it and saw YouTube videos, I just had to try it.  

I watched top shot when it was first on and loved it. I didn't even think to Google it or think about googling it at the time. 

[Bigzona]

Awesome thread!

 

I bought my first pistol in October of 2020, motivated by a growing interest in expanding home defense options.  While doing thorough research, I learned about dry fire and focused hard on it for a month and learning manipulations before firing my new P320 for the first time on the 23rd of November the same year. I'm quite OCD, so my pursuit of excellence continued to grow and led me to secure my license to carry and begin outlaw pistol matches in March of '21. Within a few weeks, I was competing for wins at my local club. I was drawn to the outlaw match because I simply couldn't be bothered by learning the rules of sanctioned bodies like USPSA, and I liked the idea of shooting what I wanted. Fast forward to December '21, and I participated in a 'new to USPSA' local match that's technically outlaw but run with USPSA rules to learn the game. I was hooked!! I quickly got myself better set up for CO, and did that from concealment for a few months before committing to a proper gamer set up. Currently a couple of percentage points from A class, with a goal to hit M by year end. I went from wanting a pistol for home defense, to having a good size safe with an extensive collection made up mostly of 2011s, CZs and some ARs, reloading my own Ammo and obsessing over matches. Yes I know...healthy!

[Bakerjd]

@Bigzona I see the bug bit you hard. Very nice very nice.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Bakerjd