First Idpa Match

[Cosby]

Shot my first ever IDPA Match this weekend at a local area club. I shot my Springield 1911 with full power loads. My equipment consisted of an Uncle Mike's Kydex holster and double mag pouch. Before the match I was careful to ask where this equipment needed to be located around my waist. I used all the above items because I already had them.

The shooting was fun and challenging. Overall I was pleased with my performance. I did get one procedural when I dropped and empty mag with a round in the chamber.

What was really noticeable was the change in attitude I encountered when I told one of the Match Directors that my background was in USPSA (I have been a Life Member of USPSA since the 80's and have been classed as high as "Master" in Open--that was a long time ago--I now shoot "B" Class Limited.

The match official in question immediately launched into a tirade on why IPSC is just a game with no practical application. He then told me all the reasons IDPA is more practical. Another competitor also jumped on the bandwagon and I found myself defending USPSA.

I have no axe to grind with IDPA. I enjoyed the match. I do not buy into the "more practical". What is practical about running a gun dry versus reloading when there is still a round in the chamber.

I will go to another IDPA match. I like the challenge of doing something different. However, it would be nice to not have to defend being a USPSA shooter.

[shooterready]

Cosby,

Glad to see you enjoyed the IDPA match. I shoot IDPA mainly because I'm envolved in helping run my local club. I enjoy IPSC just as much, but can't afford (the time) to do both right now.

To bad your not up here in MI. We welcome everyone who likes to shoot and don't care if you bring your race gun. Trigger time is trigger time.

Shoot straight!

[standles]

Unfortunately you will run into that mentality again. I shoot both sports and am smart enough to realize they are both games and not training for anything. True they require skill sets to be developed but they are not training for tactical scenarios.

I shut up a local one day by telling them this and suggesting that if it was training he wanted there were numerous schools that actually teach self defense tactics and he would be better off spending his money there.

I then followed it up with "If there are rules involved it is nothing more than a game to master. Last time I looked real live or die scenarios didn't play by any rule books"

Enjoy the GAMES and ignore the idiots.

Steven

Edited December 11, 2005 by standles

[jkelly]

The match official in question immediately launched into a tirade on why IPSC is just a game with no practical application.---Cosby

Cosby,

I'm guessing that the Match Director might have an inferiority complex.

Respectfully,

jdkelly

[Precision40]

When I hear folks bashing the other sport, whether it's IDPA or USPSA, I just politely walk away. They obviously have an alternate agenda that I just won't play into.

[Merlin Orr]

When I hear folks bashing the other sport, whether it's IDPA or USPSA, I just politely walk away. They obviously have an alternate agenda that I just won't play into.

+1

The proper response...

[Airic]

Why cant we all just shoot and have fun?

I shoot both, and to practice two different skill sets...dont understand the anamosity people show towards other shooting disiplines

[Ted Murphy]

Why cant we all just shoot and have fun?

As long as there have been gun clubs, I think some asshats have had it in for other diciplines.

It could be that the Trap shooters hate the action pistol shooters. (At my one club they painted a big sign on our range saying we were the "Gay Cowboys")

Or the high power rifle shooters hate the XXX.

Sometimes it's jealosy over range time, or maybe because the guy who is hating the dicipline sucks at it. Don't know

Of course the majority of the shooters in all the diciplines could care less what you do as long as you shoot, but the odd jerk here and there sure makes up for it.

[shred]

Going away politely is the best option.. if that doesn't work, you can break out with the "Are there rules? Do we keep score? Is there a timer?" action.

If you can remain polite, then you get a chance to convince some people on one side or the other that maybe playing the other game might be fun. Then everybody wins.

[Clay1]

My name is Rick and I am a cross over shooter. I find myself defending IDPA at USPSA matches and USPSA at IDPA matches. I am tired of all of the tactical Teds of the world though and have just started to mind my own business. I like to let my gun talk for me lately. It is interesting to see people who talk the loudest sometimes come in with the lowest scores.

Agian, I shoot both games and within the last week just renewed my IDPA membership. I will shoot 80% USPSA this year and a few IDPA matches before the state shoot.

Off topic, I know, but I would like to shoot the new game of TSA (Tactical Shooters Association). Havent' shot a match, but from reading the rules, it seems like what I think IDPA should be. Use cover, you can drop a mag and use the same holster that you actually carry with no matter if there is light in the belt tunnel. As soon as there is a club in my area, I will be shooting these too.

If there is no USPSA match and there is an IDPA match, I will be there. In my area many times I can shoot IDPA on Sat and then shoot USPSA on Sunday. The bottom line for me is working my handgun from the holster and aquiring targets and going bang. Have fun,

Rick

[Scooter]

What's funny is when you beat one of those guys, you are automatically labeled a gamer.

[revchuck]

When I hear folks bashing the other sport, whether it's IDPA or USPSA, I just politely walk away. They obviously have an alternate agenda that I just won't play into.

+1

The proper response...

+2 - I just go to shoot and have fun. Life's too short to deal with this from either direction.

[AlamoShooter]

I got a DQ from a IDPA volutier Ro at a small local steel match. I had a fast miss on a target out at 35 yards. He called it an AD and justifed it by asking me if I intended to make the shot when I did. = 'well no I did not intintionaly miss the target. The DQ stood.

The MD said I should have said I made the shot on perpous. but I just can't say I miss on perpous.

[jm951]

Hey Crosby- I'm in NC and shoot both IPSC and IDPA. Which range were you at? If it's the one I'm thinking of, the guys running that match can be a bunch of jerks to USPSA shooters IF you're found out.

Best to keep the mouth closed and shoot for the trigger time. I made the same mistake once and have been accused of being a gamer for not using cover in the exact manner they wanted me to. Said incident had the shooter behind a vehicle door with legs exposed. I figured out a way to shoot legs unexposed and use the door as a swiveling benchrest. What was I thinking! I guess it wasn't "tactical" enough to get fully behind cover when the lead flies.

Even so, rant about certain folks off, I have shot other IDPA matches and the guys were great folks to be with and many there shot both IPSC and IDPA. Sometimes it just comes down to the people running the match on a local level.

[Gregg K]

It would seem that there are a few IDPA guys that have a grudge for IPSC guys. I have been told before that I can't do any of my "IPSC crap". Funny thing is that I have never even seen an IPSC match much less be a shooter in IPSC. I would assume there are guys in both camps that just aren't very tolerant or understand that we are all on the same team so to speak.

[Chills1994]

I don't know why it is that some people have this "us vs. them" attitude when it comes to other shooting sports.

About 3 weeks back, we shot the classifier at another gun club. This club has a large enough indoor facility that it was also holding a hunter safety course.

Well, before we really got into shooting the classifier, the instructor came out and griped at us for shooting against a side berm. Because of the weather and the wind direction we were shooting it against that berm instead of the backstop. I made a "motion" to go ahead and shoot against the backstop just to appease the guy and that's what we did for the rest of the day.

Yes, I understand that we were just guests at this club, and that we should always do things that look to be safer. I do appreciate that they let us shoot there.

He just came across as being anti-our gun club and anti-pistol.

Now, I wonder what kind of comments he poisoned his pre-teen and teenager filled hunter safety class with.

I can just imagine that scene from the movie "Witness" where the Amish granpa tells the boy that "this gun of the hand is meant for killing."

There could be 60 plus kids out there who will hunt deer and quail with a shotgun, but could have a negative attitude towards pistols for the rest of their lives. And they'll get to vote one of these days.

That club also has a restaurant and bar, so that when they have their trap league night there is drinking going on. Also, as I was wrapping up that day, the rifle and muzzle loader shooters had already uncased their weapons, set 'em up on the benches, pointing at us! How discourteous!

Check out the thread I started last week about round dumping, here in the IDPA section.

Chills

_____

Holding onto an empty magazine is stupid.

[boo radley]

I sometimes shoot a local match in this area that's run under "IDPA-rules" but not sanctioned. I like the members that run it, and I like getting the additional trigger-time, though I almost always manage to collect one procedural for an IDPA no-no....

Almost to a person, these folks are IDPA die-hards. I didn't understand it at first -- I have nothing against IDPA per se, and couldn't fathom not wanting to shoot IPSC, too, as verily it is more fun, or at least a different challenge that's kinda the same. Fact.

But I have discovered, in at least some cases, the reticence isn't so much an "anti-IPSC bias," as simply not wanting to develop habits that will hurt them in IDPA. <shrug>

[Ted Murphy]

It would seem that there are a few IDPA guys that have a grudge for IPSC guys.

And there are IPSC guys who have a grudge for IDPA guys. My girlfriend's father's club had the IPSC MD try everyting he could to throw IDPA off the range, simply cause he didn't like them and told them as much. Fortunately for them, the IDPA crew never did any of the things that a-hole liked to accuse them of and are still plugging away shooting IDPA there- but with a very obvious gulf among the ranks.

And I've gotten crap for being an IDPA shooter at a USPSA match.

Both groups have their share a- holes, you run into them and unfortunately the MDs frown on you throwing them over a berm.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

Switch to a revolver. Then you will just get crap where ever you go.

Regards,

[bierman]

I am a newbie here so take this for what its worth...

It seems to me that as long as we, as shooters and gun owners, remain divided, then our true enemies, the anti-gunners, will win in the end. Why so many among us wish to stay in their own camp and bash and lash out at all others is a mystery to me.

I have no desire to shoot $20,000 shotguns at little clay birds, nor do I care to punch tiny little holes in paper targets a zillion yards away with 20 pound benchrest rifles. I do, however, respect my fellow shooters right and desire to do so. We are all pursuing the Way of the Gun and there are many paths on the Way. I have chosen my Path but I know it is not the only one. I wish more of our brothers and sisters of the Way would remember that.

[AlamoShooter]

Switch to a revolver. Then you will just get crap where ever you go.

Regards,

Is that why I allways hear a groan when I show up? I shoot Revolver and Auto. I an't got no hope

[jkelly]

Switch to a revolver. Then you will just get crap where ever you go.---RGS

Thanks Gary thats the first time I've laughed all day!

Respectfully,

jkelly

[kdmoore]

Switch to a revolver. Then you will just get crap where ever you go.

Regards,

Yeah, I usually like to poke a little fun at rgun shooters myself

"They still make bullets for them old guns?"

"you know, if your flint breaks and you need to replace it, clock is still running"

"Cool, I'm going to rest the batteries in my timer, Bob, go get me the sun dial out of the shed ..."

Of course, these are friends (at least for now). And of course, one day I will own one of these

Oh, and of course, I've been outshot by some really fine revolver shooters.

[Crusher]

The match official in question immediately launched into a tirade on why IPSC is just a game with no practical application. He then told me all the reasons IDPA is more practical. Another competitor also jumped on the bandwagon and I found myself defending USPSA.

This is what some (even some on these boards) call the "Mall Ninjas". These "MALL NINJAS" fail to realize that PAPER DOES NOT WALK, TALK, THINK OR EVER BECOME HOSTILE (aside from those darn cuts), yet the manage to take the path into "FANTASY LAND" (sans Tattoo and Ricardo) and envision themselves as some "almighty creators" of hostile environment and only their way is the path to surviving this environment. They (Mall Ninjas) wish to intimidate, badger, or brow beat any and all who would be corrupted by their dogmatic thought processes of “Mall Ninjadom”.

Please do NOT become angered with these delusional souls, let them enjoy their psychosis and regulate your response to reflect inner laughter.

Personally I believe the path to enlightenment for ME (within the SHOOTING GAMES) is to find the most effective and efficient method of accurate projectile delivery in the shortest possible time within the confines of the rules.

Granted there ARE those that wish to shoot the Games and practice their use of techniques in “pistol craft” for environments that do NOT involve paper threats HOWEVER these "true practioners" will never force their though processes on others inside of a GAMING environment. The same CAN NOT be said of the MN's.

[shred]

Thought I ought to chime in here again and mention that I went to an IDPA match for the first time in a year and a half a little while ago. I got no IPSC-vs-IDPA hassle at all... except from some of my IPSC friends, and everybody knew they were joking.