Anon Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'll bet most people who participate in this sport started as shooters, people who use/like guns. Then, they found that they like (or are good at) this branch of the shooting sports. But, the people who stick around... what drives them? It seems that to get "good" at this sport, you need to repeat motions and thoughts over-and-over-and-over. Each of these motions are fairly simple physical and mental tasks (the draw, looking at something, pulling the trigger, running a few paces, etc...). The time and money spent doing dry and live-fire could be spent on something else (learning music, playing with children, bowling, whatever). So..... why do we end up here, and not in the symphony (or bowling league, or whatever). There must be some common thread that runs through us, and I'll bet that thread has less to do with "shooting things" and more to do with a personality type. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h2osport Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 This thread might help you out a little http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...ersonality+type Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Vigilante Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) I have come to the realization that everything regarding shooting and a lot of everything else has at one time been covered by the members of the BE forum so there really aren't any "original" questions anymore. Just do a proper search and you will find what you are looking for. The above question illustrates this to a "T". Edited July 7, 2009 by The_Vigilante Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe4d Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Well most USPSA members arnt very good, we may be way better than the general shooting society but most arnt so great. What we do have in common is humility, we dont mind being laughed at. Ever notice the no shoot pricks that like to brag about how great they are, own the latest greatest tacticool gear, only ever come to one match ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Wow, I hope I don't appear to be on a soapbox but I think most of us are type A personalities with a love of guns, God and Country. Most are really good people who will help in a minute if you ask. Most are not all that good at the game(me included) but can't get enough of it. The ones who have mastered the sport are not at all stuck on themselves and as a matter of fact seem to be the most willing to help when needed. Most are a friendly bunch who want to be able to be themselves around a bunch of other gun nuts. Don't get me wrong, there are those who don't fit the above descriptions. And trust me they ain't foolin' anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Well most USPSA members arnt very good, we may be way better than the general shooting society but most arnt so great. What we do have in common is humility, we dont mind being laughed at. Ever notice the no shoot pricks that like to brag about how great they are, own the latest greatest tacticool gear, only ever come to one match ? Yes. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I'll bet most people who participate in this sport started as shooters, people who use/like guns. Then, they found that they like (or are good at) this branch of the shooting sports.But, the people who stick around... what drives them? It seems that to get "good" at this sport, you need to repeat motions and thoughts over-and-over-and-over. Each of these motions are fairly simple physical and mental tasks (the draw, looking at something, pulling the trigger, running a few paces, etc...). The time and money spent doing dry and live-fire could be spent on something else (learning music, playing with children, bowling, whatever). So..... why do we end up here, and not in the symphony (or bowling league, or whatever). There must be some common thread that runs through us, and I'll bet that thread has less to do with "shooting things" and more to do with a personality type. What do you think? For me its the focus similar to riding a motorcycle, without the danger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 some one that is bored with the common sports. lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Some folks are just natural born shooters the way some people can play music or have a way with math. They can shoot standing on their head, sitting in a row boat, riding in truck, they don't care because it's all just shooting while something else unimportant is going on in the background. For those people, shooting is how they focus their awareness and relate to the world. They enjoy practical shooting matches because they like being in a big "jam session" with other shooters where they can observe and share. Like Nashville, with a Blam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franklin D Wolverton Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I kind of slid into it... Started out competitive shooting in Highpower Rifle, then started doing a little bullseye. Friend of mine invited me out to shoot a USPSA match a few years back... I went... and the thought that went through my head was... "This is a hell of a lot more fun than just standing there and shooting at one target." Doesn't hurt that scoot and shoot fits the 15 years of military training better than target shooting... Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I can say that there has been a shift over the years in the type of personalities I see at matches. I also notice that alot of different cultural backgrounds have taken to the sport thatn in the early years. The club I belong to has such a variety of folks now, I don't think you could just lump em together with any sort of generality. They type of guns we shoot is quite varied also. My best swipe at it would be that most of us like the social and friendly aspect you get at our local club. The regulars help, tease, cajol eachother. We ogle eachothers guns, and gear. We commiserate over the stages. We tease the grumpy guys who take it seriously. (They are rarely the good shooters in our area.) We ask the good shooters lots of questions. That's about as succinct as I can get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Can't speak for anyone but myself, but I've always been fascinated by handguns. From the time I was a little kid. Don't know why, I just have been. Also I am, if this doesn't sound contradictory, a fairly serious introvert who likes people. I'm comfortable spending large amounts of time alone, thinking about shooting, doing the immense amount of solitary experimentation and repetition it requires to become good at this, but I also enjoy the social aspect of the matches, as well. Then there is the attraction of becoming really, really good at something. The understanding, as your skill level improves, that you have to move away from gurus and figure things out for yourself, that you have to (largely) move away from equipment and technique into the ever more fascinating arena of the mental game. It's compelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 One of my partners is a wake boarding, kite boarding, snow boarding fanatic. While I enjoy the occasional rollercoaster, this guy just loves to slide. I like to shoot. I like the mechanism and engineering of various guns. I like the precision of the reloading process. I like the bang, the smell, the target reaction. I like breaking down where I lost time in a stage, I like the comraderie. I've told my wife before that it is silly how much I look forward to shooting certain matches...but there it is. I admire shooters for their competence. When something breaks they will try to fix it, and fix it better so it doesn't happen again. They'll switch to dovetailed sights when staked ones fly off the gun, switch to pinned gas blocks when clamp-on or set-screw models come loose, switch to U-dies to fix bullet set-back, take a dremel or a hacksaw to a brand new pistol. They'll try several different scopes to see what they like best. They'll burn out barrels and shoot guns to destruction. They'll tweak mags and gear. They care about firearm safety. To me that's cool, I'm much more drawn to that than sliding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singlestack Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I started for the shooting. Stayed for the people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pezco Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I needed a competitive outlet for this aging body and found the people are pretty nice too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I needed a competitive outlet for this aging body and found the people are pretty nice too! +1 Without going into all the details, I'm not an athletic person but here is a sport I can participate in that gets me outside and gets some exercise and it's just plain fun. I've sent videos to several friends and they all think it looks like a lot of fun, but to try and get them to come to a match or even go to the range with me and give it a try is like pushing a string up a hill. In all honesty I cannot say why I am drawn to it and my friends are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get'em Duck Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 golf is a very popular sport (even though I don't play), millions play it and find it fun, relaxing, challenging and competive and I would compare our sport to theirs any day. They are both sports where you are competing against your self, it's not a team sport. You go out do the best that you can for that day and then at the end, you compare your day to everyone elses. So if a person is a golf lovin' type and likes guns they'll love our sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Norman Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I spent about 8 years or so with Martial Arts, specifically Tae Kwon Do and Pa Pu Tang Lang. Great exercise, but to be honest, unless you are starting that out at a very young age and continuing you are not going to get more than exercise. Actually sparring started to really hurt around my late 40's You start to take too long to heal and point sparring is sort of like dryfiring, you are going through the motions, but not sending any rounds downrange. USPSA, 3-Gun and the like allow me and most of us to compete flat out, no holds barred against all comers and still get up in the morning an go to work. No bruises, no broken bones, very little danger of any injury at all really. In MA I had some cracked ribs, a broken nose, a broken toe, more than a few bruises. And sometimes it just plain hurt to move for a few days. Great if you are a kid, not so good if you are a salesman. Yeah, I grew up shooting. Did small-bore, high-power, bullseye and plinking. The shooting is great and the people I've met are better. I know I can leave my daughter and or my guns with these people and not worry. I wouldn't be so sure at some other gatherings. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSeevers Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 There is a social component for sure. Something I noticed is we are doers not watchers. Most of the world is a watcher. Competitive drives are a great motivator also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerPast Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) There have been some interesting insights presented in these comments. I think a common denominator is that the participants in USPSA are people who appreciate, admire and strive for accomplishment. It's not the only place where such folks gather, but it is a good place. Edited July 8, 2009 by SoonerPast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Type? Their are many I imagine. It's avocation for me. A pursuit. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkrispies Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 If you go to my "about me" page, you'll see the personal statement I've had up for a month or so now: "Some people would think that this is a sport for bad@$$es. Personally, I think we're just a bunch of nerds with guns." That sums it up for me. We start off as shooters (versus gun collectors or hunters) and we get drawn not only into the physical technicalities of proper shooting, but also the equipment minutia and psychological aspects of being the best we can possibly be. Furthermore, we experiment and (generally) accept that what works for me won't necessarily work for you... but we'll still break down "the other way" as best we can so that we can explain it in the off chance that a newby asks us for advice. Throw in a competitive streak--and this would be a spirit that seeks as much to surpass his/her personal bests as well as beating out other competitors--and you've got the makings of a quality IPSC/IDPA/SC/SASS/etc/etc/etc shooter. It's funny, but I've known several ex- "spec ops" who will spend all day telling you how they can put one bullet on top of another at a thousand yards and how they can survive against the enemy in any number of ways. Blah. Blah. Blah. Napoleons. I always invite them to come out to the matches, or even just show up and practice with me, and I've never seen them fire a shot-- always just hear about it ad nauseum. I've found that the practical shooting community is much closer to the type you would find in a college setting: one where colleagues join together to share data in the interest of discovery and mutually rising to a higher level. It's funny how one of us will find some new training technique or piece of epuipment that will give him/her the edge over everybody he/she is competing against... and that person will tell everybody the secret so they can try it also. In a lot of respects, this sport of ours is what helps me to keep it mentally together, and I'm thankful for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddler Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) Face it gentlemen, obsessive hobbies are a socially acceptable substitute for not getting enough sex. A poor substitute maybe, but there you have it. I know there are many individual exceptions to this but there are many many more for whom it is reality. Especially those who try to deny it. Roy who has a long list of hobbies.... Edited July 8, 2009 by fiddler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 It's funny how one of us will find some new training technique or piece of epuipment that will give him/her the edge over everybody he/she is competing against... and that person will tell everybody the secret so they can try it also. Not to downgrade the generosity of people who do this - especially since I do it myself - but let's keep this in perspective. I've known people in the past who've been very complimentary and appreciative that I don't hog info to myself. Doesn't matter what they want to know, I'll tell them what I've done to my gun, what my load is, what shooting techniques I use and why. I guess some people aren't like that, their attitude is, "I spent a lot of time and effort to figure that out, why should I give it to you for free?" But I think those folks are kidding themselves. Because the truth is that the equipment really, in all probability, isn't going to help the other person improve. And the shooting techniques, unless they're GROSSLY superior to what the person is already using, probably aren't going to help them either. I can tell someone exactly how I shoot. In most cases I can even tell them why I think the way I shoot works. But, to paraphrase something Matt Burkett once said to me, even if they were willing to practice those techniques as hard as I have, it's HIGHLY unlikely they'll work as well for them as they do for me.. Because they're different people, with different bodies, different skeletal systems, different nervous systems, different muscular systems....and, most importantly, different minds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Knight Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I just got really bored with just shooting at the range for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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