COTEP.org - Action pistol shooting

Today was my introduction to competition shooting by taking a "new shooter/orientation" class for action shooting, which will allow me then compete in USPSA or IDPA matches at my local range.

First off, I want to thank Edward, Mary and others who have in the past suggested going out and doing something like this rather than just punching paper at the local range.

Now the good stuff. We spent a couple hours in the classroom going over mostly safe gun handling techniques. Safety, safety, safety, safety over and over was the emphasis. We also learned about what USPSA and IDPA are, but the real education started when we stepped out of the classroom and onto the range.

Being able to hit the 10 ring at 15 or even 25 yards while standing still after casually picking your gun up off the shooting bench is one thing. Having to draw your weapon, run, shoot at different style targets, reload your mags, move to different areas, do it again, etc is a whole new ballgame.

Having one main instructor out front demonstrating everything first and having an individual coach, we first learned how to draw our guns from the holster. Over and over. Then it was learning to draw and do a mag change, practice shooting and then clearing the gun. Then it was drawing the gun and pretending to shoot strong hand. Then drawing the gun, SWITCHING to weak hand.

Now this may all seem trivial, but let me tell you....it's not. You would be surprised by how difficult these simple tasks are to complete if you've never done this before. I had practiced ( not as much as I should have ) and it was in fact very challenging.

Next we got to play with live ammo! WOO HOO. Now is when your nerves spike and blood start to race.

Luckily, Theo my coach, gave me some great advice before I loaded my first mag with live ammo. He said when you approach the firing line, I want you to stop for a second, take a deep breath and relax. He went on to say that I, the shooter, have the ability to take all the time I need to get ready and not to feel rushed. What sage advice.

We practiced the with the live ammo doing the same drills as above a few times. Man it was so much fun learning these new techniques. My shot groups weren't half bad either...that is until we went to weak hand shooting. Again the emphasis wasn't on how accurate we were, but how proficient we were at the drill.

After the RO and our own coaches felt that everyone was proficient enough, we moved to a USPSA course set up and one by one we shot the course.

Before shooting the course, we went over how the courses are laid out, target types and how many and we dry fired the course. Now the RO's told us many times that you have a plan on how YOU are going to shoot the course. We were told don't worry about how Joe Bob or Susan will shoot it, but how are you going to do it? Then they mentioned that we will forget about 99% of that once the buzzer goes off starting our engagement. They were right.

Now Ed told me that same thing, that as soon as the buzzer goes off, YOU WILL FORGET EVERYTHING. Yep, pretty much. Your hearts beating, blood is pumping and then BZZZZZ.....crap, what do I do? Hehehe. Well it wasn't that bac, but damn close.

There were about 20 of us in the class and I went 3rd. All I can say is WOW, why didn't I do this sooner? I cannot put into words how exhilarating and exciting it is to "run and gun" in a competition type atmosphere. While we were not timed or scored, we did go through and check our shot placements. Not bragging, but I did shoot rather well, mostly "A" zone hits. A few of us even did a 2nd and 3rd run. I only did 2 runs.

I now have to shoot in a complete match without getting DQ'd in the next 60 days to be completely qualified and receive my certification. I'm not sure if that's the norm with all ranges, but it is with ours.

In closing, I will have to say that I learned so much today, fundamentally and mechanically. I highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely thinking of doing it. Action pistol shooting is so much fun and exciting.