There were four stages which were a good mix. Two were what I’d call regular courses of fire with a mix of targets and some movement. One required 16 headshots from behind a barricade and the fourth stage was a standards based stage, a mix between the idpa classifier and an el prez.
There were no reshoots offered today because we wanted to get done before the nasty weather came down upon us, but as it turned out, a nice downpour arrived before the end of the match.
Overall I think I shot well, although one of the poppers needed an extra hit to get it falling, but other than that my head was together and I had a good attitude. It’s funny how the stage which required 16 headshots messed with some people. I think they were already defeated before they walked up to the line. I heard all kinds of comments like “I hate headshots”, “I’m not going to do well on this stage”, etc.
When I heard people saying those things I’d try to lighten the atmosphere and try to change their attitude. If you walk up to a stage thinking that you’re going to do badly, you probably will. Before I walked up to the line I ran through the stage in my mind several times seeing the sights line up, lift and come back down in the middle of the head.
All that was needed on this stage was a little extra care and attention to the sights and a nice smooth trigger press. Time is not a factor but accuracy really is because every missed head shot costs you 2.5seconds. So instead of trying to race to get a fast raw time, I just took my time and made sure of my hits.
That ended up being a nice warm up for the el prez/classifier type stage which had 3 targets requiring 5 head shots and 4 body shots. It was run in three strings at 3, 5 and 10 yards with each string requiring the shooter to start facing uprange.
Even though the scores aren’t yet posted, I think I did pretty well. I certainly felt like I shot well and didn’t have any reload fumbles or any silly mistakes. The only thing I hadn’t planned on was needing extra shots on the popper. That put my reload in a different place, but apart from the extra time needed for the extra shot, I don’t think it actually cost me much time at all, perhaps 1/2 second.
I’ve recently started designing a few IDPA stages and submitting them to the local match director. We actually shot one of them (She’s Mine) last week which was great. I decided to post them online in both pdf and Microsoft Word (97) doc format for anyone to download and use. Feel free to modify the stages to suit your club, prop availability and bay configuration.
Go to the IDPA Stage Library.
I learnt a valuable lesson at the last match about cold starts. I’ve recently started doing new shooter briefings as well as running a stage, since I’m now officially an IDPA safety officer.
Immediately after the new shooter briefing is the shooters’ meeting. Once that’s over the squads are called out and move to each stage to start shooting. Once I got everyone to the bay, I was rushing around to get my gear on, load mags and prepare since I was first on the line. I wasn’t mentally prepared because I was rushing around and my performance really suffered.
I was not mentally all there and it really showed because I totally tanked the stage with wide groups, misses and a Failure To Neutralize penalty. It was by far my worst performance in a very long time. However, I managed to mentally kick myself in the butt and get my head sorted out. The rest of the match went well and I was fastest overall one stage with a time of just under 8 seconds (including 1 point down).
Cold starts and/or going first don’t usually bother me, but it was unusual for me to get into a bay without all my gear prepared and it obviously threw me.
I definitely won’t make that mistake again, or if I happen to do it again, I’ll have to calm down and do a lot more mental prep before I set up to the line.
In IDPA the officials running the stage are Safety Officers (SOs), while in USPSA they’re labelled Range Officers (ROs). Both sports also have their subtle differences in range commands. The following table shows a comparison of range commands taken from the 2005 IDPA and 2008 USPSA rulebooks, which are the most current at this time.
| IDPA | USPSA |
|---|---|
| Load and make ready | Make ready |
| Shooter ready? | Are you ready? |
| Standby | Standby |
| *Audible signal* | *Audible or visual signal* |
| Cover | |
| Finger | Finger |
| Muzzle | Muzzle |
| Stop | Stop |
| Unload and show clear | If you are finished unload and show clear |
| Slide forward (or “cylinder closed” for a revolver) Hammer down Holster |
If clear, hammer down and holster |
| Range is safe | Range is clear |
The shaded commands are optionally issued during the course of fire depending on whether the shooter earns them.
I don’t dry fire every day, in fact I usually dry fire about 3 or 4 times per week. I found that if I dry fire too much, I loose the edge and it becomes a mundane routine. This is the worst thing that can happen to your dry fire session because you loose focus and aggression and then complacency sets in, where waving the gun in the general direction of the target and slapping the trigger becomes acceptable. Even though you may know deep down that it’s not, you can’t be bothered to practice properly. At this point you’re simply going through the motions, ingraining lack of self discipline and bad habits.
Half size IDPA targets for dry fire
In order to get the most out of my dryfire sessions, I follow these four rules:
1) Wear the exact same gear (except ear protection) that I wear during a match. Footwear, concealment, eye protection etc. I want to simulate and get as close to match conditions as possible.
2) I do some warm up strings, then decide that the next X number of strings are going to be under match conditions. Just as in a real match, I will run through my pre-performance routine for every match condition string.
3) Any fumbles and large errors during warm up I stop, clear my head and restart. But during the match strings, I try to work through them and complete the string trying to stay in the zone. The warm is important because you’re preparing your muscles for the work they’re about to do, so you need to complete the entire string so that you can work out the bugs and also get it figured out in your head. When it comes down to the match strings, well, unexpected stuff happens during matches too and you have to learn how to deal with them. Doing tap/rack drills and malfunction clearances are not hard. I find the hard part is recovering and getting straight back in the zone. Ideally I want to recover and get back into the zone, forgetting the issue that just happened and only think about the task at hand. What’s done is done, there’s nothing you can do to change it and you certainly can’t go faster to recover the time. So the only thing you can do is to continue being in the zone and continue shooting at 100%.
I recently shot an IDPA match at Circleville and during one stage I stumbled very early on, but caught my footing and continued with the stage. I ended up posting the second fastest time of the day on that stage. At the end of the stage when the scoring had just been completed, a couple of my squad mates commented “nice save”. I had completely forgotten about the stumble. As soon as they mentioned the stumble, I grunted, shrugged and then put it out of my mind, instead replacing those images with my arriving at P2 and quickly engaging the targets which I felt was done really well. This type of situation is happening more and more in my shooting (where I get right back into the zone after a fumble) and I know that it’s because of my mental approach and dry fire practice.
4) Switch around the dry fire routines to challenge myself and work on some of my weaknesses. No two dry fire sessions are the same. For me that would spell trouble and train me to follow certain specific timings and routines. Shooting is not like that, since every stage at a match poses new movement and target challenges. Although I do start my sessions with simple draw and reload drills, which are the most fundamental of tasks, I also try to switch it up part way through with different movement and target positions.
The lake at Ashland Lake Gun Club
This weekend I attended an IDPA Safety Officer (SO) Class at Ashland Lake Gun Club. It took me just over an hour to get there, which isn’t too bad, it’s about the same as me drive to Circleville. ALGC is also hosting the Ohio State match this year, which I’m hoping to attend.
The class was run by the experienced and very knowledgeable Larry Wenger, with Area Coordinator Jo Buchanan and a couple of SO instructors helping.
They put on a great class and went through the rulebook in great detail, highlighting gray areas and other places which can be interpreted in different ways.
After the classroom session, there was a written test then a practical session. The students would run each other through courses of fire practicing range commands and scenarios. Every now and then an instructor would jump in and inject some deliberate errors, potential safety issues or other things which the students needed to watch for and deal with appropriately. Angry competitors, hecklers, people wandering downrange at inappropriate times, etc.
When it was my turn to shoot a full stage, I was moving from P2 to P3 and slipped on the loose gravel underfoot, sending me flying onto the ground belly down. As my foot gave way and I felt my balance go, I knew I was about to impact the ground, so I thrust my strong hand forward to keep the gun pointed downrange. My finger was already out of the trigger guard, so there was no AD. I just ended up hitting the deck, getting back up and finishing the stage, albeit with a few scrapes and a dusty gun and mags.
Larry commented on my safe gun handling, which was very much appreciated. It highlighted to me that practicing safe gun handling even through dry fire, is extremely important (not that I practice belly flops during dry fire!).
I had a great time and would definitely recommend anyone who’s already run shooters through as an acting SO, take the course. You’ll learn a lot about the rules and the practical side of them. However, I would advise that you be already pretty familiar with the rulebook and have some experience at SOing, because the course is pretty intense and there’s a lot of information that they throw at you.
My wife just messaged me to let me know that my next case of Montana Gold bullets have arrived. Poor postman knocked on the door to make sure someone was home before carrying them up the driveway. Not that I have a long drive way, but the case weighs about 65lbs, so I understand.
Since I’ve switched to ESP, where the minimum power factor is 125,000, I shall be trying out a new load to take my ammo from around 170PF down to about 130PF. I’ll be using 230gr FMJ on top of 3.5gr of Clays, keeping the OAL at 1.260.
I just need to wait until my 10lb wolff spring arrives to test them out, but they should be super soft shooting.
I also have a couple hundred 180gr moly coated bullets from Billy Bullets which I wanted to try out, but I want to load up the 230s first to save me fiddling with the press twice. I have all my brass prepped, so it shouldn’t take long to crank them out after I test a batch.
With the softer recoil spring I’m a little concerned that any friction in “the system” could start to create some return to battery failures. I’d recently smoothed out the breach face and ramp, but I think I’ll also go over the bottom of the slide where it contacts the disconnecter. As well as the recoil spring, I’m also waiting on a 17lb hammer spring which should help with this.
Once I have it all together it’s going to be fun learning how the gun feels in this setup. I’d like to try running through Matt Burkett’s timing drills, as I’ve never done them before.
After attending a class with Bob Vogel this weekend I was driving back home (the drive was 7 hours, so I had a lot of time to think!), and I realized the biggest mental difference between IDPA and USPSA. It’s not about the small things like reloads or cover. For the most part the movement and the shooting are also both the same.
In IDPA you have to remember how you’re told to shoot the stage. In USPSA you have to remember how you want to shoot the stage.
So the Para P14 that I’m enjoying shooting is a real pig, especially with the arched S&A mag guide. It weighs in at a hair over 43oz (with empty mag), so unless I want to get really creative with the dremel, which I’ve been advised not to, I’m not going to get this thing down to the 41oz CDP limit. So instead I’m going to switch to ESP which allows 10+1 and minimum 125PF. Although right now all my ammo is loaded to about 170PF, I think I’m going to try a small batch at about 135PF and see how it shoots. I may end up needing to go down to a 10lb recoil spring from my current 12lb (so I’ve read).
I think it’d be a lot of fun shooting a 45 in ESP when pretty much everyone that I shoot with locally is using a 9mm.
Of course shooting a 130PF 45 is the expensive route to go, but I’m sure that with a little practice I can sharpen up my skills so that it won’t really make much difference at all. I’m sure I can gain a lot of time by being more efficient in my movements, transitions and reloads.
Circleville is holding a classifier in May and I’m going to shoot the para in ESP and see what happens.
My ultimate goal is to make master, which for CDP would mean a score of 91.76 or less, but for ESP it’s 89.41 or less. Considering that the classifier consists of 80 shots, the difference between CDP and ESP is 2.35 seconds. I think that’s doable over the coarse of 80 shots, since the difference is 0.03 per shot.
Realistically I’m aiming for expert classification, which the rulebook says is between 108.57 to 89.42 (for ESP). Considering how I’ve been shooting lately I really think that’s achievable next month.
If I do make expert, then with some hard dry firing and some more fitness/strength training, I should be able to make Master by the end of this season!
Just for reference, here’s a video of Ben Stoeger shooting the classifier with his Beretta, he makes it look so easy!
I shot my first IDPA match at Big Darby Creek last weekend and I had a blast! I’d been training through the winter months, so I felt like I had significantly progressed. I was really anticipating doing well and the final match results gave me a big boost.
My adhoc winter training comprised of about 5 USPSA matches, dryfire about 3 times a week and a few trips to the New Albany range. I know my game overall has improved, but some of the biggest improvements are reloads and speed through a stage. I’m sure other areas of my game have also improved but they’re harder for me to see.
But the biggest improvement of all is my mental approach. I read With Winning In Mind, by Lanny Bassham and I have to say that it’s an amazing book. It really helped shaped my mental game and I have a new approach to shooting and what I think before, during and right after I perform.
The match was fairly easy with pretty close targets, 2 swingers and no steel. When shooting, I didn’t really think about speed, I was focusing on sight picture, but I felt like I was rocketing between positions. In fact, on my second run of one stage, I had the fastest time of the day. Last year I qualified as a marksman in CDP, but I beat an ESP master, several experts and others who were usually much quicker than me last year. But this is the new me, I’m faster, more confident and accurate than I have ever been.
I won CDP and overall finished 3rd behind two people shooting 9mm. I’m really happy with my first CDP win and overall result. I will continue this through this season.
After the match one of the other SOs let me try out his new Springfield loaded in 9mm and wow, it was sweet. I put controlled pairs in the A zone of an IDPA target so quickly that it even almost surprised me, but then I had to say to myself, “that’s just like me”.
So of course now I’m considering trading one of my guns to fund the purchase of a 9mm, or perhaps I’ll convert my para to 9mm, hmmm….
