A Checklist Of Gear For Beginning Practical Pistol

You’ve decided that yes, you want to do this “practical pistol” competition thing because it looks like it’s fun (it is) and it might just help inoculate you against making stupid mistakes when you life is on the line (that too). 

So, what do you need? 

1. A reliable, serviceable handgun
   Duh. Yes, you CAN shoot practical pistol with a cheap $150 hunk o’junk. No, you don’t want to. If you’ve bought a Glock or XD or CZ or M&P or similar, in either 9mm, .40 or .45, you’re set. 
2. Enough spare magazines
   What’s “Enough”? Four, at an absolute minimum. Look, magazines are a disposable, replaceable part of your gun: They’re going to wear out eventually, so buy some spare ones now. 
3. A decent holster
   What’s “decent”? Opinions vary on this, but in general, don’t use a woven nylon fabric holster for a practical pistol competition. Me, I like Blade-Tech holsters, but Safariland, Bianchi, Galco, Comp-Tac, and DeSantis are all good brands to start with, and if you need help choosing, my friend Tom’s written a great book on buying a holster for your gun.
4. Some way to keep your spare ammo handy and accessible
   And by this, I mean a magazine pouch on your belt. Again, my preference is Blade-Tech, but there’s a lot of different choices here.
5. A good belt to hold everything together
   No, not even a solidly-built “work” belt is going to cut it. Something like this reinforced “tactical” belt will help distribute the weight around your waist and make things MUCH easier for you.
6. Ear Protection and Eye Protection
   No, a pair of drugstore sunglasses and cotton balls in your ears isn’t enough. Get something that’s safety-rated for your eyes and something that’s designed for noise reduction for your ears.
7. Ammo
   Figure on 150 or so rounds for a match, a bit less if it’s an IDPA match.
8. Somewhere to compete
   All this cool stuff means SQUAT if it just sits around in a corner of your house. You can use the National Shooting Sports Foundation Range Finder page/app to find a range near you that hosts practical pistol matches, or visit the United States Practical Shooting Association or International Defensive Pistol Association to find a competition near you. 

And be safe. And have fun. 

Teach your kids about guns.

I have two wonderful sons. They’re the reason why I own guns. I know that there won’t be a cop around when I need one, because crooks are really, really good at finding opportunities to attack people when there’s not cops around. 

That’s why they’re called “crooks” and not “convicted, locked-up criminals”. 

I digress…

One of my priorities is making sure my kids know that guns are dangerous things and should not be played with. Before I bought my first gun for home defense, I bought and installed a quick-access safe to store it in, and I also ordered the free Eddie The Eagle DVD from the NRA. 

Why that DVD? Because it’s excellent, and the NRA is the world’s largest firearms training organization, that’s why. If you have kids, you need to have them watch it, because it works. 

How do I know that? 

A few months ago, we were cleaning out the trunk of my car, and my sons found a few loose shotgun shells rattling around the trunk. My youngest son immediately stopped what he was doing and asked me what I wanted them to do. He knew to “STOP! – Don’t Touch – Leave the Area- Tell an Adult.” when he saw that ammo because they learned it from the NRA’s DVD.

Win. 

Try shooting practical pistol. You might like it.

“Know thy enemy, know thyself, and you will be invincible.” 

– Sun Tzu

When I was a professional photographer, inevitably, once someone found out what I did for a living, I’d be asked “Say, I want to take better pictures, what kind of camera should I get?” 

My answer to this was always “Well, that depends. How many rolls of film do you shoot each week?”, which would usually end that part of the conversation as the would-be photographer grapples with the concept of shooting an entire 36-shot roll of film each week, much less more than one, where it was not uncommon for me to burn through two dozen rolls of HP5+ or TMZ covering just one high school basketball game. 

The point I was trying to make is that it’s not the camera that limits the photographer, it’s his or her ability to put in the time necessary to realize their vision and their desire to push their creativity that limits a photographer.

Looking back on this now, I realize my answer to the wannabe photogs was/is snarky and condescending: People want to take better pictures not to become the next Mark Seliger, they want to capture memories that are more evocative and aesthetic, something all of us share. 

Which brings me to practical shooting. I’m blessed/cursed to call Rio Salado Sportsmans Club my home range. It’s loaded to the gills with USPSA Grandmasters. It’s a blessing in that each match is challenging and exciting, but each match is meant to be challenging and exciting to shooters like Rob Leatham, Vic Pickett and Matt Burkett. 

This can discourage beginning shooters. Imagine cranking off the best golf drive in your life and then have Tiger Woods shoot behind you and out-drive you by 100 yards. 

The upside to this, though, is that in the words of The Chairman Of The Board, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere. And  another great thing about shooting at Rio is the opportunity to participate and shoot in some 1st-class matches like the Desert Classic and Mystery 3 Gun, which bring in shooters from around the country. I get to meet some of the best shooters in the world, and the prize tables for each match can be really good. 

This explains why I like shooting laid-back, easy-to-shoot steel matches with friends on a regular basis rather than the more difficult but less friendly USPSA matches at Rio. I like Rio: I do all my practicing there and I’ll still shoot a USPSA match there as often as I can, but right now, it’s important that I believe I can shoot well and do so when needed, even in the toughest of competitions. My practice sessions are there for me to prepare me physically, the steel matches are there to prepare me mentally. My standard for success needs to be me and the progress I have made, not the best shooters in the world can do.

If you’ve been thinking “Well, gosh, there’s no way I can shoot a pistol competition”, you need to give a try. Buy a good holster and some mag pouches, find a low-key “Steel” match in the middle of the week, let the people who run it know that this is your first time shooting a match, and you’ll soon find out that practical pistol is a fun way to learn to shoot better and keep your skills sharp. 

Okay, you just bought a gun. Now what?

Before I began my career as a photographer, I worked a few years behind the counter of local camera stores, getting to know the industry and the gear. When someone bought a camera from us, we made sure they bought an “accessory kit” to go with it to help start them off right, and the store made almost as much profit on the kit as we did on the cameras.

And it’s must the same for a self-defense firearm. I’m assuming you’ve purchased some kind of compact or full-size handgun for protecting yourself or your home, and if you’ve just bought a gun like that, there are a few things I’d highly recommend you purchase along with your new gun that will help you enjoy it to its fullest. 

1. Ammo
   A gun without ammo is an expensive and rather unwieldy club. You’ll need two kinds of ammo for your gun; Defensive ammunition and practice ammunition.
   Defensive ammunition is something like jacketed hollow point (JHP) ammunition that’s designed to expand and not punch through what it’s being shot into. You want this because if, God forbid, you need to defend your life, you need ammunition that stops the threat, not punches a hole in it and moves along to hurt someone else. 
   Practice ammunition is usually Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) ammunition that’s cheaper and easier to produce than JHP ammo. At a bare minimum, you should purchase three times as many rounds of defensive ammo as your gun holds, so you can be certain your ammo of choice works smoothly in your gun, and purchase at least 100 rounds of practice ammo so you can learn the basics of how your gun operates (and plan on spending a LOT more on ammo after that.). 
2. A Cleaning Kit 
   Guns are dirty things. Gunpowder doesn’t burn up 100%, and the oil that makes a gun operate smoothly attracts dust and grime. Get an inexpensive cleaning kit and plan on using it often. 
3. Some way to safely secure a loaded gun
   No, NOT a trigger lock. It’s too easy to make your gun go BANG while fiddling with a trigger lock, and a gun that’s unloaded and under the bed is a pretty useless defensive weapon. Secure your gun with a good locking case, or better yet, a quick-access safe, and will be there when you need it and safely stored when you don’t. 
4. Training. 
   Unless you’re Rob Leatham and were born with a .45 in your hand, shooting a gun accurately is not something we know how to innately accomplish. Getting training as you start your journey with firearms ownership will help eliminate or reduce bad habits done the line. 

I’m always amazed when I walk into local gun stores and I don’t see them putting together package deals that offer new gun owners a starter kit that give them everything they need to enjoy their new guns right from the start. 

Okay, gun stores: Add-on accessory kits have worked for camera stores for decades. Get on it. 

If you’re reading this, you might be a winner!

And if you aren’t reading thing, you definitely are NOT a winner. 

So we pulled numbers out of a hat, and we have our winners in the TeamGunBlogger / MyGunCulture Ultimate Concealed Carry Giveaway! 

They are… 

First Prize: TeamGunBlogger Twitter follower Stand-Fast America

• DeSantis Superfly holster for pocket semiautomatics
• DeSantis EZ-Rider II RH Belt/Portfolio holster
• DeSantis Apache RH Ankle Holster
• Book: The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition
• Book: The Insanely Practical Guide to Gun Holsters

Second Prize: My Gun Culture Twitter follower Mike Clinton

• Book: The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition
• Book: The Insanely Practical Guide to Gun Holsters

Third Prize: My Gun Culture Facebook follower Tom Jeffries

• Book: The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition
• Book: The Insanely Practical Guide to Gun Holsters

If you’ve won, know someone who’s won, or just like to think you’re a winner, we’ll be contacting (or have already contacted you) regrading shipping. 

Thanks to everyone who entered, and stick around, because apparently Tom has something ELSE up his sleeve. Hmmn, I wonder what it is…

What being a gun owner is not

• Being a gun owner isn’t being a gun nut 
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you need to buy Mossy Oak clothing (unless you own some already)
• Same is true of RealTree 
• You don’t even need to know what MossyOak or RealTree is in order to own a gun
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you have to watch Duck Dynasty
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you start using tactical as a noun
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you want to buy this
• Or this
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you vote Republican
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you’ll be signed up for the NRA against your will (although joining of your own volition is a really good idea)
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you’re compensating for something. 

Being a gun owner means you’ve realized there will not be a cop around when you need one, and that you are always going to be your own first responder. 

Cool training vs. effective training

I REALLY want to hunt hogs from helicopters.

Why? Because I’d be in a low-flying helicopter, shooting a rifle, ridding the country of a loathsome invasive species that’s causing an ecological nightmare and harvesting my own organic, steroid-free, free-range bacon, all that the same time.

What’s not to love? 

But that sort of thing has absolutely NOTHING to do with my life outside of the helicopter. Sure, it looks like too much fun for any one man to have, but useful for my day-to-day life? No way. 

Which brings us around to firearms training.

As I see it, your first firearms class should be about the things you’re most likely to need, such as safe gun handling and storage. Using a gun a to defend your life is (thankfully) a very rare event, but safe gun handling is something you’ll need every time you pick up a gun. 

Start your training off right with safety, because techniques may come and go, but safe gun handling never goes out of style.