Easing The Confusion for First Time Gun Buyers

I have a few articles over at ammoman.com that could come in really handy for people new to gun ownership and gun culture, especially if you shoot on an indoor range.

What to look for in a rental gun at your local range.

How to choose a target at an indoor range.

Learn the rules of range etiquette

Welcome, NSSF, To The Teamgunblogger Lifestyle.

This website, seven years ago:

We are committed to getting the millions of new gun owners out to the range and encouraging their safe use of guns in competition, training and practice.

The NSSF, last month:

One trip to the range can be all it takes to create a new recreational shooter. With your help, we can recruit the next generation of target shooters and secure a strong future for one of the greatest American traditions. Join the +ONE Movement and invite a friend on your next trip to the range.

Gun owners are being shoved into a corner. We are being marginalized, and as such, our rights will soon be up for grabs. Take someone out to the range. Make gun ownership seem normal.

Because it is.

A Beginner’s Guide to USPSA Stage Strategy.

I get frustrated sometimes with the lousy advice given to beginners in practical shooting who want to learn how to optimize their movement during a stage. We dole out lots and lots of advice over holsters and optimal powder charges for 9mm Major, but very little over “Here’s how you shoot a stage.”

So I wrote something to use as a starting point for stage strategy for newcomers to Production Division, over at the Beretta Blog.

 

Top Ten Reasons To Shoot Practical Pistol

• It’s fun. Really, really REALLY fun
• It helps familiarize yourself with your pistol of choice
• It improves your accuracy under stressful conditions
• You meet great people
• It’s better exercise than sitting on the couch
• It’s mentally challenging
• It helps prepare you to react to situations with your gun
• You’ll quickly learn what works with your gun and what doesn’t
• You’ll find out what skills you need to train to get better with your gun

So why do you shoot action pistol matches? 

Improving your score on the IDPA Classifier

We’ve talked about what the IDPA Classifier is, now let’s talk about how to shoot it well. 

This is my scoresheet from the last Classifier I shot. I really wanted to make Sharpshooter in Stock Service Pistol (SSP) Division with this classifier, but I fell short. Fortunately for me, I know why I didn’t make it and what I need to do to improve. For the past few years, I’ve had a practice regimen that is more about developing my skills overall, so this is the first time I’ve had to practice with a specific goal in mind. 

 Guess where I need to improve…

If you guessed “Stage Three”, you’re right! Stage Three is all about making longer-range shots from 20 and 15 yards, and it’s the only part of the Classifier where you’re shooting around cover. So not only are you making longer shots, you’re making them from positions that are more awkward than the other parts of the course of fire. 

It’s like they’re planning on messing with your head or something…

 Breaking it down, with one exception, (a missed headshot on my third shot on Stage One), the first two stages are, in my opinion, an accurate reflection of my current shooting skill, so there’s not a lot of room for improvement there. However, I know I can shoot Stage Three better than I did, because I have. 

So what did I do wrong? 

For starters, I concentrated on the wrong thing. I’ve been shooting a fair amount of USPSA as of late, and the rules for changing the magazines in your gun in that sport are different than they are in IDPA. In USPSA, it’s perfectly ok to let a partially-full magazine hit the ground, in IDPA, that’s  cause for a 10 point procedural penalty. As I was preparing myself for the stage, I was worrying about my reload, not concentrating on slowing down and making sure I got my shots. 

Whoops. 

Secondly, I rushed my shots. While I took more time for each shot than I did in the other two Stages, the fact is, it wasn’t enough: I could have slowed down even more and made doubly sure that my sight alignment and trigger press were there for each shot, but instead, I rushed things a bit and paid the price for my haste. 

Whoops. Let’s break down my breakdown on Stage Three even more.

My Classifier Score
Stage	Time	Points Down	Score	Total Time	Time Remaining*
One	33.18	8	37.18	33.18	102.82
Two	33.09	11	38.59	66.27	64.23
Three	49.03	61	79.53	115.3	15.2
Totals	115.3		155.3

* Time remaining is the time I have (before penalties) to complete the Classifier in order to have a score that will push me into Sharpshooter.

61 points down on that stage includes five missed shots, and at 10 penalty points per shot, that translates into 25 seconds taken off my score. Had I made those shots, that would have put me at 130 seconds for the course of fire and into Sharpshooter. 

Hence my problem. I have to balance the speed of my shots with the accuracy of those shots so I come to a balance where I can do better on that last stage. I shot it in 49.03 seconds, and I don’t think there’s much room for improvement right now with my movement speed between the barricades or getting my gun out of my holster quickly, so any improving my score has to come from improving my shot accuracy.

What this means is that 49 seconds is my par time for practices this stage, and the 15.2 seconds of remaining time translates into 30 max penalty points I can possibly have on Stage Three in order for me to make Sharpshooter. This really should not be a problem, as that’s three times the points down I had on Stage Two. 

Fortunately, I know how fast I shot each string of fire on Stage Three, so that gives me a par time that I can use in my practice sessions, and the 15 seconds time remaining tells me how accurate I need to shoot to make Sharpshooter.

Breaking it down, here’s what my practice drills will need to in order to make everything work. 

Stage Three	Drill Time	Max. Points Down Allowed
String One	19	10
String Two	22	10
String Three	9	10
Total Time	65

Intimidating, but I know I can turn and shoot three targets clean at 10 yards in under 11 seconds with a reload, so shooting it at 20 yards in under 19 seconds should not be a problem. As with just about everything in practical shooting, I can do what’s required to be successful, all I need to do is do it on demand while the timer is running. 

And that’s the hard part.

Shooting the IDPA Classifier

IDPA is a fast-growing shooting sport that is more focused on “defensive” situations than other shooting sports such as USPSA. People competing in IDPA are sorted according to how well they shoot the IDPA Classifier, a standardized course of fire that is the same for shooters around the world and allows people of equal skill to compete against each other.

The Classifier stage setup looks something like this:

The course of fire is as follows:

Stage One	7 Yards	30 Shots
String 1	Position #1 Draw and fire 2 shots to the body and 1 to head on T1.	3 shots
String 2	Position #1 Draw and fire 2 shots to the body and 1 to head on T2.	3 shots
String 3	Position #1 Draw and fire 2 shots to the body and 1 to head on T3.	3 shots
String 4	Position #1 Draw and fire 2 shots at each head T1 – T3.	3shots
String 5	Position #1 Start gun in “WEAK” hand pointed down range at a 45 degree angle, safety may be off, but finger must be out of trigger guard, fire 1 shot at each T1 – T3.	3 shots
String 6	Position #1 The shooter will load three rounds maximum in the handgun and begin standing, facing up-range (back to target). On the start signal, the shooter will turn, draw, and engage targets T1 through T3 with one round each. The shooter will then perform a slide- lock reload and re-engage targets T1 through T3 with one round each.	6 shots
String 7	Position #1 Draw and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 “STRONG” hand only.	6 shots
Stage Two	10 Yards
String 1	Position #2 Draw and advance toward targets, fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 while moving forward (all shots must be fired while moving) there is a forward fault line at the 5 yds line for this string	6 shots
String 2	Position #3 Draw and retreat from targets, fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 while retreating (all shots must be fired while moving).	6 shots
String 3	Position #2 (Load 6 rounds MAX. in pistol) Start back to targets, turn and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3, reload from slidelock and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3.	12 shots
String 4	Position #2 Draw and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 “STRONG” hand only.	6 shots
Stage Three	20 Yards (Bianchi style barricade and 55 gal. barrel required)
String 1	Position #4 Draw and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 from either side of barricade, perform a Tactical Reload and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 from the opposite side of barricade.	12 shots
String 2	Position #4 Draw and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 from either side of barricade, perform a Tactical Reload and advance to Position #5, fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 from around either side of 55 gal. barrel.	12 shots
String 3	Position #5 Draw, kneel and fire 2 shots at each T1 – T3 from around either side of 55 gal. barrel.	6 shots
	Start position for all strings EXCEPT Stage One/String 5 is hands naturally at your side.

While all those shots look intimidating for beginning shooters, the fact is, the IDPA Classifier is a good test of a your ability to deal with close range targets, long range targets and moving while shooting. As with all IDPA stages, your score on classifier is a mixture of your raw time as measured by a shot timer plus extra time added for poor shooting or not following the rules.

Your score on the Classifier will put you into one of five IDPA classifications:

Times for:	ESP	SSP	CDP	ESR	SSR
Master (MA)	89.00 or less	91.00 or less	92.00 or less	101.00 or less	102.00 or less
Expert (EX)	89.01 thru 109.00	91.01 thru 110.00	92.01 thru 111.00	101.01 thru 122.00	102.01 thru 124.00
Sharpshooter (SS)	109.01 thru 138.00	110.01 thru 140.00	111.01 thru 142.00	122.01 thru 155.00	124.01 thru 158.00
Marksman (MM)	138.01 thru 190.00	140.01 thru 192.00	142.01 thru 195.00	155.01 thru 212.00	158.01 thru 218.00
Novice (NV)	190.01 or greater	192.01 or greater	195.01 or greater	212.01 or greater	218.01 or greater

So if you raw time plus equals 190 seconds or greater and you’re shooting a Glock in Stock Service Pistol, you’re considered a Novice shooter and compete against other people of similar classification in a match.

Me? I’m on the cusp of breaking into SSP Sharpshooter, and I *almost* made it there last weekend, but alas, I fell short. I’ll have a walk through of how I shot the Classifier and what I can do better to make it to Sharpshooter the next time I shoot it in my next post, and hopefully we’ll both learn something as a result.

Keeping Your Gun Safe in the Home

A few months ago, I mentioned that I carry in my home just like I carry outside of my home. Yes, I have a quick-access gun safe and I use it at night to store my CCW gun, but day in, day out, I keep my carry gun on me except when I’m wrestling with my sons or some other activity. 

Why? Because it’s faster to engage a threat with a gun on my hip or in my pocket is faster than any off-body storage method, that’s why. 

Which is faster: A gun in a nightstand drawer or in a gun safe

I’m not a big fan of leaving loaded guns lying around the house because it’s kinda like leaving the bleach jug in the refrigerator next to the milk jug: Something bad is going to happen, it’s not a question of IF, it’s only a question of WHEN.

So we decided to test things to find out if a gun safe safe is a better alternative to leaving your gun in a nightstand drawer, and the results really surprised us.

A few notes about this test:

• Jaci and Robert are almost identically-skilled as shooters
• They used guns they were familiar with
• Robert was not familiar with how to use that gun safe because we wanted to simulate the stress of figuring out how to open it correctly under stress
• The shots were so close together, the shot timer app on my phone couldn’t tell them apart. 

The gun safe we used was this model from Paragon safes, but if I’m honest, I prefer GunVault safes. 

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