On the left: USPSA (Production division). On the right: IDPA (Standard Service Pistol division)

 

Practical shooting is a sport, or a game, or a martial art based on the use of firearms.  In that sense, it’s more like iaido or skeet shooting than fencing or paintball since it makes use of functional weapons against non-living targets.  It’s “practical” shooting because it acknowledges that the firearms involved are designed for use against people so the targets are human-scale and engaged at ranges most likely to be encountered in real life.  This distinguishes it from “precision” shooting, which is about shooting at small and/or very distant targets.

Precision shooting has been around as long as there have been guns.  Practical shooting is much more recent.  While some earlier shooting sports were based on dynamic hunting simulations, games involving handguns being used against human-sized targets began after WWII.  As best as I can discover, they began in 1956 with “Leatherslap” competitions and the Bear Valley Gunslingers.  This format involved shooting at an 18” diameter balloon at seven yards , with the first person to pop the balloon being the winner.  I personally found the following article from the Summer 1958 edition of Guns and Ammo to be fascinating in how little things have changed over the past seventy years – the writing style, caliber debates, complaints about people gaming the rules.  It’s uncanny.

Check out the pics of Lt. Col. Cooper cross-drawing and hip shooting!

It is interesting (to me) that the game changed how handguns are used.  Check out this US Army training film1 from WWII: Combat Firing with Handguns (Military training video) Part 1 – YouTube While a two handed (completely different from the modern one) grip was used for longer shots, quick close shots were taught using only one hand, and the sights were explicitly not used.  According to accounts I’ve read, this is how the shooters in Leatherslap competitions initially shot. Since speed was considered king, the shooters would point the gun at the target immediately upon clearing the holster, shooting from the hip.  And then a few guys with names like Jeff Cooper and Jack Weaver started winning everything by actually hitting with their first shots by bringing the gun up to eye level and using the sights and what is called the modern technique. Modern technique – Wikipedia

Anyway, the sport continued to develop and/or splinter.  In 1976 the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) formed, which lead to a US branch forming in 1984.  This US Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) is my main sport.  1976 also saw the World Fast Draw Association formed.  In 1979 the Bianchi Cup which catered to police was created (it was later purchased by the NRA.) Also in 1979 Soldier of Fortune Magazine put on the first 3-gun match.  However, just as in the unarmed martial arts, some people complained that the sport had lost touch with its combat roots.  In 1991, ICORE (International Confederation of Revolver Enthusiasts) was formed as a way of “stopping the ‘arms race’” (but mainly because they liked revolvers and were sick of losing to those lousy autoloader punks). And in 1996 a bunch of famous (for a certain definition of famous) gun instructors like Bill Wilson, Ken Hackathorn and Larry Vickers formed the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) a practical shooting sport formed around the idea of training for using handguns in self-defense scenarios.  Since I only have experience shooting USPSA and IDPA, I’ll confine my writing about those.

 

 

One of these is a silly game. The other is srs bsns.

 

USPSA is a game.  Not only does is not pretend to be anything other than a game, but section 1 of the rulebook is an explicit statement about how the game should maximize the freedom of the shooter to engage the course of fire (very libertarian).

1.1.5
Freestyle–USPSA matches are freestyle. Competitors must be permitted to solve the challenge presented in a freestyle manner, and to shoot targets on an “as and when visible” basis.

As a game, it attracts gamers and therefore the rulebook gets longer and longer as creative people find new ways of abusing the system to advantage themselves.  You’d think that after a couple of decades this would have been finalized, but you’d be wrong.  Just two or three years ago, a major change had to be made because of a shooter far too clever for his own (and his competitors’) good2.  As far as balancing speed and accuracy, USPSA values speed over fine accuracy, but absolutely destroys you for gross inaccuracy.  Things like missing a target, forgetting about a target or shooting a no-shoot target have such enormous penalties that a mercy rule had to be put in place.  The scoring system is no more complicated than that in cricket.  Basically, each scoring hit gives you points ranging from 1 for just hitting the target to 5 for shooting the target between the eyes or in the spine/heart.  You add up all the points scored, then subtract penalties (which are all6 -10 points) and then you take this number and divide by the time it took you to complete the course of fire.  This is your “hit factor” and higher is better.  The highest hit factor wins the stage.  Determining how many points you earn towards an overall match score is a bit more complicated and we won’t go into it here3.  Because USPSA is about freedom, speed, and puzzle-solving I am happiest when I find a unique, beautiful game plan and am able to execute it.  Evil Sheldon can confirm that I got very grumpy when I didn’t see an “elegant” way of shooting a stage.  Aesthetically, USPSA stages are typically minimalist/abstract/undecorated, and while props or stage decorations can be used they usually aren’t.  I’ve worked three national matches without encountering any, though they are more common (but still rare) in lower-level matches.

 

You can tell what kind of game a shooter is participating in by how they’re dressed. USPSA shooters wear replicas of Batman’s utility belt. IDPA shooters wear fishing vests.

 

IDPA is a game, but it pretends to be a self-defense training tool.  As such, it is extremely concerned about proper tactics.  Unlike USPSA with its mandatory freestyle shooting, IDPA believes there is one and only one4 correct way to engage a course of fire.  The conceit is that each IDPA stage is a self-defense scenario, and every target to be shot can shoot back at you.  Some of the tactics required to shoot in this way make perfect sense (if there is cover available, you must make use of it) and others seem a bit dogmatic (magazines containing ammunition may not be left on the ground.)  IDPA does require a bit more discernment than USPSA.  IDPA threat and non-threat targets are the same color (unlike USPSA) and you have to distinguish the non-threat ones by the silhouettes of open hands on them.  Originally, Threat targets also had silhouettes of gun or knives on them to make the distinction between the target types even more difficult.  IDPA also requires that competitors possess a flashlight and make use of dark stages (weapon mounted lights were prohibited, but I think that’s changed).  One major advantage of IDPA is that the ammunition costs are much less than in USPSA because the round count is so much lower.  Since IDPA is a self-defense training tool it only permits guns and ammunition carrying devices that could plausibly be carried concealed, and therefore an IDPA stage cannot require any more than 18 rounds to complete (consider an M&P Shield with two spare mags).  IDPA matches often involve elaborate stage decoration as can be seen in this video.  IDPAs scoring greatly rewards accuracy over speed.  There is no multiplication or division involved.  The score is the time taken to complete the stage, plus penalty time for inaccuracy (zero seconds penalty to a 4” head or an 8” heart circle, up to five seconds penalty for completely missing the target.)  Lowest time wins.  Match score is simply adding all the stage times together.

To show how the different scoring systems compare the following scenarios: 4 targets, best two hits on each score.  The hare shoots three of them perfectly, put puts both shots on the fourth just outside the ideal, and he does this in four seconds.  The tortoise takes five seconds to shoot the course of fire, but all his shots are perfect.  Under USPSA rules the hare would win, with his hit factor of 9 (36/4) beating the tortoise’s 8 (40/5).  Under IDPA rules, the tortoise wins with his total time of five seconds beating the hare’s six (four seconds plus two seconds penalty time).  Now if the hare had put 7 of his shots perfectly but missed entirely on the eighth, under USPSA rules he would also lose, with his hit factor plummeting to ((35-10)/4) = 6.25 – USPSA penalties for gross inaccuracy are a bitch.

 

So that’s a bit about what practical shooting is, but why should you do it?  Here’s a list5:

 

      1. If you are unable to safely and responsibly own, store and operate a firearm you should NOT participate in practical shooting.
      2. It’s absurdly fun.
      3. If you’re an androphile, this sport is a buffet. There are guys of all ages, races, types, sizes, fitness levels, and degree of beardiness.  If you’re interested in chicks, the odds of meeting one who is single is… not good.  However, all the women who do participate have a very realistic idea about whether or not they should be wearing lycra.
      4. It is a ridiculously fun.
      5. It’s an opportunity to use your firearm under conditions not typically allowed at a gun range. Pace IDPA, but this game is NOT combat training, but more practice and more experience behind the trigger is always a good idea.
      6. It is difficult to overstate how much fun this game is.
      7. It is good for your brain. When I was in college, I took a physics (statics and mechanics) class by the same professor that had taught my father.  He gave two-hour, ten-question, open-book multiple-choice tests.  There were no numbers, your computational skill was not being tested, but your understanding of the equations and how to apply them in non-obvious ways.  Because it was multiple choice, there were double-strength fudge factor applied.  If you turned in a blank test, you got a D.  Two answers correct got you a C.  People failed.  That class is the only thing that has ever cranked by brain up to the levels this game does.
      8. More about how this game is good for your mind: I’ve played sports, including combat sports like taekwondo, karate, and judo.  All of these things inculcated a deep focus in me.  But practical shooting (unlike precision) is all about extreme awareness.  You are keeping track of the muzzle, your body, the rounds left in the magazine, your reload timing, the next position you’re moving to, how you’re going to get there, your stage plan (and modifications to it as it deviates from ideality) where your shots are impacting the target and oh yeah, the sight picture and trigger press come into play at some point too.  This may sound weird, but the closest experience I can relate this to is dancing in the physicality, spatial awareness and reactivity that your mind has to hold on to.  Seriously, leading particular steps to your tango partner is not easy.
      9. Even if it wasn’t so good for your mind, it’s a whole lot of fun.
      10. It gets you outdoors.
      11. Did I mention this was a really fun sport?

     

 

Completely independent, and yet completely vital to how matches are run. “Muh ROADZ!”

Bonus third part: Ok, this sounds fun, how do I get involved?

First:  Buy nothing.  Unless you wanted to buy something anyway and getting involved with practical shooting is the excuse you need to spend the money, in which case you’re welcome.

Second:  Find a group.  Oddly enough, this will probably be easier in restrictive states than free ones.  These games require organized groups to happen, and those usually come from gun clubs, and those are more common in places where they’re needed as opposed to places you can just go into your back yard and start blasting.  The most productive ways to find groups are the websites of the individual governing bodies such as uspsa.org idpa.com scsa.org ipsc.org sassnet.com and the like.  There is another very powerful site called practiscore.com which is used by many (most) of the practical shooting games as a way of publicizing, registering, scoring, and disseminating information about their matches.  The only downside to practiscore is while it does have a search function, sometimes you have to be more specific than others in your search terms.

Third:  Meet the group and find out what their requirements are and if you want to be handling firearms around them.  They all vary.  KF&G has zero formal preconditions, they’ll just assign a RSO to you for your first match.  Saraspa makes you go through a formal introduction course.  Also check out the people and how they interact.  I have a lot of fun at KF&G matches and Saraspa USPSA matches, but for whatever reason, considerably less fun at Saraspa IDPA matches.  When I’ve refereed matches I see groups with matching jerseys showing ingroup norms that I’d feel comfortable with and ones that… well, I don’t think I’d be paying tuition at those particular shooting academies for very long.

Fourth:  if you get an invitation to go to a match, go!  And bring your stuff – this is a fantastic game to play but honestly it sucks as a spectator sport.  Even for those of us like this game, we generally only watch other people shooting things that we will or have shot because it’s interesting to see how other people approach challenges, but I can count on one hand people that watch match videos otherwise. There is a good reason I’m not linking great and interesting match videos — they don’t actually exist.

Here are a couple videos from a guy who might be a bit of a D-bag, and is not a GM, but does produce helpful content for new (and experienced) practical shooters (and he has an excellent logo).

 

Starting off in Practical Shooting part 1

 

Getting Ready for your First Pistol Match – how to know you’re ready – YouTube

 

Be Safe.  Have Fun.  Burn it down.

 

 

1Tracers are cool.  I understand that whole “don’t start wildfires” thing, but really, tracers should be required at high-level competitions just for video purposes.

2The rules are very straightforward – anything inside the boundary markers is in bounds.  The boundary lines are in bounds.  Things touching the boundary lines are in bounds (this is what caused the problem).  Touching anything not in bounds meant you are out-of-bounds.  Stage 1 at the Universal Shooting Sports Academy in Frostproof Florida is a “shoot house.”  A roof and some steel supports to which and within which walls could be set up.  Typically, the course of fire would be start outside the house and shoot some targets, run into the house via one door, shoot more targets, and then exist through a second door and shoot some more targets.  However, since the house was not wired for electricity and USPSA does not do “dark stages,” there was a 2’ gap between the top of the walls and the roof so light could get into the house.  The walls touched or were the boundaries, so touching them did not put you out of bounds.  Somebody realized that by leaping onto the walls, he could shoot through that gap without having to leave the house.  The next issue of the rules made climbing on walls illegal.

3While target and stage scoring is explained in detail in the rule book, match scoring is NOT.

4symmetrical stages may give chiral options, but that’s it.

5I’ve Got a Little List (with lyrics) / The Mikado / Gilbert and Sullivan – YouTube

6 Overtime shots on a fixed time stage are -5 points, but that’s the only exception. I promise.  Until the next rules revision.