CHL and Competition

[74novaman]

Wanted to get a feel for how many folks here shoot competition. Quick blub about what you shoot, why, or why you haven't tried it yet or aren't interested in trying it are welcome as well.

(full disclosure I love competition shooting and think everyone should at least try it).

Hopefully I can put up a decent poll here

[74novaman]

To answer my own question: yes

I've shot IDPA, USPSA, steel challenge, 2 gun matches, run and gun events, carbine matches, even the occasional sporting clays charity event.

I personally think shooting under even the minimal stress of a timer and an audience is useful for getting your brain to work quicker under stress, which is a huge positive for any self defense situation, in addition to the benefits of learning how to shoot fast and accurate while stressed.

Full disclosure, I'm hoping to motivate/excite some more people to get out and try a competition with this thread if they haven't shot one before.

[Tex1961]

Good poll and thread. Me personally, I have no desire to compete against anyone except myself. When I shoot it’s purely for the love of shooting. Any tactical or defensive training is solely against the clock and my own aspirations. I tried competing a few years back and I just couldn’t get into it.

[Paladin]

I've done pistol, rifle, and 2-gun events. Looking at getting more into long distance rifle competition. One of my students recently made the 1 mile club on a 3moa target.

[FastCarry]

I used to when I was younger and could barely afford ammo. Id like to again but i wish there were more “for fun” clubs or events. Everything Ive been to everyone seems to have a better than thou attitude, and all the rules and boxes things have to fit into ugh.

I have some cool pistols, i want to just shoot what I have and not worry about measurements.

[Beiruty]

I shot pistol IDPA and USPSA matches for fun. I shot shotgun and PCC too.
Furthermore, I shoot LR an ELR rifle for fun from the bench all the way 1270 yards at ETTS, I shot to 1800 yards at the TripleC before it was shut down

Are you asking about the benefit of competition shooting for someone who carries?

[C-dub]

I've done IDPA at my club in years past and several of our Personal Defense matches after we dumped IDPA. Then my job location and schedule changed and I haven't done as much the past few years. It's interesting that this thread pops up now. I've acquired a few new handguns since then and was going back out to get into a match this weekend. I used to shoot them with my Glock 21SF, but was thinkin about going with my Colt Competition or my most recent carry addition, a Kimber Ultra Raptor II. I will take each of them and make a game time decision on which to use. I'd like to use the new little Raptor since I've begun carrying it, but my limitation might be round count per stage. I only have one double mag carrier that would limit me to 24 rounds unless I can have additional extra mags in pockets. Since the Glock mags are 13 each I can begin each stage with 40 rounds using a double mag carrier and no additional mags in pockets.

Hopefully, my schedule will allow me to get back into our handgun Personal Defense matches.

[AF-Odin]

I checked yes but have not competed in a few years. Used to do Steel Challenge, a little IDPA, and a few 3-gun matches. First Covid closing a lot down and then getting older did not help. Now, just some informal stuff among friends.

[tomneal]

I got my CHL the first year they were available in Texas. My instructor stressed how important it was to practice at least monthly. I spent a year shooting at targets. My pistol worked. The sights worked.
THEN, I found IPSC. I shot IPSC. It changed to USPSA. I shot IDPA for a year or two. I now shoot USPSA and Steel Challenge. It's been a couple of years since I shot a three gun match or Skeet / Sporting Clays. My goal is to shoot at least 12 matches a year.
Over the last 26 years, my eyes have aged worse than my body. I don't anticipate ever shooting better but it's still a good time to chat with folks with similar political views.

[C-dub]

This thread is starting to sound like a bunch of us used to shoot and for various reasons no longer do or at least not on a regular basis. For those of us getting up there in years, I'm closing in on 60, competitions might be even more important to keep us active and competent with our sidearm in a defensive capacity. No one has to compete at higher levels if they don't want to. Some at my club used to, but I don't know if they still if they still do or not. That was never my desire. Doing matches was for me and to hang out with my club members and learn. I'm hoping tomorrow won't be too much of an eye opener after not doing one for a few years and I'll get to keep doing them again.

[74novaman]

Good poll and thread. Me personally, I have no desire to compete against anyone except myself. When I shoot it’s purely for the love of shooting. Any tactical or defensive training is solely against the clock and my own aspirations. I tried competing a few years back and I just couldn’t get into it.

Even in competitions, I'm not shooting "against" anyone but myself. I know people who are there to try and win their division, the match, etc but I try to keep my competition purely personal.

I spent several years after getting a CHL only practicing at B27 sized targets in a traditional target range setting and thought I was a pretty decent shooter. Going to my first IDPA/USPSA matches opened up my eyes to what good shooting looked like and how woefully far from the right end of the bell curve I really was.

I'm still a pretty mediocre competition shooter, but at the more defensive minded classes I attend I'm usually above the class average, which would not have been the case before checking out matches and getting in to them, so I still see value in competition even if I'm not winning them (and part of why I wanted to encourage folks here to try one out if they hadn't, in case they had a similar experience to me).

[74novaman]

I used to when I was younger and could barely afford ammo. Id like to again but i wish there were more “for fun” clubs or events. Everything Ive been to everyone seems to have a better than thou attitude, and all the rules and boxes things have to fit into ugh.

I have some cool pistols, i want to just shoot what I have and not worry about measurements.

Sorry you had a negative experience. I know some clubs and matches are moving more toward allowing "outlaw" divisions precisely to get folks who aren't there to "game" but just want to get out and shoot the guns they own and might carry....which I think is a great idea.

[74novaman]

Are you asking about the benefit of competition shooting for someone who carries?

Not really, just seeing if there are people who carry who haven't tried out matches that I can encourage to do so.

I firmly believe there are benefits of competition shooting for defensive carrying of firearms.

[RPBrown]

Several years ago I shot IDPA for a few years then my back and knees started to fail me (not due to shooting but youthful lifestyle ). I had back surgery a few years ago and knee replacement 4 weeks ago so after I am healed up, I plan on getting back into it.

[Paladin]

Are you asking about the benefit of competition shooting for someone who carries?

Not really, just seeing if there are people who carry who haven't tried out matches that I can encourage to do so.

I firmly believe there are benefits of competition shooting for defensive carrying of firearms.

Competition is eye opening for most. Lee Weems said as a LEO he was scoring 99-100% on his quals and though he was good until he went to his first IDPA competition.

I know I out-shot everyone I knew for accuracy and was ready for something else when I first tried IDPA. My first match my time was about 5 TIMES longer than the match leaders. Eye opening for me as well. Besides keeping me challenged, the best part was subsequent training with some of the Master Class shooters. So worth it!!! Their lessons are still with me today.

I really do enjoy the steel matches, PCC, and 2-gun stuff, but there are limits to the realism with action pistol, in part due to stage design and necessary safety rules. After training and improving in competition, Force-on-Force was really the next "Level" for me. Much more realistic. I'd encourage action pistol competitors try Force-on-Force because it can be just as eye opening as your first competition.