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Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Reputation: 16466
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I was watching this show today. I consider myself a reasonably good defensive shooter. I've done and do a lot of formal class training, but I don't compete.
Jeeze! I watch these guys, they clean a half dozen plates in the time it takes me to find my gun on my belt.
You're comparing yourself to the best in the country. Don't. Nothing about any "Reality TV" show has any resemblance to reality.
Those guys spend all of their time practicing before those shows. They devote their lives to nothing but shooting. Normal people have jobs and kids, and don't have the cash to shoot thousands of rounds each week.
Think of them more as carnival side show freaks than as role models.
My little brother shot this game years back before he got hurt. You might be a lot better than you think. The key here is the guns are setup to run the absolute lightest ammo possible. His 45acp shot 165gr bullets at a whopping 450'ps. His 38 revolvers shot 90gr bullets using 2.0 grs of Red Dot. It didn't go bang, it went puff. There's next to no recoil. Try it with a 22 on light steel targets. You might surprise yerself. Bro was pretty darn good and won a lot of trophies. On a bad day for him and great day for me, I sometimes could beat him but it was a rare day. And of course, practice, practice, practice.
I was watching this show today. I consider myself a reasonably good defensive shooter. I've done and do a lot of formal class training, but I don't compete.
Jeeze! I watch these guys, they clean a half dozen plates in the time it takes me to find my gun on my belt.
I feel woefully inadequate.
Anybody eles in the same boat.
So what's keeping you from at least local competition? I have not done it in years, but shooting IPSC does wonders to sharpen up all three elements of DVC. Well, it does work on the "V" part of the equation if you refrain from powder-puff loads.
The guy who more or less ran the matches (Orange Gunsite graduate) would exert his moral authority to discourage "rooney" loads. He'd give a cynical look to the offender, and ask something like "You aren't really shooting the 45 ACP as a minor caliber, are you? Uncle Jeff would be ashamed of you if you are..."
But even if you have to compete with and get "beat" by gamesmen shooting light loads in "race" guns, you can still get your entry fee's worth of training out of the match. Don't compare yourself to the gamesmen, compare yourself to anyone else who is shooting an honest load in an honest gun, and to what you did last time out. Get good enough and you might be able to influence things such that the matches are set up to reward a gat that you can actually conceal, and a few Pepper Poppers in the target mix can discourage ultralight loads that would probably only provoke a jack rabbit with a center of mass hit...
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,944,809 times
Reputation: 16466
LOL actually I have shot a few local competitions. I don't have to worry about "race guns." Most of my shooting friends gave up racing anything back in the 50's the rest need braille targets.
What can I say? If your technique is sound, all you can do is practice. I have never built up really good speed myself, but, because a cousin and I used to amuse ourselves shooting pistols and revolvers very slow fire, not drawing from a holster but just picking up from a gun rug, at ridiculously small targets at ridiculously long ranges (say a beer can at 40 to 50 yards with a regular Luger pistol) (and hit them say 70-80% of the time) - accuracy is still quite good. I remember the Orange Gunsite guy saying something like: "You need to work on your speed, in a real fight a fairly fast guy will get his first shot off at you just as you are clearing leather. Although. Your accuracy is out of sight! If he misses that first shot, he's toast!"
DVC brah. Get out there and shoot, failing that, do some dry fire or just draw and aim drills (in a place and a manner such that it's safe, OK). I need to break down and buy a timer. Anymore you can get a decent shot timer that will record your 1, 2, 3 shot out to a pretty large number.
Get the guy who is beating you the worst to watch you shoot and offer suggestions.
And you know what? I need to follow my own advice here as well! Don't get out and shoot as much as I should.
First of all, keep in mind that speed is fine, but accuracy is final!
Practice is the key. For years I competed in everything from PPC, IPSC, steel, pins, you name it I shot it.
Most of the time with a pretty lightly modified handgun, though I did on occasion run a full blown race gun.
In every case, except PPC, shooting full power rounds.
In most all of these styles of competition there is a minimum power load you must shoot.
For instance, when I was still shooting IPSC, major power factor was I believe 175. I.E bullet weight times velocity had to equal 175,000. You don't get that shooting wimp rounds!
At one time they quit allowing 9mm to make major due to safety issues.
Not sure what the rules are today.
I still shoot an occasional match, using my daily carry gun.
Practice, start off slow, get the bacics down to the point that you can't mess it up, then start working on speed.
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