Well, the weekend is here and that means 48 hours of what ever I want! Ok, so maybe there’s some housework and chores in there somewhere, but allow me to generalise. I love my weekends as they allow me and my wife to relax or make things happen depending on our plans. I guess I mean we’re in control. Today I started my day as usual, with an early morning visit to the gym at 6:30am and now I’m sitting at one of my favourite café’s about to enjoy some breakfast and coffee.
I am shooting a competitive handgun match today at one of my gun clubs. It’s called IPSC and is a practical shooting event that revolves around fire and movement, speed, accuracy and, as always, safety. The targets may be static, dynamic (moving), concealed behind hard cover and the course of fire could involve just about any shooting position from standing, kneeling, prone (lying flat) and various others. We also shot in buildings, out in the open and in scrub or bushland environments. It’s a field-oriented discipline with it’s foundation originating from a military aspect.
The image shows a bit of the gear involved. You can see my handgun (shooting my Production gun today) in the holster, and my holster and belt rig including four magazine pouches and magazines, shooting glasses and some 9mm ammunition. There’s other gear of course but these are the basics. Oh, I forgot to put my hearing protection (earpro) in the image but will remember to wear it on the range. The pistol is a CZ 9mm semi automatic and has an 11 round capacity (one in the chamber plus a full magazine) hence the need for additional magazines. Stages can be from only a few rounds to 40-50 rounds so quick magazine changes are required.
The scoring is done by combining the length of time elapsed for each stage with the actual hits. Everything from the initial draw, firing, mag changing and movement is critical to gaining a great score. The more hits in the shorter time wins. Hits are also classed as Alpha, Charlie, Delta, Mike. A Mike is a miss with points being deducted and more points are awarded for an Alpha than a Delta for instance. Accuracy is the key. This system is used for the cardboard targets which are roughly torso sized and shaped and the steel is awarded a single hit. Cardboard targets need to be hit twice (double-tapped). Large deductions of points are also incurred if a shooter fails to engage a target, or hits a no shoot target.
Anyway, I have not shot any handguns for a long time, I guess about 3 weeks now, so I’m a little out of practice. I usually fire around 300 rounds per week so I’ll probably be slow and inaccurate today…But I’ll have fun. Generally I can draw from the holster and get my first aimed shot on target in about 1.4 seconds, which is not fast by any standards really. I know people doing it in 0.8 seconds, but they’re pros!
I’ll be wearing my GoPro today I think. I have never done that before so plan to give it a go on the first stage I shoot to see how it goes. Maybe I’ll have some interesting footage by the end of the day or it’ll be completely shit. Probably the latter, due to my shooting or camera work. I don’t have a chest rig for it so will have it mounted on my head. Let’s see.
I hope everyone has a great weekend planned no matter what you’re doing, relaxing, getting active or a bit of both.
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