IPSC

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This weekend, I attended and completed an introductory course in IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation), so I was wondering if any other aspies out there are into dynamic pistoleering. It'll be a year or more before I can buy my own pistol, but playing with borrowed Glocks promises to be much fun in the meantime .

Cool.

I used to compete in IDPA at the nearest club to me till they closed down.

I used my old Colt Series 70 Government Model and Glock 21 (only wanted to reload one pistol caliber, so .45 auto was it).

I did ok. Came in second many times.

Nice!

Nothing is certain yet, but I may have a chance to make arrangements to snag an HK USP Expert in 9mm that's up for auction this april. Even If I get it, it won't be mine properly until next year, but I'll see if I can either have it be owned by the club and serve as a club gun, or have it in storage with a gun retailer.

I've mostly shot the club Glocks, but I did get to try both a fancier grade 1911 and a fine-tuned S&W 625 revolver, both in .45 ACP. Makes big holes.

One of the upsides of our rather stringent gun legislation is that there's almost no market for cheap, low quality guns, and especially on the second-hand market you can make some real bargains due to the limited pool of potential buyers.

I haven't competed in shooting, but I love plinking on my own. Ammo prices are the worst part of the hobby.

The various USPs are fine pistols from all you hear; I've shot a .45 Tactical, and it worked. 9mm is good due price of ammo, especially with the high volume shooting needed with practice, then the matches. The only 9mm I had was a CZ-75B (would have gone with a BHP, but the price turned me off; plus, they're really no better). It's a good pistol too. My sister used to shoot it when she'd sometimes go to the range with me. I would have played IPSC if they didn't have IDPA. The club was a fair drive, so I could only really make a couple of events (cowboy and IDPA).

Club gunz rule, as you get to try out a heap of different stuff that you otherwise wouldn't, and when you start competing and get to sorta know people, you then get to try out their gunz (even autistic me could talk gunz with the other people there just fine and do the whole, you can shoot mine if I can shoot yours thing). I think I've shot pretty much every common pistol around up to the year 2005 (club closed then).

You have cowboy action at your club? That was my favorite. I can see the problem with a new shooter competing in it, as you need the pistol, shotgun and rifle, but I guess people would loan you theirs if you asked. Single-action revolvers and double barrel shotguns just did it for me.

I did a couple of bowling pin matches too with my old Dan Wesson Model 15 .357 Mag. I didn't really like that all that much compared to IDPA/cowboy shoots.

They strike me as high-quality, maybe slightly over-engineered guns. They seem pretty well-regarded, and even most complaints I've heard seem either rather petty or very subjective. I want one because A) it seems like an awesome gun and B) compared to the club Glocks, those oversized controls promise to be a joy to handle. Also, 18 rounds of 9mm.

Why's the BHP so expensive? I mean, unless you're talking an original from the 1940s. The thing's been copied so many times, surely some variant should be affordable?

If .45 was more common here, I wouldn't mind having one. However, you americans complain about ammo prices; our prices are equivalent to to 4 cartridges to the dollar in 9mm for the cheap czech stuff, and it rises steeply with more "fun" calibers.




My club is a pretty recent project, and is a bit limited right now. All club guns are Glock 17 (cheap, reliable, generic). Some of the other members are more experienced shooters though, and they have some nice toys.


You have cowboy action at your club? That was my favorite. I can see the problem with a new shooter competing in it, as you need the pistol, shotgun and rifle, but I guess people would loan you theirs if you asked. Single-action revolvers and double barrel shotguns just did it for me.
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I've looked at CAS. It looks like great fun, but the whole added spiel of the clothing and the taking fake cowboy names and the pseudo-roleplaying aspect just makes it look weird. It's like LARPing, but with only one setting and real guns.

My club is IPSC only, though.

USPs don't have the annoying grip angle of the Glocks either; I know some like it, but since they're muzzle light, you can sometimes draw higher than intended if you're used to shooting steel pistolz. By large controls, you mean the slide release and mag release? I've found that you can figure out ways to use pretty much any pistol regardless of your hand size of dominant hand; I can reload a 1911 as quick as righties by using my right index finger on the mag release and left index on the slide release (and the latter is even easier as your left index finger runs near it with the whole, finger off trigger till sights are on target, rule). USPs just seem to be like better looking Glocks for all intents.

New Hi Powers tended to run around to over 1000 dollars here, whereas a new CZ-75 was 400-500. No brainer there for which one to choose unless you're really set on a Hi Power.

I'm not American. I recall that 9mm, .38 and .45 ACP (.45 Colt too) tended to be similar in price here, the same with .40 and .357 Mag (.357 Sig being the most expensive out of the lot due to rarity). About 50 cents to 1 dollar per round. .22LR is cheap as anything here, and available. 500 round bricks can go for $30 here. You thinking of getting a .22LR? I'd get a decent .22LR revolver if I had a pistol club nearby (we can only own rifles and shotguns here without club membership; so, that's what I shoot nowadays).

My club had tons of pistols, pistol caliber rifles and shotguns. If you showed up as a noob and just wanted to shoot something in 9mm, they'd give you a Glock or Ruger, for example, but you could ask for specific ones if you were privy to that information.

You don't have to go too far into the Western stuff. I mean, back in the day people were still normal and not silly caricatures of western movies; basic period clothes (which aren't that different to those of today) are fine. You just write your nickname on the score sheet, and that can be anything; a shortened name of yours, for example. But again, shotguns and rifles, and they aren't cheap. Good to think of for future stuff, though.

O, metallic silhouette is fun too.

IPSC would be easier to get into, yeah. You just need the pistol and mag pouches. Even then, you can just stuff mags into pockets. That's all I did in IDPA. I had 7 round 1911 mags all over me. Needless to say, I got good at speed reloads.

Yeah, the slide and mag release. It's not that I can't use the stock Glock ones, it's more a question of how well. It's probably a question of practice, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the degree to which I have to alter my grip to manipulate both the slide and mag release on the first try for the Glocks, especially since the object is to do it quickly. One of the club Glocks have a beefed up mag-release, so I'm trying to hog that one as often as I'm able.

I take your point on HK and Glock pistols being quite similar on a basic level (polymer frames, polygonal rifling etc.). My impression is that Glocks are intentionally minimalistic and putting all their proverbial eggs in the "good value" basket, while HK are a step above in how much fancy engineering they pour into their guns. I could, of course, be wrong. But with the gun situation being what it is here, I'd have to pay about equal for either of them, so I'd rather go with the HK because of that.

Last time a USP Expert was sold in the auction house I'm monitoring, it went for the equivalent of $352. I'd call that good value.


Yeah, that's not a lot of pistol for that $1000. I mean, sure, it was revolutionary when it was new, but you can get a lot more value for $1k.



Sorry for the assumption. I though IDPA was an exclusively american thing. I wouldn't mind a .22 to have for cheap practice, but I don't think that's likely to happen; not long ago, one of our top shooters had his .22 pistol license pulled for lack of competition results. The police here are playing rather fast and loose with the law, and one of their favourite ways to do that is to insist you compete with all pistols you own, and have the results documented. No documented results, pulled license.

I'd also consider getting a CAA RONI for the sheer fun of it, but I imagine toys like that fall into some legal grey areas here.



I'm sure different clubs take to it to varying degrees. The club I looked at went a little overboard for my taste, with people claiming names like Cleetus "Yeehaaw" McGee and presenting long-winded character bios hitting all the stereotypical western tropes. The period dressing I don't mind much, although some practitioners could stand to work on their waistlines to do the clothes justice.




Is that the one where you lay in the fetal position with your giant revolver resting on your knees?




Now I'm just imagining you as a gun magician, pulling mags from your sleeves/hat/shoes.