yhtomit
Member
Actually, I was downtown near the South Philly Archery & Gun Club, a place I've recently signed on to as a member, in order to have a place to shoot in Philadelphia, and stopped in hoping to go through a box of whatever pistol ammo matched whatever pistol I felt most drawn to on the rental rack, but found out on arrival that the range would be unavailable because of the match.
I was invited to join in, but was not equipped (I don't even own three mags for any one gun, never mind have them along), and had never seen such a match in person -- only read accounts online and in print. However, I was able to observe (right there in the shooting floor, having waived all rights now and forevermore), and it was well worth the time spent.
There were four stages, all involving abstract torso-and-head targets (is this a standard IDPA target?).
1) From standing in front of three targets, hit each in turn twice, then retreat behind a barrier perhaps 10 feet back. From cover, hit all three heads. From the other side of the same barrier, another two shots to COM.
2) From standing in front of two targets, hit torso-left, torso-right, head-right, head left, all from behind one tape line while retreating to a second. Then, while advancing from the second tape line to the first, two hits COM to each torso.
3) (in a separate part of the range), from sitting position, facing three targets, on the buzzer the shooter stands, hits all three with two shots COM, then drops behind cover, a shot to each target's head, reloads, and two more shots each to COM. (I may be misremembering this one a bit, but it's not too far off.)
4) Back to the larger section of the range, for the most complex one: Must shoot to retention while retreating, two shots, though the empty center hole of one target. Then retreat behind barrier, and "slice the pie" (outermost visible target first, that is) by hitting each of 6 targets (3 on each side) with two shots COM apiece, and finally two more headshots on the initial (empty-center) target.
I may be missing a few things here, but this is pretty close. I think there were ten people taking part (including the two safety officers), and two of us equipped only to patch the targets while the range was safe and the hits were being scored.
Most interesting thing about the evening is that there's a fellow who I'd noticed in the shop before the match began and who seemed awfully familiar to me -- I thought to myself, "That sure looks like Greg!", a guy around my age who I knew from an academic summer program in 1990 and 1991. I chalked this up to conincidence -- but when the roster was called out in order of shooting, they called out his last name, a fairly unusual one. Ha! I said hello, and we caught up a bit on some mutual acquaintences. To add to the coincidence, when I mentioned that I was going to law school, Greg laughed and pulled out his business card -- he did the same thing, just beat me to it by 10 years.
All in all, a fun event. If I can figure out a way to legally store an appropriate gun nearby, I'd like to take part one of these days -- apparently the IDPA matches are held about once a month. And my XD did come with a mag holder, I'd just need one more mag. (And to practice my weak-hand shooting, at the very least!)
timothy
I was invited to join in, but was not equipped (I don't even own three mags for any one gun, never mind have them along), and had never seen such a match in person -- only read accounts online and in print. However, I was able to observe (right there in the shooting floor, having waived all rights now and forevermore), and it was well worth the time spent.
There were four stages, all involving abstract torso-and-head targets (is this a standard IDPA target?).
1) From standing in front of three targets, hit each in turn twice, then retreat behind a barrier perhaps 10 feet back. From cover, hit all three heads. From the other side of the same barrier, another two shots to COM.
2) From standing in front of two targets, hit torso-left, torso-right, head-right, head left, all from behind one tape line while retreating to a second. Then, while advancing from the second tape line to the first, two hits COM to each torso.
3) (in a separate part of the range), from sitting position, facing three targets, on the buzzer the shooter stands, hits all three with two shots COM, then drops behind cover, a shot to each target's head, reloads, and two more shots each to COM. (I may be misremembering this one a bit, but it's not too far off.)
4) Back to the larger section of the range, for the most complex one: Must shoot to retention while retreating, two shots, though the empty center hole of one target. Then retreat behind barrier, and "slice the pie" (outermost visible target first, that is) by hitting each of 6 targets (3 on each side) with two shots COM apiece, and finally two more headshots on the initial (empty-center) target.
I may be missing a few things here, but this is pretty close. I think there were ten people taking part (including the two safety officers), and two of us equipped only to patch the targets while the range was safe and the hits were being scored.
Most interesting thing about the evening is that there's a fellow who I'd noticed in the shop before the match began and who seemed awfully familiar to me -- I thought to myself, "That sure looks like Greg!", a guy around my age who I knew from an academic summer program in 1990 and 1991. I chalked this up to conincidence -- but when the roster was called out in order of shooting, they called out his last name, a fairly unusual one. Ha! I said hello, and we caught up a bit on some mutual acquaintences. To add to the coincidence, when I mentioned that I was going to law school, Greg laughed and pulled out his business card -- he did the same thing, just beat me to it by 10 years.
All in all, a fun event. If I can figure out a way to legally store an appropriate gun nearby, I'd like to take part one of these days -- apparently the IDPA matches are held about once a month. And my XD did come with a mag holder, I'd just need one more mag. (And to practice my weak-hand shooting, at the very least!)
timothy
-- my guns are at my address of record a few hours away. Which means I can't just grab there for a shootin' match 