USPSA club sign up questions

With a Glock 17 you can shoot in Production assuming its stock. but will be limited to 10 rounds. (need at least 4 mags with holders) or Limited (You will be at a huge disadvantage shooting minor and down on round count to others in your class, but will need less mags)
Class = classification you would list yourself as U
9mm = Minor Power factor outside of 9mm open guns
Category, if your active LEO or Mil you put that, or Senior (old) Jr (teen or younger)

If you shoot your Glock 17, then Unclassified and Minor will be mandatory. Your only choice will be as to division. If you shoot Production, you'll have to have your holster and mag pouches not-too-far-forward, and you can only load 10 rounds in your magazines. If you shoot Limited, you can load the mags all the way up and put them (and your holster) wherever you like on your belt.

I always advise new shooters making that choice to go with Limited Minor. You'll be at a disadvantage relative to other Limited shooters who are scoring major (shooting .40), but you're not going to win Production, either. You'll have enough to worry about without juggling mags an extra 1-3 times per stage. After a match or two, you can decide to move to Production if you like.

taymag said:

I like the limited route to focus on rules, etc, but I am still deciding...

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Run what you brung,as they say.... just pick the class you have the equipment for now... No need to buy stuff until you know your hooked, (while driving home from your first match! )

taymag said:

Considering this is a practice day for the club, which is probably all I will attend at first, what do they do just plug in the hits and misses and the computer program computes your score? Cause when I stopped by to watch last week it just seemed like people were going one after the other, they weren't checking anything (maybe they were I just wasn't aware of all the options)

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Competitors declare what division they're shooting at the outset of the match. That gets plugged into the pads. Then, for each shooter, their time and hits get entered into the pad after their run. For the 99% of clubs that use Practiscore, the whole process is very fast, and all the math is automated.

Which is a good thing because it would take longer to explain the scoring than to outline the Divisions.
Story was, when IPSC was being considered as a "demonstration event" at the Olympics, they were going to use time plus scoring a la IDPA so the spectators would know what was going on.

Because scoring in other Olympic sports is completely transparent? Jeebus.

The basic scoring concept is actually very simple: It is a measure of points per second. Hits on the targets get you points, and you want to get points as fast as possible. The metric is points divided by time, or points per second... a measure of how fast you are getting points. Exactly like miles-per-hour is a measure of how fast you are covering distance getting down the road. It isn't as dirt-simple to add up as time-plus, but the basic concept is no more complicated.

Anyhow, to the OP, for people in your shoes I ALWAYS recommend starting in Limited, minor. You are not going to be competitive at your first few matches anyway, so don't even worry about that. Limited minor will let you shoot what you likely already have, and also have no concerns about gun modifications or gear placement. After a few matches, you will have a better idea of the differences between divisions and can make a more informed decision about which one interests you most, and then you can start buying gear toward that end.

Long term, Production is the lowest from an overall cost perspective, but EVERY division, including Production requires at least some special gear to be competitive (or even legal in the case of Prod). The average joe blow concealed carrier looking at a match for the first time doesn't have this gear, and IMO shouldn't buy it until they are sure they want to shoot Production. What they do have is legal (just not competitive) in Limited, so start there to get your feet wet.

I agree with above.
Don't go into it thinking about being "competitive". You won't even be close in any division.
Limited allows you to think least about your equipment. You will need all your brain focused on the course.

Go for it. I just started and it loads of fun.
The rules are available to download as a .pdf
https://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-rules.php

In the back it explains Open, Limited, Limited 10, Production, Single Stack etc.
Minor is the PF so depending on the Division you will be minor with a 9mm. PF=125 PF =bullet weight in gr*vel/1000 125 for minor
Senior actually starts at 55 so you may or may not be senior.
I am in CA so 10 round mags are all you can buy now. I shoot Single Stack Minor (1911 in 9mm)
I would be tempted to say go Production. You would be limited to 10 rounds in a mag but you would get the practice changing mags. (something you do a lot in single stack)
Hope you enjoy it.

You need to be focused on that front sight to the exclusion of almost everything else. If you cannot recall EXACTLY where that front sight was on every shot you will be beaten by the guys who can. You must learn to call your shots from the sight picture and never settle for "that's close enough because I need to go very fast". I learned that the hard way.

As stated - right now you're Unclassified - so "U". Power factor is Minor.

For division Glock 17 is most competitive and at home in Production, however bear in mind the 10-round per mag limit. USPSA stages often are 30+ rounds and depending on timing you often don't shoot a full magazine before reloading (you always want to reload as you move between target arrays, so particularly in Production you may shoot 8, 6, or occasionally even 4 rounds out of a mag before reloading). With that in mind unless you have 5, preferably 6, magazines for your gun, you'll likely run into capacity issues.

If that's the case - shoot limited. Because you can load the mags to capacity you can get buy with only 3 17-rnd mags in Limited.

It sounds like either way a newbie gets their assets handed to them whether they do production or limited. But I suppose having a SIG Sauer P226 TACOPS with 20 round magazines would be helpful in the limited division just as the Glock 17 rounders would be.