Action shoots?

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Axis II

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I found a club close by that does handgun action shoots and is getting ready to setup some steel target ranges. Right now all I have is a S&W M&P 9mm fullsize gen 1, Blackhawk serpa and cheapo mag holder with the flaps. I am really considering attending these shoots and trying to find several others and have some questions.

I'm fine with my current handgun or try and find something else like a true target pistol?

Will different sights other than the factory 3 dot help any?

Holster suggestions? I try not to pull the quick draw McGraw stuff with the serpas for fear of it going off.

Mag holder suggestions?

Based on their website they use the cardboard man target and score A,B,C,D. rings. They did mention that it will be kind of like a barricade/3 gun type thing.

I see a lot of you guys mentioning power factor and such. does this matter for these type of shoots?
 
I use a serpa in 3 gun, but some people are uncomfortable with them. Either train to comfort level or maybe switch to something like a friction fit kydex. Blackhawk also makes decent kydex mag holders with open tops. As far as sights, a lot of people like fiber optic sights. Truglo makes a tritium fiber optic that glows in daylight or dark- just don't get solvent on the globes!
 
Quick thought, if you don't want to get a mag pouch/s with out flaps maybe rubberband the flaps the open position if the mags will stay in while you are moving.
 
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ohihunter2014 said:
I'm fine with my current handgun or try and find something else like a true target pistol?
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Your M&P will be fine to start out. If you continue, you'll want to add the Apex Tactical barrel and the D/C AEK

Will different sights other than the factory 3 dot help any?
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At the very least, you should black out the rear dots. A fiber optic in the front blade works really well with a blacked out rear

Holster suggestions? I try not to pull the quick draw McGraw stuff with the serpas for fear of it going off.
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The Serpa will work for starting out. There are a lot of options for holsters. The big players are the Blade-tec OWB and the Comp-tac International

Mag holder suggestions?
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For minimal outlay, Blackhawk makes a usable single mag carrier for about $10 ...single carriers work better than double ones
 
Looks like a sorta-IDPA event with USPSA targets. Based on the 50 round count, low entry fee, etc., I would expect a fairly manageable, low-stress event. Might be a good place to get your feet wet.

Most of your gear is probably fine. Do get/bring some usable mag holders for your belt... newbies often break the 180 while they try to juggle magazines from lousy holders or pockets. Good magazine holders are effectively a piece of safety gear.
 
^^^ Well said ATLDave I agree.

So ohihunter2014, you have some time to prepare so get to it! It appears to be a good place for beginners to start and low stress factor. 50 round count so that is a good place to get started. I think the best policy when beginning is to keep things relatively simple and simply have a good time.

Not to change the topic but one of the things that I like about Steel Challenge (or similar static steel cof) is that it is very easy to get started but difficult to master. While center fire handguns draw from a holster it is not necessary to do your reloads from mag pouches because in that cof you are not moving much and can set your mags down on a table that is right next to the shooters box.
 
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ohihunter2014 said:
BTW-these clubs are NOT the club that i belong to or complain about on here. I have no affiliation with this club its just something i found online within an hour or so away
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Don't worry brother we are not spies working for the gun clubs in your county. You might be surprised though that there may be clubs that are nearby that you never heard of. I have been living in my present location for 14 years and just a few months ago started going to events at several clubs that I had ignored in the past. I had a vague knowledge that they existed but had no idea just how much they have to offer. I would bet there is a lot of stuff going on in your area, you just need to sniff it out.

On thing that I think is very beneficial is to find a club that you can join that has an active group that competes in various kinds of action shooting. For example my club has Thursday night pistol shooting. This is not a match but is set up to mimic match conditions. We do different cof not just the same thing over and over again. You get to meet people and might be able to learn techniques and what gear to get for matches. So for example attend a night when we are doing IDPA and get a real feel for what an actual IDPA match is like. Plus it is good to help motivate you to shooting better. Your not just going out to the range and punching holes in paper from under the roof, rather your moving around and planning how to shoot the course. If the only time you are doing that sort of thing is in a match then it will be very difficult to hone your skills.
 
ATLDave said:
Looks like a sorta-IDPA event with USPSA targets. Based on the 50 round count, low entry fee, etc., I would expect a fairly manageable, low-stress event. Might be a good place to get your feet wet.

Most of your gear is probably fine. Do get/bring some usable mag holders for your belt... newbies often break the 180 while they try to juggle magazines from lousy holders or pockets. Good magazine holders are effectively a piece of safety gear.
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Yeah i hate the flap mag holders and used to run a double open mag holder at work but the movement or something kept making the screw come loose and i lost a mag one night but heard it drop and tossed the mag holder in the trash and got a nylon flap one. Ill find something better now that i'm serious about getting into these matches. I shot a few at my club and used that mag holder cause its what i had and hated it but my thinking is i use a serpa level 3 for work so use the sepra for everything else cause of muscle memory and i carry my mags in front and sideways so figured keep it that way for muscle memory.
 
Be aware that some games/some divisions have rules about where the magazines can or cannot go. For instance, in USPSA Production, the magazines have to be at or behind the point of your hipbone.

If you get into competitive shooting, the likelihood is high that you will end up getting more game-optimized gear. Plenty of time for that later. Just make sure you have several spare magazines on your belt and that you can get to them without a bunch of gyrations or so much effort that your gun muzzle wanders away from the berm. Nothing like the newb doing "the twist" trying to reach a magazine a 7 o'clock bringing the gun around with him to sweep half the crowd.

Just show up and shoot a match. You'll learn way more about what gear works and what doesn't in the space of 2-4 matches than you will in 2-4 years of researching it online.
 
Not to belabor the point ohihunter but since you have been posting here for a few years it is apparent you are serious about the shooting sports. So in my opinion I think you should, as is possible to your personal situation, give it a try.

Where I live which is south of Wilkes-Barre PA in the north eastern part of PA, there are gun clubs galore. I'm not kidding they are like flies in a cow pasture- everywhere. Right now I belong to 3 private clubs but the one I shoot at most often by a considerable margin is also the furthest one from my house, 25 miles each way. For that matter I can shoot in my back yard but prefer not to because I want to be considerate of my neighbors.

Anyway I can go to club A which is the closest and find shooters that shoot ok but few that compete. The club I usually go to, the 50 mile round trip one, has numerous competitors and hosts a ton of action shooting matches including some major tier 2 & 3 matches. Because of that, little old me, piker that I am, gets to rub shoulders with some of the top handgun shooters in the country. But besides that there are many members that compete or are good marksmen but are not national champions and can be a great resource for advancement in the sport. It isn't just about winning it's about getting better and more important, having fun. This is a hobby for most of us.

So I would encourage you to look very closely into this and now is a good time because the season is not yet started.
 
ATLDave said:
Be aware that some games/some divisions have rules about where the magazines can or cannot go. For instance, in USPSA Production, the magazines have to be at or behind the point of your hipbone.

If you get into competitive shooting, the likelihood is high that you will end up getting more game-optimized gear. Plenty of time for that later. Just make sure you have several spare magazines on your belt and that you can get to them without a bunch of gyrations or so much effort that your gun muzzle wanders away from the berm. Nothing like the newb doing "the twist" trying to reach a magazine a 7 o'clock bringing the gun around with him to sweep half the crowd.

Just show up and shoot a match. You'll learn way more about what gear works and what doesn't in the space of 2-4 matches than you will in 2-4 years of researching it online.
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Thanks! I shot 2-3 "matches" at my club that were very amateur to say the least with no real rules and got dinged on a few things (not safety) because all the tactical and police shooting i was taught was either different or not up to their standards such as point shooting with a pistol or use of barricades. Anyways. I plan on sending out several emails to these clubs i'm finding asking if i can come watch before competing to see just what needs to happen and then go to my club on a weeknight when no ones around and try and mimic some stuff and get myself familiar with everything again. I haven't carried a firearm with mags for 3-4yrs but still requal for the state each fall and im definitely a little rusty. I kind of made a butt out of myself when the whistle went off trying to break the level 3 holster and it locked on me in front of the instructor. I used to shoot a few hundred rounds every few weeks but haven't shot my service handgun in maybe a year. definitely have some stuff to work on.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement guys i really appreciate it! I'm really excited about doing this and one i found does rifle and shotgun matches too so im sure ill have more questions.
 
thomas15 said:
Not to belabor the point ohihunter but since you have been posting here for a few years it is apparent you are serious about the shooting sports. So in my opinion I think you should, as is possible to your personal situation, give it a try.

Where I live which is south of Wilkes-Barre PA in the north eastern part of PA, there are gun clubs galore. I'm not kidding they are like flies in a cow pasture- everywhere. Right now I belong to 3 private clubs but the one I shoot at most often by a considerable margin is also the furthest one from my house, 25 miles each way. For that matter I can shoot in my back yard but prefer not to because I want to be considerate of my neighbors.

Anyway I can go to club A which is the closest and find shooters that shoot ok but few that compete. The club I usually go to, the 50 mile round trip one, has numerous competitors and hosts a ton of action shooting matches including some major tier 2 & 3 matches. Because of that, little old me, piker that I am, gets to rub shoulders with some of the top handgun shooters in the country. But besides that there are many members that compete or are good marksmen but are not national champions and can be a great resource for advancement in the sport. It isn't just about winning it's about getting better and more important, having fun. This is a hobby for most of us.

So I would encourage you to look very closely into this and now is a good time because the season is not yet started.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah i'm very serious about doing this. I have always wanted to do it and ran a few "matches" at my club and had fun but i don't have fun shooting at a giant row of pie plates on a board so i quit going and said i would like to find something more challenging. I found this Erie county one id never heard of from a friend who was doing a 3 gun match out there for his PD for a fallen officer and looked it up and said man they are expensive and kind of far but seen the different things they put on open to the public and figured for the 50mile round trip i would like to do it as well as their rifle matches. I posted asking about different clubs on a hunting forum i belong to and got the info for Ashland lake GC which i never knew existed but its like an hour one way for me but would be something fun to do once a month. I'm getting a little bored with the punching paper with the rifle after work at 100yards and just want something fun to do. I'm becoming a couch potato now that hunting seasons done so trying to find things to do. I'm a tinkerer and always finding something to fill that what if or how to void!

I am going to test some of these RMR matchwinners as soon as our weather quits going from 60 to -10 every week and try some BE86 powder and then start getting back into the groove at my place and then finding other places to shoot. Going this weekend to stock up on powder and primers!
 
One reason I personally prefer USPSA to IDPA is that there are many fewer "dings." USPSA's fundamental premise is that it is freestyle.... you, the competitor, decide how to solve the problem. There are exceptions, especially on short courses, where things are a little more prescribed, but that's the core philosophy. The idea is to let the targets and timer decide what is the "right way" to do things. Whatever works best is the right way (subject to safety constraints).

That experimental nature of IPSC/USPSA is why it has actually contributed a great deal of innovation that made its way into the real world. Lots of techniques and gear that are now standard or are cutting-edge in "real world" applications actually came from experimental competitive shooting.

IDPA tries to match up rules to some kind of tactical/self-defense doctrine, and that creates lots of potential "dings" for people who have either been taught different doctrine or who are just trying to solve the problem as fast/well as possible. And it seems they change their rules/doctrines every couple of years.
 
When you contact the clubs, see if they have a New Shooter Orientation course.

My local IDPA club has a mandatory orientation course before you can shoot in a match
 
I just today received a confirmation that my paid entry to the PSA Shootout has been received. This match, last weekend in April, is at least a 2 hours drive and I would wager that half the shooters would be jealous that I have "only 2 hours" drive. This is a huge falling steel match that will prolly be sold out in a few more days (if not already), the primary sponsor is S&W and is kinda a "who's who" in handgun shooting. Also there are vendors there and cash prizes. They do next to no advertising because they don't have to, everyone knows when it is and some plan their spring around the shootout.

I'm also mentioning this match because it is, in a way, sort of a plate rack match but it's on the timer and there are lots of them (plate racks). Not just plate racks though, falling steel/poppers, Texas Stars, all kinds of steel. It's six stages with an average 40 pcs of steel to hit. I think last year there were about 275 pcs of steel. Just look a the PSA Shootout website at the results of past matches and check out the big names and search youtube for the shoot out and then you will understand why there is a crush to get entry forms and checks in on the day they accept them (Feb 1) so as not to miss out.
 
If I could just say just one more thing then I will shut up. I have been around firearms for 50 years but handguns only since 2013. Late 2013 that is. I started out IDPA and really really wanted to shoot in an sanctioned match my first competition year 2014. I shot 3 classifiers and finally marksman in stock service pistol on the 3rd try so I entered a sanctioned match in July 2014. It was for me a total disaster. I didn't touch a handgun for a month afterwards.

I then stuck my toe back into the waters in fall 2014 but didn't enter any matches for the rest of the year. I actually considered giving up handguns. But alas it's in the blood. I was given a really nice Christmas bonus in 2014 so in a moment of insanity I purchased my first revolver, a S&W 686 which I was going to use in IDPA revo class. Anyway, a "friend" introduced me to static steel and the rest is as they say history. 2015 I shot revolver, I was in a word, horrible score wise, really I to this day cannot believe how bad I shot that year. 2016 stayed in local static steel competitions and did a few IDPA revolver and more USPSA revolver.

Last year 2017 I shot a lot of matches probably 26 or so mostly steel and/or steel challenge and mostly revolver. I have two additional (8 shot) revolvers and shot about 10k total rounds through them last year. About 2 weeks ago, for the first time, I had the high score out of 8 iron sight revolvers in a 6 stage steel challenge match. This was my first SC match where I didn't shoot open with a red-dot. I couldn't believe it when I got the results and saw my name at the top!

So I had a very rocky start and was quite worried that I would get a bad reputation. I have come a long long way but still have many miles to travel before anyone looks at me and askes me how I do it. But I have really thrown myself into this in the last year. If there is one piece of advice I would give anyone is when you start out really take your time. You will not win your first match and is as easy as falling off a chair to get DQed. So go slow. Very slow. Avoid the heartache that I experienced.

The secret to getting good at this is....drum roll..... dry fire practice. Unless you have that gun in your hands at least 5 days/week it will be a long hard struggle to get proficient. But for some it's all about having fun and nothing else matters.
 
We just had a IDPA Regional match open up on Monday and it filled in about 5 hours.

We have 4 sanctioned matches in the state this year and there is a casual in-state competition for the "King/Queen of CA"
 
thomas15 said:
I agree with Dave with respect to USPSA vs. IDPA but if there is IDPA available and no USPSA then you go with the flow.

I think you are in USPSA area 5, here is their facebook https://www.facebook.com/uspsaarea5
Don't know if it is helpful or not but it might lead to other things that are.
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Thanks! Im in NE ohio near Cleveland if that helps. I am going to facebook them later tonight.
 
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