YammyMonkey
Member
I put this in the General section even though a lot of it probably belongs in S&T because there is a variety of topics covered including accessories and legal/political stuff. If somebody would like to move it I won't be offended.
First shooting match ever and it was an IDPA, shot at night no less. So here we go, in no particular order...
Quality light is a good thing. I used a cheap Surefire G2; only thing I would have liked to change is to make the thing a little more grippy so it wouldn't slide around in my cold fingers.
It's kinda tricky to align the light with your target while you're doing the same with your sights. Practice, practice, practice... Same goes for gripping the light and getting it to activate, lots of different techniques some work better than others for certain people.
Practice one handed shooting with a light. Vast majority of my shooting has been 2 handed during daylight, again, fighting the gun and light and targets was very awkward.
Shoot your carry ammo at night with a light, you'd be amazed how much a little gunsmoke can obscure your vision.
Realize that IDPA and the like are still games. If you want to win the game you may have to do things that could get you killed in real life. Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing when you know it doesn't matter. I think I was the only guy there shooting from concealment; everybody else had their weapons and mags out in the open. I may not have scored as well, but I think I probably got better practice than most. Likewise, I used my daily carry gun instead of a heavier full size version.
Running out of ammo with targets still standing is embarassing.
You have to hit the target to do any good. Being fast doesn't mean a thing if you're not hitting. On the flip side, don't take so much time lining up your shots that it sounds like you're shooting some kind of slow-fire match. The rounds must be in the "good" part of the target, but it doesn't matter if they're cloverleafed or 3" apart as long as they're good hits.
Strobe lights are very disorienting.
Be consistent. On the last stage I stuck an extra mag in a jacket pocket as opposed to the cargo pocket on my pant leg where it had been for the previous rounds. I reached down to reload and had to think about where my ammo was.
During the "stress" of a low-intensity, friendly shoot I lost count of my rounds fired every single time. I would count rounds fired on individual targets, but never kept a running total. As a result I ended up running dry at a few bad times, and didn't realize that I had run dry a few other times. And I am a habitual round counter when I'm shooting. Just imagine what a real life & death encounter would have been like.
One of the shooters was a British guy. Regarding their gun control: "Don't let it happen to you."
A quality hit is a quality hit. If you don't make good shots on target, you're not doing yourself any good. If you need more rounds to "neutralize" a threat, keep shooting.
Pepper poppers will have "splash-back" don't get too close.
If you're leaning around cover to your weak side, you may have a tendency to try and use your off-eye to line up the shot. If it feels weird, that's probably what's going on.
First shooting match ever and it was an IDPA, shot at night no less. So here we go, in no particular order...
Quality light is a good thing. I used a cheap Surefire G2; only thing I would have liked to change is to make the thing a little more grippy so it wouldn't slide around in my cold fingers.
It's kinda tricky to align the light with your target while you're doing the same with your sights. Practice, practice, practice... Same goes for gripping the light and getting it to activate, lots of different techniques some work better than others for certain people.
Practice one handed shooting with a light. Vast majority of my shooting has been 2 handed during daylight, again, fighting the gun and light and targets was very awkward.
Shoot your carry ammo at night with a light, you'd be amazed how much a little gunsmoke can obscure your vision.
Realize that IDPA and the like are still games. If you want to win the game you may have to do things that could get you killed in real life. Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing when you know it doesn't matter. I think I was the only guy there shooting from concealment; everybody else had their weapons and mags out in the open. I may not have scored as well, but I think I probably got better practice than most. Likewise, I used my daily carry gun instead of a heavier full size version.
Running out of ammo with targets still standing is embarassing.
You have to hit the target to do any good. Being fast doesn't mean a thing if you're not hitting. On the flip side, don't take so much time lining up your shots that it sounds like you're shooting some kind of slow-fire match. The rounds must be in the "good" part of the target, but it doesn't matter if they're cloverleafed or 3" apart as long as they're good hits.
Strobe lights are very disorienting.
Be consistent. On the last stage I stuck an extra mag in a jacket pocket as opposed to the cargo pocket on my pant leg where it had been for the previous rounds. I reached down to reload and had to think about where my ammo was.
During the "stress" of a low-intensity, friendly shoot I lost count of my rounds fired every single time. I would count rounds fired on individual targets, but never kept a running total. As a result I ended up running dry at a few bad times, and didn't realize that I had run dry a few other times. And I am a habitual round counter when I'm shooting. Just imagine what a real life & death encounter would have been like.
One of the shooters was a British guy. Regarding their gun control: "Don't let it happen to you."
A quality hit is a quality hit. If you don't make good shots on target, you're not doing yourself any good. If you need more rounds to "neutralize" a threat, keep shooting.
Pepper poppers will have "splash-back" don't get too close.
If you're leaning around cover to your weak side, you may have a tendency to try and use your off-eye to line up the shot. If it feels weird, that's probably what's going on.
