I've tried a few guns over the years in IDPA, and I've approached the sport differently season to season.
My first season, I was newer to pistol shooting. A soldier at the time, I'd decided I wanted to become more proficient with the M9. I bought a 92FS and it made it my primary range gun, primary CCW, and primary IDPA gun all so that I could get more familiar with it.
Next season I ran a 1911 just because it was something I wanted to do, to test my limits with a type of pistol that could be very fast and accurate.
After that, I ran an HK P2000 for 2 or 3 seasons since it was my primary carry and I wanted to take the opportunity to practice some of the fundamentals. One day at the range I tried a friend's Glock 17 and shot it much better than the HK. Since then I've gravitated to that brand.
This season I'm coming back from a 3-year hiatus from competition shooting. Most of that was spent downrange in AFG. As a welcome home present, I bought myself a Glock 34 a couple months back, lightened and smoothed the trigger, stippled it, and ordered a Raven Concealment holster. I also had some time this spring recovering from a surgery where I worked on dry fire and got to the range when I felt better. I'm at about where I was before, and still improving, but I credit that to the practice I've put in rather than the Glock 34. However, having a gun that I like, that fits well, and that I've made feel great in my hand motivates me to practice that much more.
Incidentally, all those mods I made were first-time projects for me. I found a lot of joy in improving the gun to better suit me, and less expensive than you might think. Adding a grip force adapter, 3.5# connector, and smoother springs were about 40 bucks total for parts. The stippling was done with a borrowed soldering iron. Up until this project I'd always been reticent to strip a pistol to the guts and tinker with it, but none of this was actually that hard.
Here's a pic of what the pistol looks like after the stippling. I originally only intended to do that little spot forward on the frame to give my support thumb a reference point as I'm trying to shift my grip forward on the gun. After I finished that little part, I decided to just keep going. Back on the grip in the thumb rest area I put one initial on each side in cursive. One area that I was also happy with was the strip under the trigger guard for giving a little more friction to the support hand. I know it doesn't look like a clean professional job, but I was happy that I didn't butcher the pistol and was able to make it more unique to me.
My first season, I was newer to pistol shooting. A soldier at the time, I'd decided I wanted to become more proficient with the M9. I bought a 92FS and it made it my primary range gun, primary CCW, and primary IDPA gun all so that I could get more familiar with it.
Next season I ran a 1911 just because it was something I wanted to do, to test my limits with a type of pistol that could be very fast and accurate.
After that, I ran an HK P2000 for 2 or 3 seasons since it was my primary carry and I wanted to take the opportunity to practice some of the fundamentals. One day at the range I tried a friend's Glock 17 and shot it much better than the HK. Since then I've gravitated to that brand.
This season I'm coming back from a 3-year hiatus from competition shooting. Most of that was spent downrange in AFG. As a welcome home present, I bought myself a Glock 34 a couple months back, lightened and smoothed the trigger, stippled it, and ordered a Raven Concealment holster. I also had some time this spring recovering from a surgery where I worked on dry fire and got to the range when I felt better. I'm at about where I was before, and still improving, but I credit that to the practice I've put in rather than the Glock 34. However, having a gun that I like, that fits well, and that I've made feel great in my hand motivates me to practice that much more.
Incidentally, all those mods I made were first-time projects for me. I found a lot of joy in improving the gun to better suit me, and less expensive than you might think. Adding a grip force adapter, 3.5# connector, and smoother springs were about 40 bucks total for parts. The stippling was done with a borrowed soldering iron. Up until this project I'd always been reticent to strip a pistol to the guts and tinker with it, but none of this was actually that hard.
Here's a pic of what the pistol looks like after the stippling. I originally only intended to do that little spot forward on the frame to give my support thumb a reference point as I'm trying to shift my grip forward on the gun. After I finished that little part, I decided to just keep going. Back on the grip in the thumb rest area I put one initial on each side in cursive. One area that I was also happy with was the strip under the trigger guard for giving a little more friction to the support hand. I know it doesn't look like a clean professional job, but I was happy that I didn't butcher the pistol and was able to make it more unique to me.
