Practical/olympic rifle/pistol shooting

[Gunblade]

I am currently training for these types of shooting sports.

I currently own a Marlin 981T and will soon own a Hi-point 995 carbine.

When i am able to get pistols, I am aiming for a Springfield XD 9mm and possibly a Hammerli trailside(competition).

 

[.38 Special]

Between "practical" and "Olympic" you are covering just about every shooting sport available. Olympic Free Pistol is about as far from an IPSC match as you can get. I'd say trying to train for both at the same time wouldn't be terribly productive. Assuming you are new to the game, I'd concentrate on the slow fire stuff first, as accuracy always counts. After you master the Olympic style stuff -- or get bored -- you can switch to practical shooting where your training in accuracy will be useful.

IMO, you should buy a good quality 10 meter air pistol and an air rifle to go with it. These will allow you to learn all there is about accuracy shooting and will transfer over to any other small arm you take up.

 

[.38 Special]

Oh, and as far as I know, the Hi-point 995 carbine is utterly useless to the practical shooter, let alone the Olympic shooter. If you're serious about competing, add the Hi-point money to your Olympic free pistol fund.

 

[Justin]

There are more Olympic pistol sports than just free pistol.

Currently the Olympics include the following ISSF shooting events:

50 meter rifle

50 meter pistol (Free pistol)
25 meter rapid-fire pistol
25 meter standard pistol (women only)

10 meter air rifle
10 meter air pistol

Trap
Double Trap
Skeet

Of the guns you list, the only one that would be acceptable for any of these is the Trailside. The higher-end variants would be a decent pistol to get started in 25 Meter Standard pistol, or NRA Bullseye, and you could try using it for 25 Meter Rapid fire. But once you rise to a certain level of accomplishment, you'd be dumping it for something along the lines of the Walther GSP, Hammerli 280, Feinwerkbau AW-93 or Pardini SP-New.

For more information on International-style shooting competition, check out USA Shooting

Also, Biathlon and Modern Pentathlon include smallbore rifle and air pistol components, respectively.

There are no "practical" style shooting events in the Olympics, but there is nothing wrong with shooting both International-style events and stuff like IPSC. I know for a fact that Cody Maxwell, who was vying for a chance to shoot Rapid Fire Pistol for the US shot occassional practical pistol matches.

At the end of the day, what it really boils down to is time, and those who are Olympic-grade shooters practice like it's their job; several hours on the range every day.

If you've never shot these events before, the best thing to do would be find a local club that hosts practices and competitions and go for a visit to see if its something that interests you.

 

[bdutton]

The trailside is marginally acceptable for olympic style shooting.

As pointed out before, there are several pistol competition. One gun will NTO cover them all.

Your best bet, and most inexpensive to begin is air pistol. Get yourself an izh46-m (made by baikal). It is a single pump pnuematic pistol with target grips and fully adjustable trigger and will cost less than the trailside.

Once you master airpistol, then move up to free pistol and then rapid with guns that are designed for that sport.

http://www.eaacorp.com/airguns-izh46m-description.html

 

[Gunblade]

thanks.

what about the IPSC practical shooting.

I realize that the hi-point is stretching it just a tad ... most likely due to its limited ammo capacity.(It's really for low cost HD) How is the springfield for practical shooting? IPSC and IDPA.

 

[Jim Watson]

The Springfield XD9 is approved for USPSA/IPSC Production Division. It could shoot in other Divisions, but is most appropriate and most competitive for Production.
It would enter an IDPA shoot in ESP. There are getting to be a fair number of them in use there.

Repeat, the Hi-Point is of no use in any form of competition. It isn't expensive but is still a waste of money for anything mentioned here. Better to use the money as a down payment on a .22 or pellet target gun or that XD.