Practice

[Dudedog]

For practice I would say more shooting positions. You will be moving a lot.
If you google stage design you can see some examples of stages.
http://www.k8nd.com/stage.htm
a bunch here.
Usually you are not limited to shooting from a box in USPSA you do have a shooting area however.
Targets can generally be shot from anywhere in the shooting area but of course it depends on what the rules for the stage say.
Odds are highly likely that you may not even be able to see all the targets on the stage from one shooting position let alone have a shot at them.

Mag change, mag change, mag change,
Did I say mag change?


If you don't want to burn up as much ammo, maybe only load 4 or 6 per mag.



Targets often have no shoots (white side of card board target) or hard cover (black card board or real plastic barrel for example)
blocking them.
Shooting paper plates will work but you should probably get some regular card board targets.
Bullet holes can be pasted over with masking tape.

You will get lots of tips from people that are a lot better than I am.

The most important tips IMO are
Be safe and Have FUN!

Rules
https://uspsa.org/viewer/Feb_2014_Handgun_Rules.pdf

Don't get in to much of a hurry, be careful of the 180, lots of times targets are set that make it easy to break it if you are not careful.


One thing to remember is sometimes it maybe a good idea to drop a mag when moving even if you still have a couple rounds left in it.
Say you have 10 rounds, you shoot 8 at four targets all A hits no make up shots, and you need to move to the next array of 3 targets which take 6 shots.
You might as well reload while you are moving because when you get to that array you will only have 2 rounds left so use the time you are moving to change mags.

Probably a good idea to have 4 or 5 mags.
I shoot SS 9mm (I am also in CA) so 10 rnd mags are what I get.
Typical stages at my club matches are 28-36 rnds.
I might drop a couple mags while moving that both have ammo in them on a stage if I know I will be sort for the next array of targets.

Really it is a simple game, move, shoot, reload, repeat
(oh I left out try to shoot As quickly so of course that changes everything!)

WARNING: Matches can be addictive.

 

[Dudedog]

PS: Ammo need to make 125 PF for minor.
PF is bullet weight in gr * vel /1000
so for a 124 call it a hair over 1000fps, I usually load my 124s to about 1030-1040 for some wiggle room.
With most powders this is somewhere in the middle of the charge range. Not starting charges but usually not MAX loads either.
Your match may or may not have a chrono stage but even if they don't you want to follow the rules.

 

[ATLDave]

As everyone else has said, effective practice will be much easier after you have shot (or at least watched) a couple of matches. I learned more and made more progress in the first 6 months I shot USPSA than I did in the 2.5 years I spent getting "ready." (Getting ready to lose, that is...)

A few other thoughts:

• Get used to moving while pointing the gun at the berm/downrange. Not holding it pointing down, not holding it pointing up, not holding it next to your body - hold that thing out and point it at the berm. Learn how to move in any direction while pointing the gun at the berm. Then learn to do the same thing while moving as fast as you can.
• Work on your draw. Specifically, work on getting your hand to the gun fast and landing the same grip every time. Then work on getting it out and on target efficiently, with your 2-handed grip built long before the gun is all the way up.
• Make sure you can re-holster without sweeping your weak hand. Get a holster that you can get the gun into without having to pull on it. If your shirt gets in the way, tuck it in. If your gut gets in the way, get a holster with offset. (Also, don't "threat scan." At the match, all your're going to see is other people with guns, so what would you be scanning for? Total n00b move. )
• Work on reloading while moving. Except for classifiers and other stand-and-shoot stages that don't let you move at all, the huge majority of reloading in USPSA is done on the move (otherwise you're wasting time). See first point re: keeping the gun downrange while you move... now figure out how to do that while reloading it. You may find that certain uprange movements make this too difficult, but reloading during lateral or downrange movement is basic stuff you will do many times during a single match. Learn how to do that safely.
• Get comfortable running hard with a gun (while keeping it downrange). Lots of people are unwilling to move fast with a gun in their hand. Learn to love it. Run like you're playing shortstop and a ball has been hit into the hole... quick as you can without being out of control and unable to do something athletic when you get to your spot.
• Don't worry too much about specific set-ups. Every match, every stage will be different. USPSA isn't steel challenge. Except for the classifiers, you're not going to see the same stage twice in your life, much less in the same match. Get used to shooting different arrays.
• It's always good to be able to hit small stuff that is far away. But most USPSA shots aren't very difficult - except for the time constraints, the pressure to do it while moving, etc. Don't just practice long shots. You need to learn how much faster you can go on a close target.

All this will be very obvious to you after your first couple of matches. But doing a little bit of work on it in advance will minimize the chances of a DQ (especially that first point - I'd prioritize that over anything else, honestly, if you already "know how to shoot" at any level of proficiency).

 

[Dudedog]

Think Berm = downrange
Sometimes the way stages are setup you will need to go down range then head back up range, gun must be pointed down range even when heading uprange.
180 rule half a circle from where ever you are if you were facing directly down range.



Not me but here is a sample of a stage, a couple angles on the one stage so you can see the layout better.
Note the three targets on the left.
The thing to note is you could go to far down and break the 180 when you go to shoot them if you went to far downrange.. If you were to move to in front of the one in the middle and then shot the first one you would break the 180, which is a DQ.
Notice the reloads while he is moving.
Lots of videos out there, the one above happens to be from my club/range 5 Dogs.

Black is hard cover no points, white are no-shoots -10 points for hitting them. (-10 each time!)
You also get a penalty if you don't put two scoring hits on the papers.

PS: The shooter here is good. (looks like about 24-26 seconds)
Shot on a squad with him once he makes it look easy.
All the people who are really good do.