Went to my first pistol match today... a humbling experience.

[BHPshooter]

This morning a friend (Mr Hanky on THR) and I went to an informal pistol match, hosted by an IDPA club (it wasn't an IDPA match, however). It was a pistol/shotgun all-steel match, but a person could compete with only a pistol if they so wished. That's what we did.

I brought both of my Hi Powers, but since I wanted to put some rounds through my FEG to see if its wear issues were resolved, I decided to use it. That was a mistake. I am very accustomed to the POA/POI on my Browning, and the FEG threw me for a loop. I think the rear sight is coming unstaked...

Anyway, there were six stations and two rounds per station. The first two stations were TERRIBLE. At the end of the second station, I finally realized that the POA required for a hit was a tad higher than a 12:00 hold (rather than a very slight 6:00 hold).

At the next three stations, I did pretty well. And then at the last station, it ALL fell apart. I was looking at the targets instead of the sights, I was using a 6:00 hold again :banghead: , I didn't get a proper grip on the gun, and I was rushing myself. It was terrible.

About the only thing that I consistently did well was that I never jerked the trigger or flinched.

So now I know that I really need to practice more. I did well in the middle, which shows that I am capable, but there is a lot that I need to work on, like my draw, my reloads, and my doubles. On top of that, I need to figure out what in is wrong with my FEG's sights now.

*sigh.*

So what was your first pistol match like?

Wes

 

[Rabid Rabbit]

My first match is long fogotten but along the way I learned a lot. Shooting is a very mental sport. Reading your post I see a lot of dwelling and iteration of what you did wrong. That is not the right mind set. There are thousands of way to do something wrong and a only a handful of ways to do it right. If you miss forget it, the shot is gone and there is nothing about the shot to remember. Remember the hits, what you did right, how it felt, sight picture etc.... keep score by the number of hits not misses. The worst thing you can do is keep reinforcing what you did wrong. When I coach usually I get asked what am I doing wrong. I turn the question around and ask what did you do right, then we build from there.

 

[nhhillbilly]

Agreed think about what you did right and what you can do to improve. Everyone should run so suprise course and get the pucker factor up. It is an a good exprience.

 

[Standing Wolf]

...keep score by the number of hits not misses.

Well said!

I don't know of a better aid to shooting well than competition, but it often takes awhile to focus on doing well rather than badly.

 

[Old NFO]

Fist Pistol Match

Wes, you did MUCH better than I did... My first pistol match was a bullseye match down in Lousiana at Barksdale back in the early 70's- I was home on leave, had just bought a brand new Ruger Mk II bull barrel, I "thought" I was a pretty good shot, since I'd just qualified expert with the .45 and I figured would at least place... Can we say NOT!!!
Since I hadn't cleaned the Ruger before I started, it gummed up, so I was having to fish every case out, the sights had been bumped somewhere along the line (of course I hadn't shot it before the match), and the guy in the next lane was dying laughing the whole time... I "think" I had one bull and only got about 10 rounds on the entire target. Needless to say, I came off the line feeling like a whipped puppy...:banghead:
The guy in the next lane ended up winning the match. After everything was over, he took pity on me and helped me get the gun cleaned up, sighted in and offered to do a trigger job on it for me.
That was the best thing, other than taking me down a bunch of notches, that happend that day; since the man who helped me was Jim Clark, Sr. I didn't know who he was, and came to realize later than he could have blown me off, but he took pity on me because I was in the service. It wasn't until much later than I found out he was a decorated Marine during WW II and probably one of the best if not the best pistol shot in the world.
I still have that pistol and every time I shoot it, I remember that day. Jim showed me that day how big a person he was- a helping hand when he didn't have to, honest advice and humor made a bad day into a good day. Ever since then, I've always tried to go the extra mile at a match and help out as a small way of paying homage to his example.
jim

 

[P95Carry]

Wes ... as you might expect, my first compo' was - well - way back!! I can tell you tho I hardly shone like a bright light - oh no!

Thing is, compo's are both fun and good practice - but we have to start somewhere to get any good. The perseverance paid of tho and over time I became quite good. Not so much the case now as age seems to have blurred things somewhat!

I still try when doing matches - mostly IDPA now ... to make it ''me vs me'' and really, I do it for the fun and the means to better my own shooting. Most other guys are way better than me and so I don't worry too much.!

Most of all - ENJOY! You can be sure, you WILL get better and better.

 

[Rimmer]

My first match was an IDPA event. I had never practiced that way or even seen one shot before. With the exception of my dropping the magazine after a reload instead of the slide (twice) I managed to do pretty well.

I now practice as though I'm shooing competitively.

 

[Standing Wolf]

After everything was over, he took pity on me and helped me get the gun cleaned up, sighted in and offered to do a trigger job on it for me.

Yep. That's shooters for you. One of the pleasures of being an old shooter is passing on the kindnesses that were shown me in my young shooter days.

 

[Byron Quick]

First match? IDPA. I hit my targets. But, wow!, was I slow! Bam!......Bam


On the other hand.... you can't miss too fast to win.

 

[Old NFO]

You've got that right Standing Wolf

Yep. That's shooters for you. One of the pleasures of being an old shooter is passing on the kindnesses that were shown me in my young shooter days.

Too true Standing Wolf, and Jim Jr. and Jerry Mikulek and Kay carry on Jim Sr's traditions today in Shreveport. I just wish some of that ability had rubbed off on me

 

[Matt G]

I have yet to really place overall in a match. I've been shooting 'em for over 10 years, on and off. I generally feel it's a victory if I score in the top third, and perhaps place overall in a given stage (usually the accuracy portion.).

Still, it's a great way to test what really works, holster to shot fired, and to see how you shoot under stress. It also improves your efforts to practice, and underscores how important it is to practice your order of arms.

Most well-designed matches also test your abilty to shoot with divided attention.

 

[Arc-Lite]

heads up !!!

A good wake up call, among friends is good, just figure the learning curves is steep, in your first outing with anything...You went to answer a few personal questions, and, had them answered, might not find the new info...to your pleasure, but still good in nature. Taking the first step, is the importance in mostly everythng, see it as your first time, as it actually was, and go from here. Most every time, you persue a valuable answer, if it does not result in another question, then something was missed. You questioned your FEG, and you were correct, stick with your FN, it has your confidence, and you know, and I know....how fine tuned they are. All in all, a good day, out with your buds, having fun, and learned something.... sounds like a good day ...to me !!!! Arc-Lite

 

[Quintin Likely]

I think as long as you didn't kill, maim, or otherwise disfigure yourself or anyone else and you had fun, you did good. Chalk the first one up as a learning experience and keep on rolling, at least that's what I do.

 

[mr hanky]

Like Wes mentioned, I went to the IDPA informal match today, the learning curve was VERY steep for me as well.

To see how fast, fluid, and accurate those guys were made me feel VERY underdeveloped, and out of practice.

But MAN was it fun. I love shooting and those who shoot are some of the best people I have met. These guys didn't judge, were quick to offer advice on many things without making you feel dumb, it was really neat.

Also some great conversation, one thing I have noticed is that generally people who shoot understand the world in a very different way. Much more realistic, practical, its kind of hard to describe, but there is never a dull moment, tactics, politics, guns, ammo, I love it!

 

[Werewolf]

For all you guys saying to concentrate on what you did right I say - PSHAWWWW!

If one doesn't figure out what one is doing wrong you'll keep on doing it - wrong - over and over again.

You can have a perfect grip, trigger pull etc but if you've got the sight picture wrong all you'll ever do is consistently miss the target in the same place.

You don't need to fix what ain't broke. You can only fix what is broke if you identify it. Once you figure out what you're doing wrong then you can learn to do it right. Once you're doing everything right you can concentrate on improving.

When it comes to shooting all it takes is one ahhhh crap to erase a thousand did it rights. Figure out what you're doing wrong first - fix it - then concentrate on improving what's right.

 

[280PLUS]

another angle

I think of it as competing against myself, i never think about whether I'm shooting better than anyone else on the line, just myself. If you go back and shoot a little better score next time you will have beaten your toughest opponent - yourself. And you can be mighty proud about it!

I hope that makes some kind of sense!

I always shoot competitions with a gun that I have cleaned and then put about 30 rounds through. I shoot the ruger too and have found that mine likes to jam occasionally during the first few rounds fired after cleaning so I always run a few rounds through it before I shoot for score.

 

[LiquidTension]

I've watched a couple of matches but haven't gotten up the nerve to compete yet. Just watching some of the good shooters up there is enough to discourage me from shaming myself lol. I'll do it eventually, because the beginner class is full of cool people that don't rag on anyone too hard. Some of those guys though...it's like watching a Chow Yun Fat movie, except with good technique and accuracy.

 

[BHPshooter]

Well, I not hard on myself because there are a bunch of exceptional shooters there; I'm hard on myself because I know I should have done much better. I was competing with myself, and the other me won.

It was great practice and TONS of fun, though.

The FEG had 2 problems, both times it failed to strip the top round from a fully-loaded KRD 17-round magazine. A quick tap to the magazine solved that both times. However, when I got home and stripped the pistol, I noticed that the firing pin retaining plate cracked. That's the second one of those to go, although this time it just cracked instead of crumbled. The wear issue was also not resolved by replacing the recoil spring.

Next time I'll be using my Browning.

Wes

 

[P95Carry]

Wes - don't think I have asked this and if I have - I've forgotten!

Approx how many rounds thru that FEG of yours? I get the impression it has had quite a lot. My FEG is relatively very ''low mileage'' . Maybe only 2 to 3 hundred rounds.

 

[GEM]

I congratulate you for starting to compete. I've started to do that seriously in the past year. It is a good test of trigger skills and much more fun that paper punching.

The guys I shoot with have always been friendly and supportive. Yesterday (Texas tactical - IDPA), there were several new competitors and they were treatly so well that it just gladdened your heart.

You are correct that you compete against yourself. I will never win a match as at my age, I don't have the hustle. I try to shoot at a reasonable speed and obtain good hits. If I just look at that, I do OK.

It is also good to observe you own brain toots. I had a major one. It's fun to see others also.

One must stick at it. I've tried to get my friends, who talk all about guns, read the rags, buy new guns, punch paper, etc. to a match. They are always busy. One did go and really did suck. I think it humbled him because he talks the gun talk so much. Never asked to go again and I decided not to ask. He can go the range and fuss with his scope and punch paper forever.

So, good job!! I need some practice on moving targets!! I love it!

 

[Jim Watson]

Competitive shooting is IT as far as I am concerned. Whatever suits your taste and equipment, there are a lot of different matches. If I had not been introduced to trap and PPC about 35 years ago, I would probably be playing golf and collecting stamps by now. Breaking rocks and rolling cans was getting dull and I never got interested in hunting, too few shots fired.

And I compete. I am out to WIN. At my age and skill level, an occasional class trophy or club match win with the good shooters out of town is about all I can expect, but I do my best and I look closely at my standings. I have been to all the IDPA Nationals and can proudly say I have been beaten by the best in the world, but have never been last.

But I will help new shooters to the best of my ability. If you catch up with me, great.

Compete with yourself? How? If you are shooting a standardized event like bullseye, trap, or skeet, you can track your scores over time and see if you are learning anything. But IDPA and IPSC pride themselves on originality and novelty. All you can go by is your standings versus other shooters of known ability. Assuming you have enough experience that you are not making major blunders that you should be working on eliminating.

Equipment failures are legion in competition. In IDPA or IPSC it is due to shot timer radiation bringing out every fault in gun or ammo (or brain.) I don't know where it comes from in other shooting sports, probably air pollution from the ink on the scorecard, but it is there. I can't count the times over the years that I have heard "It worked fine in practice yesterday."

 

[BHPshooter]

Wes - don't think I have asked this and if I have - I've forgotten!

Approx how many rounds thru that FEG of yours? I get the impression it has had quite a lot. My FEG is relatively very ''low mileage'' . Maybe only 2 to 3 hundred rounds.

No problem Chris, because likewise, if you've asked about it before then it is long gone from my mind.

I estimate that it has about 3,000 to 3,500. I bought it used, so I can't nail it down for sure, but I know that I've put somewhere near the neighborhood of 3,000 through it myself. I don't have another FEG to compare it to, but I have exactly 2,175 rounds through my Browning with nothing more than slight finish wear on the rails.

To clarify, the peening isn't only on the front of the rails, there is also some peening on the rear-right rail where the sear lever hits mid-cycle, and slight peening on the top of the front rails where the barrel sits when unlocked from the slide.

I personally want to suspect the metallurgy, but I have had some other suggested causes that I will check out first. Next on the list is to re-blue the rails and see if it does the same thing with the original FP9 slide... I suspect it will, but the detective in me wants to find out for sure.

If none of this works out, I guess I'll just get a Ciener .22 unit and use the gun as a dedicated .22 Hi Power. But I haven't thrown in the towel just yet.

Wes

 

[P95Carry]

Thx Wes - well if used then with your thru put added - quite possibly we could even be 5k perhaps. I am not sure quite what to make of the FEG metallurgically ... I tend to assume it is inferior but ... really no basis for that conclusion, other than the fact that it's a clone gun and low priced.

Mine as said is really still a ''young 'un'' ... and is very good functioning. I guess it has been relegated to occasional use rather than being hammered.

See what you can achieve with yours but yeah - if worst case - Ceiner kit may still leave you a viable plinker!!

 

[BHPshooter]

Right you are, Chris... impossible to really nail down even an approximate number.

Even with all of the "problems" it's having, its reliability has never been an issue. I remember two failures-to-extract last winter, but nothing really since that can't be traced to mags (the rare occasion of not stripping the first round off of those stiff 17-round mags).

If nothing else positive can come from all of this, this is some fairly substantial proof that the design can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.

Wes

 

[Jerry the Geek]

So what was your first pistol match like?

Oh, man, this brings back some painful memories!

My first IPSC match was in 1983, and I was absolutely terrified.

Somebody had put up a flyer on the bulletin board where I work, and I had this perfectly good 1911 (manufactured about 1917) that I didn't have a good reason to shoot. So I went to the club and took a 'certification class' where they taught the 7 of us who showed up what Practical Pistol shooting was all about.

The next weekend, I showed up at my first IPSC match with a 1911 that was older than my father, in an army surplus leather flap-over holster and army-surplus green canvas web-belt and magazine carriers (snap-flapped). My ammunition was whatever I could scrounge up ... most of it was WWII surplus.

The certification course emphasized all the ways you could DQ (be DisQualified from completing the match) because of violations of the safety rules. I didn't know whether to be embarassed because of my equipment, because of my poor gun-handling skills, because I violated a safety rules (wasn't really all that sure what all of them were), because I was so slow, or because I was so inaccurate. As a compromise, I was embarrassed about all of them ... except I managed to shoot safely and completed the match. In last place.

But DAMN! I had a great time. The adrenaline rush on every stage was almost sexual. I met some fine people, most of whom were trying almost as hard as I was to keep from looking like a total twit. The rest were friendly, helpful, patient and understanding. As at least one of them told me, "We've all been there, it gets better."

The next match I was ALMOST as nervous, but at least the terror factor had been reduced to manageable size. And last place was taken by some other poor schmuck who was shooting HIS first match.

It took me a long time to get past the bottom quarter of the order-of-finish list. In the meantime I got rid of ALL the army surplus junk I was trying to use. (The gun jammed constantly. So did the next one ... eventually I learned to reload .45acp ammo with a taper crimp, so the equipment wasn't as much to blame as was my own ingorance about how to reload ammunition.)

About five years ago, after shooting 15 years in competition, I finally learned the mindset that was necessary to consistently get me above the 50% level in order-of-finish. Here are some of the things I've learned about competitive shooting over the years:

(1) You've got to figure what you want out of the experience, and focus on that. If all you want is to beat everybody else, you're going to be disappointed a lot. Learn to enjoy the day, the people, the thrill of (at least) not-screwing-up-most-of-the time).

(2) A bad day shooting is better than a good day at work.

(3) You'll met some of the finest people in the world at shooting matches. Treasure them. No matter how well you do shooting, you'll make friends who bring color into your otherwise bland existence.

(4) Reliability is almost as important as speed and accuracy. I can't tell you how many times I've beaten better shooters because their gun funked out, and mine didn't. Learn maintenance, reloading, etc. It'll serve you well whenever you shoot, whether it's in competition or not.

(5) Every shooting sports has techniques which improve your performance. Learn them. How? Ask people around you at matches. You'll find that they are flattered, they love to help, and even more than kicking your pants off during competition they want to encourage you to enjoy the sport which they love.

(6) If you don't learn anything else, you'll learn good gun-handling skills. Major gun rags have published articles such as "what you learn in IPSC will get you killed!", suggesting that competitive techniques are not positive aids in self-defense. Nonsense! Any activity which encourages you to shoot a lot, and perhaps even to practice, will make you a better shooter. And the pressure of competition is NOT so dissimilar to the pressure of self-defense as some folks might want you to think. You need to learn to use your gun safely, to automatically know how to get the safety off smoothly, acquire and hit a target under the pressure of time. Competitive activities such as IDPA and IPSC, which factor TIME into your successful completion, will teach you skills and techniques which you can't find anywhere else without spending thousands of dollars ... and you can practice these skills in a realistic environment several times a month.

(7) Ultimately, if you want to learn to be good with a gun, you need practice under pressure. You won't get the variety of scenarios, the knowledge of how to be cool under pressure, and the fun of learning if you don't compete.

At least, that's MY experience.