This literally just in from IDPA HQ prior to Nationals:
The Rulebook Clarifications for Q3, 2014, have not been finalized for publication. We would like to publish this completed update for those of our competitors who will be attending IDPA Nationals. Since the CZ Custom Shop is not an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), the CZ SP-01 Accu-Shadow will not be deemed SSP legal, based on the following rules in the current rulebook: 8.2.1.4.1.
Competitors planning to shoot this firearm at the IDPA Nationals will need to make other arrangements. Please see Robert Ray for more information on borrowing a firearm if needed. Comp-Tac has generously offered to lend holsters for borrowed firearms and HQ has an assortment of SSP legal firearms to lend for the match. Any competitor who arrives with an Accu-Shadow and chooses not to shoot the match will have their entry fee refunded. We understand that this is a major inconvenience due to the late nature of this decision. We apologize and are striving to fix our process so that this will not happen in the future. We thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Joyce Wilson
Executive Director, IDPA
We are publishing this so that anyone attending IDPA Nats and planning on using an Accu-Shadow in SSP has access to this information and hopefully has time to make alternate plans on what gun to bring with them to the match. For reference, the rule cited states:
8.2.1.4.1. Externally visible modifications other than those listed in the Permitted Modifications
section.
Essentially, the Accu-bushing is what knocks it out of SSP. Again, this information is being published so that shooters planning on using an Accu-Shadow will have an opportunity to get a different gun.
I watched this whole thing unfold. The controversy lies in the fact that CZ-USA markets the accu as a factory catalog gun. This being the case, one would think it is SSP legal and therefore ESP legal. There was plenty of debate on the subject and a lot of people were involved/affected. I would not be surprised to see an SSP legal list in the future of IDPA, similar to what USPSA has.
Though I agree that the Accushadow is a custom shop item, this shows the the hypocrisy of IDPA HQ.
They allow the S&W Performance Center 1911s because they are catalog items, but they disallow the CZ Custom Accushadow even though it is also a catalog item.
The only difference I see is the size of the check written by the two companies. Though I disagree with the initial decision, they should be consistent regardless of the size of the check that the company wrote.
Performance center 1911’s, and 1911’s in general, do not qualify for SSP. And the Accu is not ESP legal due to the full length dust cover.
I was speaking of the latest rules clarification making the PC 1911s CDP legal even though it has banned features (slide porting). The justification is that the PC 1911s are catalog items.
IMO if they are using that justification the Accushadow must be SSP legal.
Slide cuts are not explicitly illegal, as they’re allowed on Glock 34s and XDm pistols as well as the PC 1911s.
Do you you think that there are at least 2000 Accu-Shadows in circulation?
8.2.3.3.CDP Excluded Features and Modifications (Non-Inclusive list):
8.2.3.3.2. Removal of material from the exterior of the slide other than front cocking serrations, tri-top, engraving, carry melts, and high power cuts.
PC guns are the equivalent of CZ Custom, available in limited quantities because they came from their custom shop. If you showed up with a 1911 with the exact same slide ports and it didn’t have S&W on the slide you would be told to go get another gun.
As far as if there are 2,000 Accushadows in circulation that is a good question, and I think that is an issue that USPSA needs to address as I’ve mentioned it before during the FNS-9L debate.
Yes there are, at least according to CZ.
Caleb, where is the source for the second half of the message about borrowing guns/holsters? I don’t see it on their FB page and haven’t received an email about it.
Email from HQ I received about 10 min before I wrote this post.
I could argue either side however making the ruling without giving at least 30 days notice before the pinnacle match of the season is unacceptable. IDPA limits distance shots to ~30 yards, how much impact could these guns have on the outcome of the nationals? Enough to justify screwing someone’s season by making them switch gear the day before a match? I doubt it. HQ should have made the announcement effective after the nationals.
At times, IDPA acts a lot like your crazy great aunt, who sits down at Thanksgiving dinner and announces she liked your old girlfriend better than “that trampy new one” — who is sitting right next to you.
She might be right, but her timing could be better.
But not to worry. After all your training and preparation, you can still compete against your highly trained opponents with an anonymous, plain-wrap gun provided by IDPA HQ. Or maybe for this Nationals only, they can create a “Post-Apocalypse Battlefield Pickup Gun” category.
To be fair though, how many people do you think were planning on shooting this match with an Accu-Shadow?
Even if zero people are affected it is still a hypocritical decisions by IDPA HQ.
I’d suggest the bizarre timing of this announcement means the number of shooters affected isn’t really the issue. Even if it’s just one person, it’s ridiculous timing.
I do think the CZ Custom guns represent a bit of an issue for USPSA and IDPA. It’s fair to question whether a $1700 steel gun that weighs 2/3 again as much as your average poly gun — one that’s been heavily modified by a custom gun shop — should qualify in Production or SSP.
It’s a question worth answering — but you don’t do it days before the Nationals.
I know of 4. And all Master class shooters.
That’s sort of surprising, seeing as there were only like 4 CZs at the entire match last year, and now four people have this unicorn gun?
I mean, it still sucks and stuff, and I really hope they have other guns.
I was intending on using one myself. Now I will be using the shadow. I can’t tell a difference with, or without, the bushing.
A few from my local club alone.
Every time I get close to wanting to compete in IDPA, they go and do something half-assed to remind me why I don’t.
Same here
Which factory got pissy and dropped a check to IDPA to “protest”
I don’t think it has anything to do with that.
Honestly, I think the ruling is consistent with IDPA’s rules and previous rulings on issues like this. Do I think the timing is unfortunate? Absolutely. Would it have been worse if shooters showed up with Accu-Shadows and got DQ’d for illegal guns? Yes.
Changing any ruling so close to a match is BS, even if it affects 1 shooter.
This in one of the reasons I have so much temerity about shooting IDPA and USPSA matches. When something as benign as where you put grip tape becomes an issue, something is wrong with the game.
The only truly fair way to shoot any National match would be to say: “These 4 guns (or 5 or 6, etc.) are legal for the match, and will be provided. You may choose any of them to shoot, and they will be provided at the match. The big manufacturers would then provide funds for a Match representative to go out and buy one off the shelf for the match. Then it becomes the shooter, not the gun!
Could someone please tell me if the Shadow Target is SSP legal? I have one on order and based on every source I could find, it’s completely legal.
Wow! What’s next? Force you to wear gay vests?
Don’t much care about CZ. Don’t much care for any sort of race gunnery (I shoot off the shelf stock weapons that are essentially disposable until they break, then do it all over again with a fresh one.)
I do care that “stability of rules” seems to go out the window at the last minute, and that there is even the appearance of influence from sponsor money as a factor in the disparate treatment given to different manufacturers.
I do care that there seems to be some sort of secret trickle down samzidat channel where IDPA rules are circulated, and that the organization responsible for rules doesn’t feel the need to actually tell any of the membership other than what we find out in the blogs, or buried in a forum no one reads. I do care that these things happen with no sort of announced timeline or consistency, and that some squeaky wheels (or has been alleged, palms) may get grease based on unclear degrees of personal association or other less than transparent decision processes.
I do care that every rule announcement in the past several years has been moving in one direction only – towards restricting shooter options, at a time when IDPA should be embracing the wider cohorts that are pioneering new tactical choices intended to solve hard problems. It is walking further and further away from being a platform for practical, defensive experimentation and familiarization and instead seeking to fossilize in amber a distinct way of doing things crystalized circa 1990’s. And while I get nostalgia for the period – I was there – this is damning for the future of the match.
This is just one more straw, and the camelback already doesn’t fit under the fishing vest that well to begin with…
The gun is sold through the CZ USA dealer network, not just CZ Custom and Automatic Accuracy. CZ USA says they have produced 2000. If these 2 things are true then why isn’t it SSP legal.