IDPA/shooting/sports/USPSA

IDPA and USPSA Ranks

Posted on by Caleb

I had an email from a reader who asked what the correlation is between USPSA rankings and IDPA rankings, which I interpreted to mean that he was interested to know about what skill level an “A” class USPSA shooter would be in IDPA, or vice versa.

USPSA breaks its shooters down into the following classes:

Grand Master 95 to 100%
Master 85 to 94.9%
A 75 to 84.9%
B 60 to 74.9%
C 40 to 59.9%
D 2 to 40%

The percentage numbers are how many points out of the “best possible” the shooter was able to pick up on the classifier stage. As you can see, if you shoot somewhere in between 90% and 100% of the “max score”, you’ll end up with a Master or Grand Master classification. USPSA had dozens and dozens of different classifier stages, which are often inserted into matches so that shooters will keep their classification current.

IDPA on the other hand has a single classifier – it is fired as a continuous 90 round event, and your resulting time (since the classifier is scored using the Limited Vickers system, your time is your score) determines your class. IDPA has the following classes:

Master
Expert
Sharpshooter
Marksman

IDPA also has a provision that if a shooter in say, Sharpshooter wins his class and division (Stock Service Pistol: Sharpshooter) at a major match, he may be “promoted” to the next highest class, which in the example would be expert.

Now, as you can see, USPSA has more classes than IDPA. The time/skill required to shoot in IDPA Master class on the classifier is roughly in line with an “A” class shooter in USPSA, Expert with a “B” class, Sharpshooter with a “C” class, etc. That is not to say that an IDPA Master class shooter couldn’t be a USPSA Grand Master, but rather that after a certain skill level, IDPA no longer distinguishes between skills. Thus, the IDPA Master class can be almost deceiving in the amount of skill sets that it holds, as (for example) you have shooters such as USPSA Grand Master Dave Sevigny at one end, and at the other end you have people who just squeaked under the bar on the classifier.

Hopefully, this will help you provide a basis for comparing the two classifications. It’s not an exact primer, but if you’re holding an event at your club that accept shooters across the divisions, it should help you gauge the skill levels of your entrants with a bit more precision.

Uncategorized

A quick thought

Posted on by Caleb

Saw the new Star Trek movie over the weekend. Being a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise in general, I had very high hopes for this movie, because it has been quite some time since a Star Trek show/movie has been, well, fun. Sure, Enterprise had its moments, but by and large wasn’t that great.

This movie was AWESOME. Words actually fail me at some points, other than saying that is exactly what Star Trek needed. A movie that is faithful to longtime fans such as myself, while also being fun, humorous, and action oriented enough to draw in a generation of sci-fi fans that grew up on Firefly and Battlestar Galactica.

You know what one of the best things about the new Star Trek movie was? After 40+ years of TV and movies, they finally hold their phasers like GUNS. Two handed grips, aiming over the top…almost like they were playing characters who in some kind of space military…a “Starfleet”, if you will. If you’re a fan of Star Trek, go see it. If you’re a fan of sci-fi as a genre, go see it. Or if you just like your punching and explosion shows, go see it.

Bianchi Cup/shooting/sports

10 Days Until Bianchi Cup

Posted on by Caleb

Yeesh. I’ve got my hotel reservations set, my match ammo just came in yesterday, and now I just need to get my gun sighted in correctly for a three-quarters hold at 25 yards. Why do I use a 3/4 hold? When I was at the ParaUSA Gun Blogger Weekend, one of the things Todd Jarrett said is that when most people miss, they’re going to miss low and away. If you’re set up for a 3/4 hold, you help yourself by increasing the chances that a bad shot doesn’t drop completely out of the A-zone. Believe me, it works. All of my guns with adjustable sights are set up for three-quarters. That way, when I train, all I do is “put ’em in the middle” and press the trigger.

Update For the people who asked, a 3/4 sight picture or 3/4 hold for action is as such. Instead of the traditional “6 o’clock” hold, where the top line of your sights runs along the bottom edge of the target, a 3/4 hold means that the top line of your sight picture is positioned about “3/4” of the way up from the bottom of the target area. So when I’m shooting IDPA using a 3/4 hold, it means that my sights are slightly higher than the dead middle of the A-zone (+0 ring) of a standard IDPA target.

For example, on my Tac-5, the gun is set up so that at 7-10 yards (common IDPA distances) I hold 3/4 on the target to get my hits. At 20-25 yards, I’m holding just under the middle, and at 50 yards, I’m using a traditional 6 o’clock hold. The advantage to having your gun set up as such is that you know exactly where to hold on each target for a given distance, an important factor in games like Bianchi Cup or IDPA.

blogs/humor

I want to be cool like Breda

Posted on by Caleb

Because Breda took a picture of herself with her awesome new Gunblogger_Conspiracy gear on, I decided that I wanted to be cool as well, so I ordered one myself. Now, the sad thing is that I won’t be attending the NRA Annual Meetings/2ABlogBash this year, because the travel to and from Phoenix creates scheduling conflict with Bianchi Cup. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to represent the Conspiracy at Bianchi Cup. Because you can customize your shirt with the text of your choice, the back of my quote features the following quote from pdb.

he day you win the Bianchi cup is the day I will find a random hobo and kiss him on the mouth

So at least one day of competition, I’m going to be wearing that shirt at the Bianchi Cup. The other days I’ll be wearing something with about 100% less hobo-kissing references

Springfield XD

Marketing!

Posted on by Caleb

Robb Leatham on the XDM in multiple parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

I owned (past tense) an XD in .40, not the XDM but rather the 5 inch tactical model, and it was an excellent gun. If someone was looking for a polymer pistol to shoot Production division (or ESP in IDPA) with, then I wouldn’t have any hesitation to recommend the XDM to them.

shooting/sports

Perfect Practice

Posted on by Caleb

One of the comments that Dave Thomas with USPSA made on Tuesday’s Gun Nuts was something that deserves further attention, and also dovetails nicely into a comment made by BJ Norris at his blog the other day.  Dave said that the top shooters in Steel Challenge are the guys who practice hard for it – and not just shooting matches or plinking at the range, but structured disciplined practice.  On his blog, BJ talked about when he practices his goal is to only shoot hits into the A-Zone regardless of time.

That leads us to the subject of “perfect practice”, which is practice for a specific skillset done in such a way to only enforce and train position habits.  You set out to your practice, whether it’s presentation, mag changes, hitting a steel plate at 25 yards, whatever your goal is; you practice in such a way that only effective techniques are enforced.  For example, I’ve been practicing for Bianchi Cup, admittedly less than I’d want to thank to the weather lately.  One of the stages at Bianchi Cup involves shooting a target that is 50 yards distant with a handgun.  When I set up my “perfect practice” session for this, my goal was to hit the 10 ring with every shot, regardless of time.  The 10 ring on a Bianchi Cup target is 8 inches with a 4 inch x-ring in the center.  Any shots outside of the 10 ring, whether they were an 8 or a 5 were considered a failure.  After about 20 rounds, I could immediately tell whether or not a shot was good, just by judging my mechanics.

The part where perfect practice comes into play was this – after 50 or so rounds, I could feel my mechanics start to get loose – I wasn’t following through as well, I was losing the front sight, slapping the trigger, etc.  In perfect practice, that’s when you put the gun down and step away.  Continuing to shoot at that point will only cause you to reinforce negative habits that will lead to poor scores on the range.  Once you’ve rested and “cleared your mind” so to speak, then go ahead and resume your practice.

I use this same principle when I’m practicing for IDPA matches.  I know that in a major match I’m going to throw shots in to the B zone and C zone from time to time – but during practice, only A-zone (Down 0) hits are acceptable.

If you’re practicing for a particular shooting sport such as IDPA, USPSA, Bianchi Cup, it’s tremendously important to build your practice around the goals of that sport.  Whether it’s mag changes or shooting the mover – your practice must be disciplined and focused to improve your skill, otherwise it’s just wasting ammo.

Uncategorized

Upcoming Steel Matches

Posted on by Caleb

If you listened to the Gun Nuts Radio on the Steel Challenge, you may be looking for Steel Matches in your area.  Here are some of the major matches coming up for steel shooters:

The Northeast Regional Championship: June 5th & 6th

The Northwest Regional Championship: June 25th & 26th

For more info on those two matches, check out US Steel Shoot.

Also on June 6th is the Washington State Steel Championship.

While not a sanctioned Steel Challenge match, the Pro-Am Challenge is June 11th-14th.

If you’re among my Hoosier readers and are looking for something close to home, this Friday is Friday Night Steel at Marion County Fish & Game.  Then next weekend is the Steel Challenge match at Atlanta Conservation Club.  I believe that Atlanta will also be hosting the Indiana State Steel Challenge Championship this year, but I’ve not yet heard an annoucement on that.

Also, check out the club lookup function on the Steel Challenge website.  You can find local affiliated clubs and see if they’re holding matches in your area!  Now go shoot some steel!

revolvers

Smith & Wesson 686SSR

Posted on by Caleb

Do want.  Do want very, very much.  The new Smith & Wesson 686SSR Pro Series revolver is now available according to S&W’s website.

  • Forged Hammer
  • Forged Trigger
  • Chamfered Charge Holes
  • Custom Barrel with Recessed Precision Crown
  • Bossed Mainspring
  • Ergonomic Grip to Force High-Hand Hold, Tuned Action

    • The Smith & Wesson Pro Series are the next step up from the production line while still remaining true to “Stock”. Bringing competition specifications and features to factory models, the Pro Series offer that ready-to-go package while still maintaining production line integrity.

It’s a 6 shot .357 Magnum built on the 686 frame, and as you can see from the feature list above, it comes from the factory “tuned-up” for competition shooting.  The “SSR” stands for Stock Service Revolver, which is one of IDPA’s competitive divisions, and a division in which this revolver is practically purpose built for.  I’m not much of a wheelgun shooter, but if I were given the opportunity to attack some IDPA with a wheelgun, this would be my top choice for an “off the shelf gun”.  S&W pretty much owns the competition revolver market, and guns like this are exactly why.