Sometimes you have to get out of the kiddie pool and jump into the deep end of the big pool. Hey the water is great.
All kidding aside I would highly recommend really giving it more of a chance and actually play the game. If you want to shoot a single stack 1911 there is a division for that.
Per USPSA rules the scores of all the division shouldn’t be combined and the should only show your scores with others shooting in the same division. Scores posted on the USPSA website will not show combined scores. I would recommend against shooting USPSA matches where the club isn’t part of USPSA or doesn’t post the scores there.
Then how it’s scored and how you’re being evaluated shouldn’t matter.
This was a major issue back when IDPA was tipping over from being a cool-guy tactical “event” to the shooting “game” it is today. A lot of people were complaining that the rules penalized the folks who, ironically, claimed they were there for training and not for competition.
If you are attending a competition for some reason other than competition, you shouldn’t worry about your score or anyone else’s.
On the other hand, one might reasonably question the practical validity of a “tactic” that requires you to spend 10 seconds engaging a few targets that better shooters are knocking down in 3 seconds.
It’s wrong for gamers to assume that their speed will overcome a lack of tactics, but it’s just as wrong for anti-gamers to assume that their tactics will overcome a lack of shooting ability.
I started this thread to try to understand the document that the club published to see if there was a way to easily pick out a “misses” column. I needed to understand how it was scored in order to be able to do this. Alternately, I’ll simply walk with the RO from now on and not worry about the list at all, as that would appear to be the easiest route.
For example, we report our carbine match scores in terms of raw time, hits on non-threat, failure to neutralize, procedurals, failures to do right, and total score. A shooter can tell at a glance if he went too fast for his abilities by looking at the number of FTNs & NTs.
I think that, for whatever reason, some people seem to perceive others that don’t care to participate for the same reasons they do as a condemnation of them. It’s quite the opposite. I’m not attacking USPSA, or those that shoot it, or anything else. In truth I don’t care about any of that. As long as they leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone. My previous outing with USPSA consisted of an entire day of listening to everyone and their brother give me unsolicited advice on how to “win”. Fortunately this last outing consisted of much less of that, and I anticipate that trend will continue from the indicators I have.
Maybe I will wind up there, maybe I won’t. Considering how long I shot IDPA and how much more I enjoyed it when I left the “game playing” behind, I kind of doubt it will happen. I have particular goals for right now, and they don’t involve worrying about the game other than making sure I obey the rules sufficiently to be allowed to continue to participate and understand the scoring well enough to be able to read the published scores to evaluate my performance by my own standard. It doesn’t look like #2 is going to happen, at least not in the short term, so I’ll just continue to show up, enjoy the hell out of myself, work on the things I want to, shoot the stages my way, and walk with the SO to assess my performance based on my own goals.
Understood. I always walked with the scorekeeper to see my hits. That’s definitely the best way to understand exactly how your accuracy measured up.
I think that, for whatever reason, some people seem to perceive others that don’t care to participate for the same reasons they do as a condemnation of them.
Agreed. I’ve seen that in both IDPA and USPSA. I’ve watched SOs at IDPA Nationals browbeat IPSC GMs and/or hold them to a different standard in terms of penalties because “they should know better” or “they should be able to shoot better.” And I’ve had more than my fair share of USPSA gurus explain to me that an IWB holster – or any pistol with a barrel less than 5" long – is a bad idea.
Ugh, I know what you mean. I have to sit at IDPA matches and listen to guys talk “tactics” behind the line, or admonish shooters about use of cover because of “tactics” (which is different than explaining the rules of the game, which I have to do all the time), or at the USPSA listening to guys tell me “reload here” or “don’t use that holster” or “you should do xyz to win”.
Generally makes me regret my Sordins, and wish I went with the custom plugs and non-electronic muffs on top.
The problem a lot “tacticians” have with IDPA’s cover rule is that they’re always thinking in terms of slow deliberate sneak/pie approach to moving around a corner. They think that exposing 1" less of your body is worth needing two extra seconds to get your hits. The problem is that in the real world, that cover you’re behind isn’t cover and those two seconds you’re taking to pie it slowly involve an idiot bad guy (or guys) sending a cloud of lead in your direction that’s quite likely to penetrate through the wall as if it weren’t there.
