When I worked at the range people would often show me their pistol targets impressed with themselves. I'd be polite and play along, but in my head I'd be thinking... "If you ever tried to shoot me from that close, I would stab you! Christ's sake it a wonder the target doesn't have burn marks on it from the muzzle flash!"

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Cool. I was shooting a P2000SK……….sort of like a life raft gun to that MK23. You know you hang 4 or 5 of them off of it in case of emergencies.

The P2000sk is my favorite carry gun. My groups open up a bit with it. Were you shooting in .40 or .357 sig?

My SK is a 9x19mm. My “full size” P2000’s actually carry better for me in most circumstances but I love that little SK from 10-17 rounds it’s a great shooter.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by YVK:
In my experience attending a USPSA match works great for bringing almost everyone back to Earth.

Attending? I would think participating? Perhaps that's what you meant?

I've been meaning to give USPSA or IDPA a try for years. Maybe this coming year will be the year?

I've also found nearby clubs that hold pin-shooting and steel challenge matches.

I think, were I to do it, I'd start with pin-shooting (I've done that before--it's fun), then go to steel challenge, then to IDPA or USPSA.

Yes, I meant participating but even attending can be educational.
Pins and SC are close to each other, SC has an extra dimension or two to it. Neither does much to prep you for action type sports. If time and ammo allowed, I would shoot everything in parallel and see what sticks.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

I dunno... If I'm going to be blasting away I'll put a full-size silhouette target out at seven yards and practice double- and triple-taps.

And, even then, if it looks much worse than this, then I ain't doin' it right:

USPSA A zone is about 6 x 11 and my 30 rounds "group" today was about all of that, at least vertically, and a couple of rounds out, at 10 yards.
That was with a factory 230 grain ball, 194 pf - 356 ft-lb muzzle energy, shooting the doubles drill at .16-.17 second splits. As jljones mentioned above, the target doesn't mean much without training context.

USPSA and IDPA are often a gut check.

Everyone has a plan until “Shooter ready”

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Originally posted by jljones:
USPSA and IDPA are often a gut check.

Everyone has a plan until “Shooter ready”

My plans stay with me a little longer. Maybe till I screw up something midway the stage, then it is all apart

Probably a function of local mix, around here it is USPSA. After my third or fourth IDPA match I was competing for overall win. USPSA, the talent pool is so deep that I need a scuba tank to swim with them.

I got so frustrated working at a commercial range I transitioned into sales, where at least it's a tiny bit safer. I used to joke about the economy of targets - people paid money for them so they wanted to put bullets into all of it, instead of one small hole. People would keep targets as trophies that I'd be embarrassed to be seen around.

At my one range, there were bullet holes/marks on the wall about eye level and about two feet away from the last lane on the left. That is some scary shit!

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Watching gun handling tells me more about someone’s training, or lack there of.

You're right about that.

One poor habit surprisingly comes from Master class shooters that should know better. After the stage is complete, they will quickly drop the magazine, rack the slide a couple of times and re-holster. If I'm running the stage, they WILL take to time to show me an empty chamber.
Sometimes we get too comfortable handling firearms.

I have seen some bad shooters, but one that stands out was a woman cop. She was right next to me and practicing for pistol qualification. At three yards she couldn't even quite keep them all on the paper of the full size silhouette target.

I can't see how she could have passed the qualifier.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
USPSA and IDPA are often a gut check.

Everyone has a plan until “Shooter ready”

When I was shooting competitively, a fair number of cops would show up for one weekly informal match. One, and no more. They had too much ego to come back after a poor performance. A few would stick it out and get to be good shooters, too.

I see a lot of Dunning–Kruger effect at some of the ranges.

Funny, to me, anyway, range story of a sort.

There was a guy a few lanes down from me with his B-8 target out to about ten yards, shooting one large-ish ragged hole a bit low and left of the X-ring. Rapidly, too.

After a while I wander over there and call out "Nice shooting!", only to find out he was shooting it with a PCC with an optic

My favorite funny range story was there was a dude next to me one time shooting a KAHR P9, not badly or dangerously, but I would hear BANG…son of a bitch….BANG…owww…….BANG…..God dammit owww.

So I lean over and ask if everything is ok. He just smiles and says it’s fine, it’s just that this damn gun hurts to shoot. I smiled and said something like yeah some of them can.

Well I happened to have brought a .357 Jframe that day and I happened to be shooting a rare box of full house .357 Maggie defensive ammo.

I Light off the first cylinder BOOOOOOMMMM. BOOOOOOOOMMMMM. BOOOOOOMMMM. flame, pomp circumstance etc.

When I finish I turn around to see my shooting “neighbor” next to me. All he says, with a smile, is “I’ll stop being pussy now.” Cracked me up.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I have seen some bad shooters, but one that stands out was a woman cop. She was right next to me and practicing for pistol qualification. At three yards she couldn't even quite keep them all on the paper of the full size silhouette target.

I can't see how she could have passed the qualifier.

Many don’t. They have to come back time and again. I worked with one that expended 3000 rounds of 22 trying to get ready to shoot the state required annual qual. And for years, no one ever saw her actually qualify- she was always sent on another day away from patrol officers.

Another one(female) was so dangerous that I began asking if she was gonna be in our group for qual day. Once I told the sgt what the deal was he gave me an order to report to the range. I just sat in my patrol car and didn’t qual-came back the next day w/o said female and qualled with 100%. When I went back to work the sgt apologized to me-apparently she did something stupid that night and he became enlightened .

She also put a round of simmunition into a sgts foot at the clearing barrel when she was supposed to be clearing her gun and turning it in.

And don’t think there weren’t men who couldn’t qual. There were.

HOW!! Do you MISS the clearing barrel???

I mean that’s like me lighting around off in a room and missing 4 walls, a floor AND the ceiling.

One of the local police departments used to run an invitational match that was open to other departments as well as our club. A number of their officers would shoot our outdoor summer and indoor winter duty gun leagues, so we were also invited. At one of those matches, we were prepping to leave when two cops came in talking about how they shot. The one said he did much better this time because he did not shoot out any of the lights. This on an indoor range and he was serious.

quote:

One poor habit surprisingly comes from Master class shooters that should know better. After the stage is complete, they will quickly drop the magazine, rack the slide a couple of times and re-holster. If I'm running the stage, they WILL take to time to show me an empty chamber.

Around here, the reminder is "Unload and show clear is not a timed event."


I hate to come down on the women, but there was one policewoman heard to say "The Sergeant had to shoot the shotgun for me."
We had an FBI agent who is smart and personable, no doubt a good investigator, but she is a terrible shot, as observed by another woman who is a fine shooter.

quote:

Originally posted by Blaque Jacque Shellaque:
... we were prepping to leave when two cops came in talking about how they shot. The one said he did much better this time because he did not shoot out any of the lights. This on an indoor range and he was serious.

Sportsman's club where I was once a member was obliged to regularly patch holes in the roof of the indoor range.

A while back I sold a Ruger 10/22 to a buddy at work. He put a scope on it and brought me his target after his first day at the range with it.

He was so proud of it.

I think he was shooting at like 50 feet or something...maybe less, and I probably wouldn't have been able to cover all of the holes with a pie plate....It would have been close anyway.

I just smiled and and said, "Yeah, I'm glad you like it."

I just didn't have the heart to tell him.