Up until COVID came along I was really making a thing of firearm competitions...
I started my direct exposure with steel challenge. A coworker of mine was exploring it and we were both "gun guys" and he invited me along to watch it one day... yeah I was hooked and couldn't help but wonder why I was watching instead of participating.
So dabbled in steel challenge just for grins- an excuse to get out of the house and stay away from the bars and just shoot whatever pistol I hadn't for some time. I was never much good but always had fun and enjoyed spending the day with like minded people while blasting rounds downrange.
It wasn't too much longer that the same coworker started getting into other pistol matches and the club hosted an introduction to IDPA & USPSA one Saturday and I was invited to come along (which I did). Yep- still hooked and then some. Things started to get really expensive around this point...
I was hitting up local Steel Challenge matches, IDPA matches, USPSA matches, GSSF matches (which proved to be rather lucrative), etc. Up until the hook being set- I was primarily a rifle guy but loved getting lost in the pistol games for a number of years. Never was the "best" nor the "worst" just regularly 'midpack' and I was always ok with that because it was more of a social/fun thing for me.
Well I'll tell you what- COVID came 5 years ago and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things (and doing a poor job of it I might add). By April 2020, just about all the matches around my neck of the woods stopped for a time. Those were crazy times.
I still vividly remember the last USPSA match I shot- it was JUL 2020 things (at the time) I don't know..."eased" up and people started pushing back against the lockdowns and the gun folks were amongst the first & loudest (not much of a surprise there).
Well long story short- I remember standing at that USPSA match (just thrilled to be back out with like minded folks again) and on one of the early stages they called everyone to "huddle up" to read the stage briefing (just like they always did) but something stuck out to me afterwards after doing the brief while folks were doing their "walkthroughs's" (I called it and still call it tactical fantasy ballet but that's just me) and I had a moment where I thought about my family & that my (now) wife was being the primary caregiver for her grandmother who was in her 90's. Well that was kind of the moment I lost my momentum with pistol competitions- it's not that I didn't enjoy them but just remember feeling selfish & thinking that regardless of my own personal thoughts of what was going on at that time, I needed to start thinking about my soon to be extended family (we had gotten engaged less than a year prior with all intentions to marry spring of 2020).
Just as a disclaimer- this isn't me getting on any type of soapbox here, it'd be ridiculous to insinuate anything about that time 5+ years later now (has it really been that long), just remenecinmg is all.
Needing to wrap things up now...
-I didn't get back into the steel challenge because while I liked the pace of it, the league was set up so there was two relays (morning & afternoon) and folks were allowed to sign up for 2 slots per relay. So the regulars shot 4x (twice in the morning & twice in the afternoon relay) and it was the same crew & they got first choice in registering before it became open. Don't get me wrong- I get it, just the click element & having to fight for the scraps (positions left in either relay) got to be tiresome for me personally so I haven't gotten back into it myself.
-With USPSA, I'd have to say this was my favorite "sport" to participate in mainly because I liked the "freestyle" aspect of it & the higher round count. Let's be frank here- if you're going to spend 8+ hours at a match there's something to be said about having a total trigger time of say 5 minutes with 300 rounds as compared to half that with other disciplines for the same amount of commitment. What kind of turned me off personally though was the (admittedly minority) of folks that USPSA attracted. These were cats that lived & breathed USPSA. They would quite literally travel hours to hit a match each weekend/day of the weekend and took this incredibly seriously.
I'm not mad about that either- it's just that my personal motivation was to get out and have fun and this small but vocal group had, in some cases, 10's of thousands of dollars tied into the sport and they came about their participation differently is all. And I get it- I really do, but some of these cats were the stereotypical "Type A" personalities and they brought that... I don' know what else to call it but not trying to offend anyone here either but ego with them. Put another way- every little thing became an argument between them & the RO/SO (which made the day that much longer). I found & still find the walk through's, aka "tactical ballet" to be ridiculous and again another thing that makes the match much longer than it needs to be.
I digress- my point is while I liked USPSA the most, the characters that came with it didn't exactly jive with my personal approach is all. I get it, I get it- not *****ing about them directly either, just pointing out out the excuses I've built on why I've been fighting to return to my former competition schedule.
-IDPA: Not going to lie- this was probably my preference just because of how things worked here locally. To get things out of the way- yeah you still had the Tactical Timmy types and that got... well frustrating at moments. I still remember one stage where the SO (pretty sure I got the initials right for IDPA) all but chastised a shooter for doing the stage "wrong" and by "wrong" I mean not tactically... Whelp this particular fella admittedly did do things differently than what the stage brief outlined but this fella also had rather severe TBI from being a grunt in Afganistan and pulling the short straw. I don't know what it is about life but I just remember that stage so clearly, what he did, what the SO said, and him just looking at him and saying that's not now the Marines would have done it...
Perhaps I just 'jive' with those folks better and/or I like the shenanigans it brings (like shooting off of the back of a pickup truck for a stage as an example) or maybe it's just the pizza that particular group would end every monthly match with but those were likely my favorites.
Anyway- I really do need to get to my point here... My entire interest stemed from wanting to get into 3-gun specifically. The one piece of the puzzle I've always been missing was a proper shotgun and I finally am at the point where I could acquire a decent one but as the title suggests- I feel a bit late & a a bit poorer for that matter because all the local 3 gun matches that used to be here however many years ago have now all seemingly went to 2 gun matches (rifle & pistol/ with PCC being more & more acceptable for a rifle replacement due to cost) .
But dang it- I've got a shotgun now for the gun games and I'm going to show it off!
Beretta 1301 Comp... 24". Give me a month or so and I'll continue to pour money into this to get the +4 extension/bracket all that jazz and by the end of the year I'm going to have a super awesome shotgun ready to go for 3 gun...
Just don't know where/when I'll be able to use it is all...
-LD
I started my direct exposure with steel challenge. A coworker of mine was exploring it and we were both "gun guys" and he invited me along to watch it one day... yeah I was hooked and couldn't help but wonder why I was watching instead of participating.
So dabbled in steel challenge just for grins- an excuse to get out of the house and stay away from the bars and just shoot whatever pistol I hadn't for some time. I was never much good but always had fun and enjoyed spending the day with like minded people while blasting rounds downrange.
It wasn't too much longer that the same coworker started getting into other pistol matches and the club hosted an introduction to IDPA & USPSA one Saturday and I was invited to come along (which I did). Yep- still hooked and then some. Things started to get really expensive around this point...
I was hitting up local Steel Challenge matches, IDPA matches, USPSA matches, GSSF matches (which proved to be rather lucrative), etc. Up until the hook being set- I was primarily a rifle guy but loved getting lost in the pistol games for a number of years. Never was the "best" nor the "worst" just regularly 'midpack' and I was always ok with that because it was more of a social/fun thing for me.
Well I'll tell you what- COVID came 5 years ago and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things (and doing a poor job of it I might add). By April 2020, just about all the matches around my neck of the woods stopped for a time. Those were crazy times.
I still vividly remember the last USPSA match I shot- it was JUL 2020 things (at the time) I don't know..."eased" up and people started pushing back against the lockdowns and the gun folks were amongst the first & loudest (not much of a surprise there).
Well long story short- I remember standing at that USPSA match (just thrilled to be back out with like minded folks again) and on one of the early stages they called everyone to "huddle up" to read the stage briefing (just like they always did) but something stuck out to me afterwards after doing the brief while folks were doing their "walkthroughs's" (I called it and still call it tactical fantasy ballet but that's just me) and I had a moment where I thought about my family & that my (now) wife was being the primary caregiver for her grandmother who was in her 90's. Well that was kind of the moment I lost my momentum with pistol competitions- it's not that I didn't enjoy them but just remember feeling selfish & thinking that regardless of my own personal thoughts of what was going on at that time, I needed to start thinking about my soon to be extended family (we had gotten engaged less than a year prior with all intentions to marry spring of 2020).
Just as a disclaimer- this isn't me getting on any type of soapbox here, it'd be ridiculous to insinuate anything about that time 5+ years later now (has it really been that long), just remenecinmg is all.
Needing to wrap things up now...
-I didn't get back into the steel challenge because while I liked the pace of it, the league was set up so there was two relays (morning & afternoon) and folks were allowed to sign up for 2 slots per relay. So the regulars shot 4x (twice in the morning & twice in the afternoon relay) and it was the same crew & they got first choice in registering before it became open. Don't get me wrong- I get it, just the click element & having to fight for the scraps (positions left in either relay) got to be tiresome for me personally so I haven't gotten back into it myself.
-With USPSA, I'd have to say this was my favorite "sport" to participate in mainly because I liked the "freestyle" aspect of it & the higher round count. Let's be frank here- if you're going to spend 8+ hours at a match there's something to be said about having a total trigger time of say 5 minutes with 300 rounds as compared to half that with other disciplines for the same amount of commitment. What kind of turned me off personally though was the (admittedly minority) of folks that USPSA attracted. These were cats that lived & breathed USPSA. They would quite literally travel hours to hit a match each weekend/day of the weekend and took this incredibly seriously.
I'm not mad about that either- it's just that my personal motivation was to get out and have fun and this small but vocal group had, in some cases, 10's of thousands of dollars tied into the sport and they came about their participation differently is all. And I get it- I really do, but some of these cats were the stereotypical "Type A" personalities and they brought that... I don' know what else to call it but not trying to offend anyone here either but ego with them. Put another way- every little thing became an argument between them & the RO/SO (which made the day that much longer). I found & still find the walk through's, aka "tactical ballet" to be ridiculous and again another thing that makes the match much longer than it needs to be.
I digress- my point is while I liked USPSA the most, the characters that came with it didn't exactly jive with my personal approach is all. I get it, I get it- not *****ing about them directly either, just pointing out out the excuses I've built on why I've been fighting to return to my former competition schedule.
-IDPA: Not going to lie- this was probably my preference just because of how things worked here locally. To get things out of the way- yeah you still had the Tactical Timmy types and that got... well frustrating at moments. I still remember one stage where the SO (pretty sure I got the initials right for IDPA) all but chastised a shooter for doing the stage "wrong" and by "wrong" I mean not tactically... Whelp this particular fella admittedly did do things differently than what the stage brief outlined but this fella also had rather severe TBI from being a grunt in Afganistan and pulling the short straw. I don't know what it is about life but I just remember that stage so clearly, what he did, what the SO said, and him just looking at him and saying that's not now the Marines would have done it...
Perhaps I just 'jive' with those folks better and/or I like the shenanigans it brings (like shooting off of the back of a pickup truck for a stage as an example) or maybe it's just the pizza that particular group would end every monthly match with but those were likely my favorites.
Anyway- I really do need to get to my point here... My entire interest stemed from wanting to get into 3-gun specifically. The one piece of the puzzle I've always been missing was a proper shotgun and I finally am at the point where I could acquire a decent one but as the title suggests- I feel a bit late & a a bit poorer for that matter because all the local 3 gun matches that used to be here however many years ago have now all seemingly went to 2 gun matches (rifle & pistol/ with PCC being more & more acceptable for a rifle replacement due to cost) .
But dang it- I've got a shotgun now for the gun games and I'm going to show it off!
Beretta 1301 Comp... 24". Give me a month or so and I'll continue to pour money into this to get the +4 extension/bracket all that jazz and by the end of the year I'm going to have a super awesome shotgun ready to go for 3 gun...
Just don't know where/when I'll be able to use it is all...
-LD
