Gmoats, we're on the same page.
What I meant was that a guy's competitive nature (when presented with a timer and rankings) will make the match impractical, not the actual timer and rankings themselves.
For example, if you said "Let's go shoot" I'd probably grab my duty gun and Level3 holster. But if you said "Let's go shoot and see who is faster and more accurate" I'd most certainly grab my Dawson sighted, Bluedreaux-trigger-jobbed, 5" gun with mag pouches and holster tweaked to fit my draw. It's my competitive nature that makes it impractical (because I know a timer and score sheet will be there). If that makes any sense....
I've made about $3K dollars shooting this year. The practical aspect of it is long gone for me, I treat it like a sport. And fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) the matches have catered to the sporting aspect of it. I've got two big matches left this year and they're both "practical-stock gun" oriented matches. But I just finished reading one of the rule books again so that I can be legal, but show up with every advantage that I can. I'll never cheat to win, but I figure that if "Gun X" wasn't welcome, it'd be real easy to say in the rule book "Gun X isn't welcome". If there's a prize table, I'm gonna show up to win.
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I've never seen a guy who treated shooting as a sport look down on or mock the guys who treated it as training. But you can bet the "training" guys will scoff at the "gamers" all day. Not directed at anyone here, just an observation. It's really the opposite of what I'd expect.
