Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Competition vs "real world"

I enjoy the Texas Plinking videos. It is enlightening in a real world way, no spoter, the wind is what it is and the most success seems to come from shooters using a load that they can see their impacts and adjust. I like the run what you brung aspect.

He lives an unarmed slaves life in Australia and gets pizzy anytime someone talks about shooting, cause he is not allowed by his masters in Canberra.


I think we all agree competition is not required to be good at field shooting but it would be required to be "the best".

Just my pedantic post of the day.

I believe competition will improve one's shooting and it does not have to be formal. Watch a few vidoes of current shooting, what ever type, and compete with that by your self. To get better one needs to know what's better.

For the local club competitions equipment racers can influence participation of newbies or established participants.

I've seen this where there were say 20 shooters would show up for a monthly match. A few equipment racers would begin their spending on better equipment. Hi score was shot among those few month over month.

Some who remained chose to shoot anyhow just for fun.

Participation dwindled over time to where a few remained damaging the fun shoots and killing the match.

Just an observation.

This wasn't much of a problem for disciplines like Bullseye pistol where shooters were ranked by the first several weeks scores, A, B, C, D ranked groups of shooters. But sandbagging the first weeks could be a problem.

Are you sure? I thought the only truly sanctioned method was center of the anus, twice around the balls, and to just beyond the tip.

Where’s Paul when you need clarification on stuff like this??

That schidt [competition] will get you killed on the street! If you carry a gun for self defense you will never know how good you are or aren't if you don't compete. Participating in USPSA or IDPA is the best reality check you can get.

Participating in comps will probably motivate you to get better which leads to more practice and regular dry fire.
Soon the goal will become unconscious competence which allows you to analyze and solve problems under pressure thus allowing you to eliminate threats efficiently and not shoot non threats.

Or you can join the masses that quote stats and chant 3 feet, 3 seconds and 1 shot w/ my 45 will get er dun.

If you think you are good enough you probably don't own a shot timer.


mike r

On the flip side, I love when I can beat people shooting race guns with my carry gun at USPSA. It's literally win-win. If I don't, well, they have an optic and comp, and I'm shooting limited minor......

Good point, I'll ask Paul if he'll allow it. But he'll probably ly just ask if I want to discuss it over a nice dinner at a Viking restaurant.

And to clarify my comment on dick measuring contests, it was not a reference to the competitions themselves. It was a reference to the threads on here discussing the competitions. No matter how they start, they all end up with Paul on the measuring tape.

Putting your ego aside and inserting reality does lead to great things. Training w/ Tier 1 combat vets led me to competing w/ my carry G19 and striving to make all A zone hits. I didn't win comps but became a more competent and confident shooter.


mike r

Sporting clays, skeet, and trap, helped my shotgun shooting skills tremendously. Moving targets are fun to hit. I hit well with my rifle and pistol. However, most rifle and pistol ranges you are only shooting still targets. Maybe learning to shoot them faster would help. Never shot in a pistol or rifle match. Have a friend who goes to Cowboy Action shooting. That would be fun, but have to buy another pistol, and an old fashioned pump or double barrel shotgun for the matches.

It's almost like what you get out of it depends on what effort you put into it.......

Thanks for posting that. I like it.

I haven't competed beyond the "Club" level in any discipline. Local F-Class is fun. Mostly a bunch of guys who just like to shoot and learn about trajectory, reading wind, and develop good shooting technique. Our very small private range has a couple BR matches annually that I try to make. I don't stand a snowball's chance in Hades of placing let-alone winning, but it's a really fun bunch to hang out with so I go and I shoot.

We typically swap annually between Skeet and 5-stand because that's what we have locally that isn't Trap. The team is just a bunch who like to keep the rust knocked off so as to be competent when fall rolls around again. Not serious and it's as much about a plate of hot-wings and a beer after shooting as it is the shooting.

I attended the local practical pistol shooters weekly league exactly once. I didn't enjoy their company at all. Core group of 4-5 guys who wanted to make the course really hard as they had some matches coming up. My sense was that really they set up the course to keep everyone except that core group away so those 4-5 guys could have the range to themselves once a week.

I've seen very competitive rifle-shooters completely lose their mind on live targets from coyotes to elk. Most of them fall into the: "I've done it once so I can now do it all the time" crowd. I've also seen people who don't practice much at all with good hand/eye coordination be pretty darn proficient on critters with a rifle.

I grew up in the heart of pheasant country during the peak years of CRP. I grew up smack dead-center of the "Good Old Days" of pheasant hunting in North America. Upland birds in open country is by far the large bulk of my field experience, especially as it pertains to observing a lot of other hunters as during the 80's and 90's, large groups of hunters were very common. I've seen a LOT of very proficient trap, skeet, and sporting clays shooters that were mediocre at best on live bird, even over dogs. More often that not their problem was EGO and trying to "get the bird first", a few just came completely unglued upon a flush. This is also where I've seen a bunch of shooters who virtually practice 0% off-season be exceptional wing-shooters with nothing more than some good hand-eye coordination and enough experience/flushes that the shooting was almost all just muscle-memory and they didn't get rattled or over-think things.

The only think I know about shooting handguns is that pretty-much everyone is better at it than I am.

I am a big advocate for participating in the shooting sports. I started my boys out in Steel Challenge when they were 7-8 years old and then into USPSA by 12. It’s been something that we could do together and it’s always fun to watch them try to beat each other and their old man.
But, most importantly, it has taught them (and me):
• How to shoot under stress
• How to clearly identify targets and make accurate shots, recognize them while already moving on to the next target, avoid the targets you don’t want to shoot and all while moving and not just standing still in a weaver stance on a square range.
• Reloading fast and smoothly under stress and not shooting to empty before doing so.
• Making repeated headshots on moving targets while you’re also moving.
• Making a plan of “attack” and sticking with it when the buzzer goes off (the mental aspect is huge).
• Making fast and accurate follow-up shots on moving and static targets.
Clearing your weapon quickly and smoothly under pressure if there's a "jam" and continuing on.
• Gaining complete confidence in your weapon, it’s capabilities and yours with it.

Yes, yes, we all know that the stress of a competition is not the same as the stress of a real-life shootout, but I’m damn well more prepared for one than I was before I started and so are my sons.
Plus, it’s fun and the guys and gals that we shoot with are some of the best people a person could know. We’ve made life-long friends in this sport. Watched kids grow up in it.

Our club is very encouraging to new shooters and especially to family groups. We’ve got multiple families that not only participate but excel in it.

We run USPSA the 2nd Saturday of each month, Outlaw Steel the 4th Saturday and Steel Challenge on 5th Saturdays. We routinely run 60 shooters per match and have 15 or so that travel at least 2 hours to come to each match. We run our stages to be challenging and generally have stages that are fun and challenging for all class levels. We have unclassified shooters all the way through Master (and every couple of months a Grand Master factory sponsored shooter) at each match. We run at least 2 certified RO’s with each squad and always work with the new shooters to make sure they are safe and having a great time. Most of us also participate in other matches outside of our club at least once a month in addition to state, sectional and national level matches.

So, for me and my family, it has been a worthwhile endeavor on so many levels that I can’t imagine not participating.

100% of all MATCHES are won by 2% of all the shooters!

That's awesome!!!

I'm looking to get my son shooting precision rimfire matches with his Bergara B14r. It most certainly won't hurt his shooting while hunting.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

How do you hit the targets?

It's been my experience that shooting well is a perishable skill. More so if you're doing it fast or under stress. I don't think, however, that he's saying he doesn't check zero before hunting, just that he doesn't spend a lot of time shooting paper or steel???

A lot of people don’t compete because it may reveal an untruth about their marksmanship ability!

I agree with Goalie in his OP & also what Mackay said later.

I've never competed with a rifle, other than just a few club shoots of various types, but I did compete with a pistol & traveled a 3 state area in the summer.

Competing, plus all the trigger time required for practice, makes most everyone who does it regularly, better, period. 500-1000 round of practice a week tend to have a positive effect on your shooting.

And it does it in a lot of ways: obviously speed & accuracy are 2 pieces that get better over time, at least until you hit a wall.

But other good things also happen; you get to a point where you are highly focused, but it's a kind of sub-conscious focus in that you are not having to think about every element any longer.

The gun comes up & almost on it's own, acquires the target & almost sub-consciously you squeeze off the shot...................it's not only muscle memory at play, but mental memory as well.

And that carries over into your more casual shooting & range practice experiences; I've never been in a situation on the street to test that, but I believe that the muscle & mental memory takes over you you can execute almost w/o thinking about it

When the gun comes up, everything goes more or less on autopilot, unless you get the brain signal to stop.

JME

MM