Cops in this country are not, and never really have been, actively involved in shooting competitions, especially pistol shooting.

Earlier tonight I was in the patrol base having coffee with a couple of colleagues from another Highway workgroup, one who is new to Highway Patrol. While talking to subject of my last pistol competition arose and I made the comment I won in my grade.

The new guy turned out to be a pistol shooter too, from another area and shooting another discipline (HMS). He asked me how much time I put into preparing and practicing for my competitions, and how much I shot each month in order to win grade medals. My initial reply was "My wife would say too much"' but he was serious. He added that he was also interested in knowing how I prepared for a competition, so after thinking for a few seconds I gave him this answer.

While I like to shoot a couple of CAS events and a speed event each year, I mostly shoot IPSC. My club is one of only three in the North Island with enough range space to shoot a 12 stage North Island competition, and one of only two able to hold an 18 stage Nationals.

As well as my clubs own two annual 12 stage two day competitions we either hold, or host another club to hold, either the NI's or the Nationals each year. I also shoot in a Level III event 3 1/2 hours drive away, so I end up competing in 4 or 5 Level II or III competitions between September and April annually. My club keeps one, sometimes two, stages set up after each comp with both fixed and movable targets and sight barriers.

I shoot in Classic Division, which means a 1911 A 1. I have three. The main one is a Springfield Armoury .45 ACP. Next up is a Norinco Ranger also in .45 that I bought to shoot CAS Wild Bunch but which also doubles as a spare IPSC gun with the additions of a wrap round mag well grip. Finally there is my Kimber Stainless Target II in 9mm.

Preparation for my next comp stars a day or so after the last when I select the pistol and ammunition to use. My last competition was a Single Stack Classic designed for major PF magazine capacities, so it was my Springfield .45 and ammo was a 200 gn PFP loaded with a PF of 165 -168. MY next comp is the Wild Bunch Nationals so the current gun is the Ranger and ammo is a 230 gn LRN loaded to a 155 - 158 PF.

I shoot 120 - 150 rounds twice a week. I practice both drills and stages. One drill is designed to improve marksmanship, another target transitions and mag changes. A third shooting on the move. After shooting two drills I move onto the set up IPSC stage, move a few targets/vision barriers around and shoot it in the most logical (to me) way. After scoring, working out the hit factor and patching I try to find another way, less obvious to me, to shoot the stage and compare it to the first. This improves stage planning.

Six weeks before the competition I load the ammo I will use. I always double the round count required. The only difference in loading practices for my competition ammo from my practice rounds is that each round is dropped into the chamber of the pistols barrel to make sure it will feed reliably. The ammo is then put into a plastic container in the bottom of my ammo cupboard.

Four weeks before the competition I pull out the previous years stage book in which I have written my scores, time and hit factor. I recall (as best I can) what worked, what didn't and what some of the other shooters did that worked better than my plan.

Two weeks before the event I shoot my last practice with the pistol I will use. The next day I strip it right down and give it a good clean. Reassembling the pistol I put a small drop of grease on the outside of the trigger bow, pins and all other parts that rub agains each other.

After reassembly I cock and dry fire the pistol at least 20 times. I also lock the slide back and release it using both the slide release and pulling back on the slide another 20 times (I once had too little tension on the sear spring which allowed the hammer to follow the slide forward when released from slide lock causing unexpected and unwanted discharges while reloading).

On my next range trip I take another pistol to use, but also take the competition gun and two magazines loaded with competition ammo. I start the session by firing one magazine slow, deliberate single shots and the second two rounds at a time. This checks function of the gun and sight alignment.

My non shooting colleague commented that this seemed a lot of work for a few minutes shooting. The newbie said I spent more time in preparation than he did, usually he simply turning up the day of the competition with his guns and standard ammo to shoot.

As I got back into my patrol car to resume patrol the thought occurred to me that maybe I took things too seriously and did too much preparation. The term OCD occurred to me.

And I had not even mentioned how I assembled and checked everything in the week before the event, or my routine the on the day. That really is a bit OCD!