Quote:
Originally Posted by Duckford
YouTube
A long winded, but interesting video. Especially about how competition ruins the productive nature of the shooting sports far too often, focusing more on winning than practicality, and the lengths people went to gain an advantage, like attempting to spy on randomized target set ups so they could gain an edge. People lose sight of the real point, fail to learn the proper lessons, take the sport in the wrong direction.
People have asked me why I haven't gotten into competition myself, I like it enough and have a lot of talent as an offhand shooter. Part of it is living in the middle of nowhere with a well structured but limited budget, the other part is the nature of the competitors that show up and the shenanigans they pull, the attitudes that come with it. I would love to learn form other people and watch, but I think I would get awful sick of the nonsense in not too long.
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The video struck a chord with me as I got into IPSC in 1983, and even in the middle of fly over country it didn't take long for the fols with race guns to suck all the fun out of shooting with your duty gun.
Around 2001, a local club I was affiliated with that held monthly practical pistol matches affiliated with IDPA. Initially it was great, and it served as a training venue for the more motivated law enforcement members in the area. Unfortunately, over the course of several years I saw much of the same creeping bias toward competition versus practical application that I saw in IPSC. For example, I don't care how much of a speed loader or moon clip is covered, open topped carriers are just not practical in the real world, and when I saw "that guy" show up, I knew we were pretty much done.
Locally, a couple of the ranges hold less formal practical competition shoots, and I they do provide a great opportunity for people to bring whatever they shoot and get good practical shooting practice.
Unfortunately, they are not well attended. I also noted that some of the attendees won't return if they don't shoot well in comparison to the one or two shooters who may have some competition shooting background.