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IDPA or USPSA ?

16K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  Simonsay 
#1 ·
I would like to do some competitive shooting. Any thoughts,opinions, pros, or cons IDPA vs USPSA would be appreciated.

Bob
 
#2 ·
Depends on what you are looking for. USPSA tends to be faster paced, with higher round counts on each stage. Cover and concealment do not count in USPSA, where in IDPA you must use cover and in most cases start from concealment.

I prefer IDPA because I can compete with my actual carry gear. Plus in my local area there are several IDPA clubs within a 1-2 hour drive. USPSA is not as popular here.

Matt
 
#3 ·
USPSA is solely about the shooting. Stages are more free-form in that every shooter can solve it in his own way, within the rules. IDPA stages end to be scripted: "From Point A shoot with inhuman accuracy. While moving to point B, shoot with inhuman accuracy. Run to point C, shoot with inhuman accuracy...etc" Everyone has to do it the same way.

The stages in IDPA tend to be smaller. Some clubs, like ours, are very defense oriented. Others treat it like USPSA Lite.

For beginners, IDPA is better as the shooters are not as hard core competitive. IDPA shooters tend to be more relaxed and easier going, while USPSA shooters, like the game, are all about the shooting. So, for the environment and for the game itself, I'd start with IDPA. USPSA will definately help your gun skills more and more quickly, but don't stay with it; quit when you start wanting to practice 'for the match'. At that point you'll be hurting your defensive skills by shooting USPSA. You'll ingraine habits that will be hurtful rather than helpful. For instance? A small one--USPSA shooters will tell you to look at the corner of the magwell while reloading. Wrong. Look at the threat.

I've since quit shooting USPSA, but still shoot IDPA. It doesn't tend to ingraine bad habits like USPSA does.

In the end, it's about fun. Go have fun. Don't go to watch, shoot it.
 
#4 ·
Should add. I will be a beginner at competitive shooting. Fortunately, have both available within an hour. USPSA literally across the road.

Thanks for the advice. From doing some reading on both website I had pretty much concluded that IDPA would suit me better.

Bob
 
#5 ·
Shooting USPSA is more game like, meaning for the most part, you are playing offense when running a course of fire. IDPA is more real world carry oriented in which you are running a course of fire in a defensive manner, which means you are mostly shooting from behind cover or on the move. Maximum allowable round count for a course of fire in USPSA is 32 rounds. The largest course of fire allowed in IDPA is 18 rounds.

Since you have the chance to shoot USPSA right across the street, go give it a shot. The two classes in USPSA that relate the most to real carry is Production and Single Stack division. In both of these classes, no magazine pouches or holsters are allowed in forward of the hip bone. Maximum magazine capacity is 10 rounds in Production and SS minor, and 8 rounds in SS major. You just don't have to wear a concealment garment like you do in IDPA, nor utilize cover when shooting.
 
#8 ·
Shoot both and have fun.

By the way I like USPSA because it's faster and i get to shoot more. I find it to be more fun.

Because IDPA is so scripted many IPSC shooters say that IDPA stands for "I don't practice anymore".
 
#9 ·
IDPA is a good game. Yeah, it is scripted, but the way I see it, that accounts for nothing. Even though you are instructed on the stage run, you can easily blow it. And shooting accurately on the run, well, that can produce poor results. But starting with either is a darn good idea.
 
#10 ·
I agree with MattInFla. IDPA. I compete with my carry gear. I'm not trying to compete and win matches, just improve my skills that may one day save my life. (Although I hear my local USPSA fellas are shooting up some steel with their rimfire weapons once a month and I'd like to play around with that!)
 
#11 · (Edited)
I competed for several years exclusively in IDPA before crossing over to USPSA. Now I shoot hardly any IDPA.

Starting out, IDPA will help out with giving you practice drawing and reloading with a cover garment. You'll have to be at least minimally aware of using cover (though the way you use cover in IDPA is not the way you would use cover in real life). Because you don't get to walk through and air-gun the stages in IDPA, until you start realizing that all stages are made up of the same basic pieces, you will be shooting somewhat reactively, which is not a bad simulation of real life.

But here's the thing. After a while, you'll be plenty good enough handling a cover garment, your use of cover will essentially become just practiced footwork (“…foot goes here so I don't get a procedural error…”), and you will realize that every stage breaks down into two or three little mini segments that you have done plenty of time before. Also, since the 2010 rules updates, IDPA has more or less made it against the rules to shoot on the move, so you won't even be getting to practice one of the main reasons I originally got into action shooting.

While USPSA is definitely more game oriented, I believe firmly that shooting USPSA matches will enhance your gunhandling, your accuracy, and your shooting speed much faster that just about any other live fire available to people who don't have a SWAT shoot-house available to them in their free time. There is a distinct difference between developing a stage plan for a USPSA match (which involves planning footwork, deciding when to do reloads, and grouping targets) than there to developing a “stage plan” for a real life encounter (which involves applying whatever actual tactical training you have managed to take on your own), but once the plan enters your mind, the USPSA experience will help you execute it better.

As for equipment, odds are you can run your carry gear in Production division in USPSA, as long as you grab a few extra magazines and mag pouches. If you can't make it in Production (most external modifications are prohibited), you can run Limited or Limited-10, or even Single Stack if you are a 1911 shooter. Trust me, plenty of people run special equipment for IDPA; if that doesn't stop a lot of folks from just shooting what they have in IDPA for practice, there is no reason it should stop them from doing the exact same thing in USPSA where the quality of the trigger time is, in my opinion, significantly better.
 
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#12 ·
They are both "Game Oriented" any you look at it. I am a Life USPSA member and will shoot IDPA now and then. I don't like restrictions on mag size and dumping ammo. That said I will take the penalties in IDPA when I do it and keep on shooting to complete the course in less than 19 rounds (18 total required or less). I also have taken 4 "Gun Fighting Courses" in the last 2 years on 360 degree courses that have guns loaded all the time and targets available around you. I actually prefer a 360 degree range to all others as I know what is going on all the time. On a square range you can get swept or have a DQ. On a 360 degree range everyone is more safe as they know they can shoot towards their next door neighbor who may have as good training as you have and did not cause an issue. That is all discussed at the meet and greet when you arrive to see what the level of experience that everyone has. I have not met any "Novices" in any of my "Gun Fighting Courses" because the Companies and Trainers Check who is going into the classes. Novices need to go to "Basic Skills Courses"
 
#13 ·
I've shot IDPA and it is as much a game as USPSA (which I am trying next month), as near as I can tell, just with different stupid rules. I had a rig just for shooting IDPA, because they wouldn't let me shoot with my carry rig, using my carry sighting systems or even using my Browning Hi-Power without the mag disconnect. I got better at drawing from a rig I didn't carry, not using laser sights, not shooting the gun I carried and doing "tactical reloads", which I never see myself doing in a real situation. I plan on trying USPSA with the rig I used for IDPA to see if I like it. But it will be just as much of a game as when I was pin shooting.
 
#14 ·
No, It's not THAT much of a game. What was your carry rig? You can't use a shoulder holster or cross draw because the people behind you would be in danger. Any IWB is kosher, as are most strong side OWBs. So, what the heck did you try to get away with for a holster and for sights?
 
#17 ·
Look, it was fun, but I carry in a crossdraw when in the car, and at about 5 o'clock in a "palm out" configuration when I'm not sitting for long times. I prefer to use lasers, ghost ring or slide mounted red dot set ups since my eyes won't focus on the front sights anymore in a standard sight set up. I don't understand the restrictions on reloading on the move or shooting on the move, so long as I'm not violating a safety rule. And I found it hard to be competitive with a single stack 9mm, so I was using a double stack. I the rest of my issues with IDPA were RO personalities and range issues, which you can encounter everywhere.
 
#18 ·
Okay--here we go: Lasers and ghost rings are illegal--notch and post sights only. Now, you could do USPSA Open Division, but that's where the big sharks swim. The rules state that all reloads must be conducted--started and finished--from cover when available. Good rule. There is no restriction in the rules on shooting while moving, but the individual course of fire may have some prohibition on it. it is to be discouraged, and shooting on themove is to be encouraged (in the rules).

IDPA is ubjective with respect to the SO, that's true. A bad SO can ruin a stage, and a good one can make a stinky stage pretty fun.
 
#19 ·
There is no restriction in the rules on shooting while moving [...]
Actually, in effect there is such a restriction. The rules addendum in 2010 now requires that shots be taken from behind cover whenever cover is available. Since almost every IDPA stage on the planet involves at least one cover position, the de facto situation now is that the only time you shoot on the move is if you start the stage in the open and begin moving towards cover. Even then, as soon as you go empty, you must get to cover and only then reload and keep engaging targets. The major exception is "standards" (Limited Vickers) stages, but even then most of those involve walls or barrels as cover positions, so the same restrictions apply.

I've been shooting IDPA since 2007; that addendum has had the practical effect of almost eliminating shooting on the move from most IDPA matches (at least those that strictly follow IDPA course design guidelines).

When it comes down to it, any shooting sport is a game and when you play a game you agree to abide by the rules (or, at least, quietly accept whatever penalties accrue for choosing not to follow the rules). The biggest ongoing issue I have with IDPA is, in fact, the subjectivity of an SO's calls. You could have identical barricades on two different stages, approach them the same way, and one SO will say nothing while another will give you a cover call PE. That really frosts my cookies. And don't get me started on how penalties are assessed (or, I should say, not assessed) against the top level shooters at big matches as opposed to "regular" shooters. Also, I've seen more than my fair share of "homer" syndrome, where the local shooters for a club hosting a big match get a free ride on stuff that everybody else gets penalized for.

Mind you, I still shoot IDPA and I am in fact going to shoot the S&W Indoor Nationals this weekend. I have just resigned myself to having to accept some of these issues as the price of getting trigger time in this sport. I now vastly prefer USPSA because it lets you figure out your own way to shoot the stages, all the rules-lawyering is generally done off-line and is restricted to equipment enforcement, and you can be reasonably certain that once the buzzer goes off the calls will be consistent. Just my two cents, coming from somebody who has shot a fair amount of both.
 
#20 ·
To the OP... you can shoot USPSA however you want essentially, without penalty. IDPA, not so much. Shoot both and don't believe everything you read on the net. I moved to uspsa because I got really bored with IDPA and it's constant scripted course of fire. Nothinng wrong with shooting your carry gear in uspsa. There is likely a division it will fit in.

Kazz: don't get me started on cover calls and horse apple rulings.
 
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