First formal IDPA match today

[MattInFla]

This morning I was attacked in the barber's shop, beset while parking my truck, nearly overrun by mob of bad guys, and generally accosted by cardboard and steel.

And I enjoyed every minute of it.

I was at my first formal IDPA match, at the Titusville Rifle and Pistol Club match in Mims, FL. There were around 50 shooters there today, running in 4 squads over 6 stages.

Our squad started the day off with a visit to the barber's shop, where multiple cardboard and steel adversaries wanted to cut more than hair. The shooter began seated in the barber chair, with the gun holstered and concealed. The usual barber's apron was draped over the shooter. Two shirt-clad targets were positioned ~10 feet from the chair. On the start signal, the shooter had to remove the apron, draw and engage both targets from the seated position, then stand and head out the doorway behind the chair, turn right and engage three 8" steel plates. Once the plates were down, the shooter moved down a walkway, engaging threats to the right through a window before engaging a final target strong hand only on the other side of the walkway.

Other notable stages included the "transition" stage, where staggered columns of targets lined both sides of the bay, at increasing intervals. Along the far berm was a steel popper in front of a non-threat target. You had to engage the cardboard targets in tactical priority and order (i.e. near to far, with one shot per until all targets had been shot once, then shooting each again in any order), followed by knocking down the popper to end the stage. I ended up being the only shooter in our squad to go zero down on this stage. Sometimes luck is indistinguishable from skill after all. The non-threat behind the popper got a couple shooters whose first shot on the popper was a touch off....

This was my first exposure to moving targets triggered by falling steel plates. I really enjoyed those, and got some good hits.

Definitely a lot of fun, and something I will certainly be doing again.

Matt

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[MattInFla]

Forgot to mention the gear.

I was shooting what is essentially my everyday carry gear, with the exception of adding an extra magazine pouch and mag, and keeping a mag in my vest pocket to start with.

Pistol was my Sig 226 SCT 9mm, and holster was a Comp-Tac MTAC. Many competitors seemed to favor OWB holsters, but I wanted to shoot with what I carry regularly.

The Sig ran like a sewing machine, going "bang", ejecting and feeding 100%. I really like that pistol.

Matt

[Agave]

I skipped my match today to spend time with family. Ironically I couldn't find any of them.

IDPA is a blast. Glad you enjoyed it.

[srfl]

Sounds great there Matt.....it's been awhile since I've competed, but I've done my share of FTF (read: Simunitions and FATS) training, so I should be the last place guy whenever I do some IDPA shooting...but you never know.

[Miggy]

I can see that Matt is officially addicted after one match.

[kazzaerexys]

Way to go, Matt.

[target1911]

congrats....

I wish that the range where we shoot IDPA was big enough to set up stages that large. However, we still have a BLAST

[miklcolt45]

Matt,

I am only about 45 minutes away from Mims, but can't do Sundays.
(Sort of a problem for us pastor types.)

Do they do any Saturday IDPA?
The only other thing I can find is Monday nights which almost never works for me.

[MattInFla]

Matt,

I am only about 45 minutes away from Mims, but can't do Sundays.
(Sort of a problem for us pastor types.)

Do they do any Saturday IDPA?
The only other thing I can find is Monday nights which almost never works for me.

Hernando and Lakeland shoot on the 3rd Saturday.

There is a club listing on www.idpa.com that lists the days for each club.

Matt

[edr9x23super]

Good for you, Matt! Keep it up, you will be amazed at how quickly your skill and confidence grows. I have told everybody that comes along to give it just 6 months, or 6 matches and see where you are at the end; you will definitely see some kind of improvement, as well as what techniques work and what dont.

Good Luck

[fotomaker57]

Sounds like a good time. We don't have any IDPA matches near my home. Wish we did.
Mike

[QKShooter]

Great Matt. Sounds like you had a nice enjoyable day & ditto it's a very fine firearm.