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I used to shoot a lot of USPSA, and now just IDPA when I can get away occasionally, but all of those disciplines should be taken for what they are, just games. Here is what I gleaned from them:
USPSA - I became a Master here in 1991, competed in open division, some limited and a lot of 3-gun. The best pure shooters in the world come out of this discipline because of the competition and the amount of practice the shooters put in. If you take away all of the rules differences and just have a shooting contest based on speed and accuracy and handling a gun, a true USPSA Master or Grand Master will shoot the pants off of everybody else.
IDPA - This is a good sport, and it reminds me of the way USPSA used to be, before the advent of the equipment race, which I grew up with when Strayer, Tripp & Voigt all got together and redesigned the 1911 along with a parallel effort from the folks at Para-Ordinance. IDPA came about because overnight single stack 1911s and the rest of the practical equipment being used were rendered obsolete, and there was no medium where one could use such equipment and put it to use competitively. That and Bill Wilson and a few others were losing a lot of money to the likes of Dave Dawson, STI, SV & all of the other gunsmiths that were turning out high-cap raceguns by the dozen. But IDPA has survived, even forcing USPSA to introduce a production division so they could start bringing in new members. I was one of the generation of USPSA shooters that became disllusioned with it all and changed to IDPA and will never go back to USPSA. IDPA is a good sport if you want to start thinking about basic strategies like using cover, or slicing the pie when approaching a doorway. In USPSA, I would have gone through a door like a kansas tornado looking for a trailer park. In IDPA, there are penalties, but those don't hurt nearly as much as the paintball gun at Thunder Ranch that reminded you that you just got killed trying to game out the room you were going to clear.
My point here is that the gun games like USPSA, IDPA are just what they are - games. If you really want to learn how to survive a gun fight of any kind, that is best left to professionals, people who have actually been through such encounters themselves.......
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"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined". - Patrick Henry
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