Any serious shooters out there?
 

There seems to be a lot of threads about this or that neat gun or knife, but I was wondering if we have anyone on TFP who shoots competitively.

As an example, I shoot Bullseye Pistol, used to compete in Action Pistol until I screwed up my elbow, and one of these days I want to get into 3 position rifle. I also was training to coach 3 position air rifle, but moved out of the state I was in at the time. :)

Might be interesting to talk about this stuff from time to time?

the best usually like to keep it low key ;)

You being one of them? ;) I don't mean to make anyone drop their secret identity... :eek:

*ahem* *slowly raises hand*

Hi. I'm Jason. I shoot competitive smallbore and highpower rifle. Iron sights only.

*fades back into the shooting pit*

NRA Certified basic pistol instructor
Tuesday is bullseye
Wednesday is IPSC
Thursday is IDPA
Sunday/Saturday is a match in one of the previous four

Do I qualify?

I believe it is possible to shoot seriously without bothering with such competitions. Although learning goes faster with others to learn from sometimes.

Service rifle and IPSC here.

I don't generally shoot for practice. 70-80% of my shots are fired in a competition or in a practice match of some sort. At home I do a metric butt load of dry firing. I have more dry fire "rounds" through each of my guns then I do real ones.

Kinsaj, you can't practice working under pressure without competition or taking courses.

I used to shoot precision smallbore. Also, IDPA, Cowboy Action, and misc. rifle matches.

Since growing up and getting a real job, I have had very little time to pursue my hobbies.

True, but maybe he doesn't need to work under pressure... Funny though, when I used to shoot in IPSC I developed a real fast double tap that always placed two shots right next to one another side to side (would have expected vertical orientation if I was doing it right). They may not have been where I wanted them, but always right next to each other.

I mention this because I used to practice every weekend, and not once did I ever achieve that kind of precision during practice. I guess my mind was too involved. So, my drills on the range consisted of working on sight picture, draw, time to first shot etc. Even shooting Bullseye, my best scores occur during a match.

I do a lot of dry-fire as well Kel. It really is a must if you're serious about raising your scores.

There's that word again huh?:D By serious, I'm not trying to be elitist. I just mean people who are not casual plinkers or home defense'ers, but shooters who compete or otherwise are trying to learn how improve their performance.

I'm about to head out to a sports center to try my hand at sporting clays again. The wife and I used to do this on a regular basis, now it's been 3 years. :eek: I used to say that my shotgun doesn't kick. Wonder what I'll think now...

To practice combat, the closest you will likely get to it is through paintball, because there you are actually shooting at others and you at others. It is still far from reality though due to the fact that you can literally see the paintballs coming at you and the range limitations inherent with the "sport".
As far as practicing under pressure, there are many other ways which you can achieve a result similar or better than competition shooting. I simply think that regulated matches are not a requirement for "serious shooting". I by no means think the activity is useless and have been looking into getting into it myself.
My apologies for the thread-jack