The FTP Shooting team is proud to have an IPSC GM (Grand Master) who has more than 11 years of competition pistol shooting experience. Feel free to ask any competition pistol shooting questions and we will do our best to provide you with an answer. These can be about skills and equipment recommendations.
Ask the GM!! -- Competition Pistol Shooting
- Thread starter Fast Toys
- Start date
Dryfire
Dryfire is extremely important as it allows you to practice more often while keeping costs down. You can practice just about everything with dryfire with the exception of recoil control which you must do with live fire.
There are several good dry fire books like those from Ben Stoeger. It will give you a variety of drills as well as par times.
You WILL need a timer that is capable of par times but it is preferable to have a timer that can pick up the hammer drop from live fire. You can do with with the new Shooters Global timer we sell and the old DAA Shotmaxx watch was capable of this as well.
Another thing I highly recommend is to use laser training cartridges and reactive laser targets. These verify that your trigger pull is not being jerked and you are actually aiming at and hitting the target. Lots of people cheat during dry fire and swear they were on target and achieve ridiculous times they cannot repeat in live fire. I highly recommend the Keiron Speed Interactive targes we sell. They incorporate a built in timer that will start you AND record the time it took to hit the target. That will allow you to accurately gauge that your drills are realistic. A side benefit is that it makes dryfire a LOT more fun.
If your budget allows it, you can get an airsoft gun that has "some" recoil and allow allow you to practice indoors. There are many out there that simulate real firearms. There are also projection based target systems like those we sell from Laser Ammo that are amazing.
If you can practice dry fire 20 minutes a day, you will quickly progress and will be doing more than "MOST" other competitors out there.
Dryfire is extremely important as it allows you to practice more often while keeping costs down. You can practice just about everything with dryfire with the exception of recoil control which you must do with live fire.
There are several good dry fire books like those from Ben Stoeger. It will give you a variety of drills as well as par times.
You WILL need a timer that is capable of par times but it is preferable to have a timer that can pick up the hammer drop from live fire. You can do with with the new Shooters Global timer we sell and the old DAA Shotmaxx watch was capable of this as well.
Another thing I highly recommend is to use laser training cartridges and reactive laser targets. These verify that your trigger pull is not being jerked and you are actually aiming at and hitting the target. Lots of people cheat during dry fire and swear they were on target and achieve ridiculous times they cannot repeat in live fire. I highly recommend the Keiron Speed Interactive targes we sell. They incorporate a built in timer that will start you AND record the time it took to hit the target. That will allow you to accurately gauge that your drills are realistic. A side benefit is that it makes dryfire a LOT more fun.
If your budget allows it, you can get an airsoft gun that has "some" recoil and allow allow you to practice indoors. There are many out there that simulate real firearms. There are also projection based target systems like those we sell from Laser Ammo that are amazing.
If you can practice dry fire 20 minutes a day, you will quickly progress and will be doing more than "MOST" other competitors out there.
You didn't say what discipline you are shooting but I will assume IPSC. In IPSC, you can have a course of fire with a maximum of 32 rounds. Worst case, if you have 4 x 6 shot positions, that is 4 mags that you will need minimum. Usually you want to have 1 extra magazine to barney with (load the 11th round into the chamber) and one mag in case something goes wrong like a jam. That puts you at 6 pouches.
It is ideal to have a pick up magnet as well as some stages will be table starts where you magazines will be on the table and you have to decide how to pick them up when the timer goes off. You can use a stand alone magnet or a combo pouch and magnet.
Personally, I like the DAA Deluxe magnetic pouches as they leave the majority of the magazine exposed which makes it very easy to reload. I would suggest setting up for bullets out as that gives you more space on your belt. With the exception of open division, all your gear has to go behind your hip bones and the bullets out profile allows you to move the magazines closed to the hip bones which is more ergonomic to grab rather than when they wrap around behind your back. You will need to initially spend a lot of time to set up your pouches to provide the easiest and most ergonomic locations. The DAA pouches can be canted do you can get the most ideal angle to grab them. You want to be able to grab all your magazines without feeling you are bending your wrists and hands at some oddball angle. Try to close your eyes and grab a magazine. If it feels odd, adjust the pouches until it feels natural.
For holster, a race holster is going to be slightly faster but you do have a learning curve to get comfortable with them. They are faster because you don't have to lift the gun as high before you can clear the holster and start moving forward. I used the Alpha X holster which has replaceable inserts to fit a variety of popular guns. It also easily detached from the belt if you have to travel.
For belts, I like both the DAA premium 2 part belts as well as the new Lynx belts. The Lynx belts are really nice and stiff and you definitely would want the wratchet buckle if you with that option. The Lynx belts definitely will feel tighter on the body and that removal of flex can make for more consistent draws and magazine retrievals.
Definitely not. Consistency is key. You want the same equipment in the same location each time. I don't believe in memory muscle but you definitely can find things without looking with a lot of repetitions. It becomes instinctive. The 6 pouches with a large magnet will allow you to tackle any stage.
I second that. My last match I ran in open and said to myself, well I can put my mags in front of the hipbone. One stage we had to place the mags on barrels, I start, reach out for a mag to put back on the magnet and fiddled around for 2-3 seconds until I looked down to see where the magnet was now. I then put them back where they used to be....Go figure
