Dansy, no insult was intended to anyone, it was an attempt at humorous generalisation to make my point. I'm an overweight PD A grader who likes an occasional drink and I'm an RO, so I fit in my own categorisation. One of my mates, Darko Mihaljevic is a race bike riding Macedonian with an Open gun. A great guy, but I don't think I've ever seen him patch at a match. He fits the stereotype. At one point we had two section co-ordinators who were into martials arts, one road an Aprilla. Both shoot Open.
The God Squad or Squad 1 (Master & Grandmaster, mainly Open) here do resist setting up, patching or picking up brass, but they seem to enjoy each others company both on and off the range.
Anyway the examples are moot, the point I was making is that there are different social subsets within shooting clubs, half the fun is the shooting ( & winning!) but the other half is the people. If I don't like the people I shoot with, I'm not likely to come back, and I'm pretty sure that holds true for most people.
To address your other points, I'm very impressed at the number of matchs you put on, the most I've ever set up were a few one day 120 round comps. On the other hand, I organised two range open days that introduced just over 2000 people to shooting and resulted in around 100 new IPSC shooters, I've ROed Level 1, 2 & 3 matchs for several years, had a large part in blocking the closure of the biggest range in my home state (600 acres in the middle of a city of 4 million), I was the state IPSC Secretary for a couple of years and I signed up two new clubs to IPSC, arranging their initial training and match set ups. I've represented IPSC at meetings with our state police and members of the state and federal governments. I'm a reasonably accurate shot, but being overweight and carrying injuries from old car crashes, I'm not that fast on the run and gun stages. I still enjoy the game though.
Having established my credentials, I'd like to apologise for the thread drift.
Back on track. Flip1, my personal prejudices are as follows:
Standard Division: STI Edge if you can afford the money, Bul M5 IPSC model if you can't. I know a lot of people like Para Ordnance, but I'm not inclined to buy another one. I've owned two Buls and I'm completely satisfied with them. Single stack guns are at a disadvantage here. The wide bodies are jsu a little faster to reload, and it can make a difference over the course of a match.
Open Division: I'm not qualified to have an opinion on these, I have noted that the STI guns in OZ seem to be a little more reliable than the SV, but this could be due to the quality of the respective gunsmiths.
Modifed Division: Huh? What's that?
Revolver: Use your Colt, if you decide to stick at it, then a S&W 625. short fat .45 ACP in a moon clip is easier to load than long .357s in a speedloader. There is also less perceived recoil with the heavy bullet 45 when loaded to major, compared to a lightweight .357.
Production: Home of the real guns, with trigger pulls that help you develop real muscles on your fingers!
Beretta 92FS fitted with a D model hammer spring to reduce the double action trigger pull by around four pounds. It's my favourite pistol.
Glock 17 with Heinie slant pro sights and a 3.5 pound connector. This is the gun I shoot the most and the only one I use in Open competions.
The CZ75 is an ideal first PD gun as well, but my experience has been that they are not as reliable as the glock and beretta. The Tanfoglio is a CZ clone and is quite popular here in OZ, I've been impressed by the quality over the last couple of years, they used to have a reputation for unreliability but that seems to be in the past.
One thing to keep in mind is that .40 cal versions of the above guns can be loaded with heavier, slower bullets for less perceived recoil than the 9mm. As Canada has a 10 round mag limit, you will not be handicapped as you would in the states by the reduced round count in a standard .40 mag. If you don't reload, ammuntion costs can be an issue with the .40.
Gun fit is a pretty individual thing. Borrow and shoot as many different guns as you can before making up your mind and forking over the dollars.
Welcome to the wide world of IPSC. Other forums where you can ask questions are the IPSC international forum
http://ipsc.invisionzone.com/ and Brian Enos' Forum
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?act=idx
