Here's my advice.
Pros can shoot just about anything and win - when you make a living shooting, spending almost every day on the range, not worrying about things like a job, family, other crap - you can be that good.
And yeah, since their experience is massive - they know how to tune and pick the right setup / gun - so whatever it is - it's gonna work for them. Make no mistake none of them would ever show up shooting something they hadn't tested thoroughly.
Then there's us. Yeah - me, and all of you - Canadians. There are NO pros in Canada. The best shooters in Canada all have other jobs and responsibilities. Regular schmucks. Other than some very minor sponsorships - they have a lot of distractions away from the range. They're the guys to look at for what to shoot. They're the same as the rest of us. They pick the guns that give them the best advantage at the game they play. The production shooters are picking CZ/Tanfoglio platforms because the SA trigger pull is so light and the flared magwells with tapered mags change easy. Think they'd do as good with a Glock or an M&P? Nope. They know that - that's why they picked that platform. They don't have a factory behind them when the gun breaks, they have to rely on a good parts supply - so they pick the best. Same goes for Open, Standard and Classic.
And guess what? Their competition (IPSC is competition, at it's basest design.) is picking the guns that is going to give them the best advantage too. 16 years ago, I was struggling along with a homemade gun and not having a lot of success, despite 10 years at the game. Then I got an Edge. Bam - up 10 spots on the results at the nationals. Seems a gun that managed recoil better, had better mags and magwell and trigger was an advantage.
Hey - maybe one of you is going to be the next Matt McLaren. You're going to quit your day job, practice all day, move to the US and win the Worlds in 2020. For you, shoot the junk. Your commitment will overcome it's deficiencies. OR you're not interested in winning - you're just having fun - so then - shoot whatever you want.
So that's my 2 cents - take it or leave it; I've only been playing this game for 28 years, shot IPSC on 5 continents, been ranked in the top 10 for a while, been on the Canadian Team and trained with 5 different world champions, but what do I know?
