For many of you, this will be a 'duh' post. I get that.
So I finally got to shoot an IPSC match yesterday. I'm by no means a "contender" and shoot mostly to improve my skills as I figure out what I want to do to become competitive. I'm shooting production with a Glock 21 right now because it's the handgun I'm the most familiar with. Yes, I know it's a "major" round and Production is all scored "minor" in IPSC.
Last week while just at the range generally, the spring on my extended slide stop broke, causing the slide stop to "bounce" up and lock the slide back mid-string of fire. Rather than order a new one, I put the original back in and didn't shoot it before my match this week.
Apparently the original was "loose" (or I put the one from my Glock 22 in the 21 frame) and during the match the slide locked back on me mid-string several times.
I happened to have just picked up a Glock 17 I intend to put rounds through and use for competition, and I had some Magpul G17 mags. The problem? I'd never fired a single round out of it. It was literally new in box. Still, it was the "last, best" option I had, so I switched to it mid-match.
Turns out the Magpul mags DO NOT like steel-cased Wolf ammo (the only thing I had with me in 9mm) - they "stick" in the magazine, causing failure to feed. I learned this... you guessed it... mid-string. I ended up dropping an entire stage due to equipment problems.
I switched back to the factory Glock mags that came with it and they ran flawlessly, so I finished the match (the final stages were lower round count).
Lessons learned:
1) Don't compete with a gun you've made any changes to unless you've thoroughly tested the firearm first.
2) Don't re-use old/replaced parts.
3) Don't compete with a gun/mag/ammo combination you haven't thoroughly tested first.
Past that?
I've recently signed up for IDPA, too, and I'm thinking of switching up my plans for what I'd compete with.
I'm probably going to go single-stack for USPSA and run my Para Expert with Dawson Precision fiber-optic rear sights on it. I'm comfortable shooting it and the only real choice is between it and my Citadel 9mm 1911, with the advantage to the .45 being major scoring. I've got a chance to get started down this path with an upcoming special classifier match (and another one a month later) to start off with a classification to go forward from.
For IDPA, I'll run the Glock 17, probably as ESP since I'm going to change out the connector and trigger spring because I prefer the different trigger break/reset it creates (which invalidates it for SSP). I'll shoot events and when the classifier comes around, I'll shoot it, but I won't worry about "chasing" a qualification.
In any case, I'm not competing to be a "competitor," I'm doing it for practice and skill-building. I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts, especially if you're also a competitor (casual or hardcore).
So I finally got to shoot an IPSC match yesterday. I'm by no means a "contender" and shoot mostly to improve my skills as I figure out what I want to do to become competitive. I'm shooting production with a Glock 21 right now because it's the handgun I'm the most familiar with. Yes, I know it's a "major" round and Production is all scored "minor" in IPSC.
Last week while just at the range generally, the spring on my extended slide stop broke, causing the slide stop to "bounce" up and lock the slide back mid-string of fire. Rather than order a new one, I put the original back in and didn't shoot it before my match this week.
Apparently the original was "loose" (or I put the one from my Glock 22 in the 21 frame) and during the match the slide locked back on me mid-string several times.
I happened to have just picked up a Glock 17 I intend to put rounds through and use for competition, and I had some Magpul G17 mags. The problem? I'd never fired a single round out of it. It was literally new in box. Still, it was the "last, best" option I had, so I switched to it mid-match.
Turns out the Magpul mags DO NOT like steel-cased Wolf ammo (the only thing I had with me in 9mm) - they "stick" in the magazine, causing failure to feed. I learned this... you guessed it... mid-string. I ended up dropping an entire stage due to equipment problems.
I switched back to the factory Glock mags that came with it and they ran flawlessly, so I finished the match (the final stages were lower round count).
Lessons learned:
1) Don't compete with a gun you've made any changes to unless you've thoroughly tested the firearm first.
2) Don't re-use old/replaced parts.
3) Don't compete with a gun/mag/ammo combination you haven't thoroughly tested first.
Past that?
I've recently signed up for IDPA, too, and I'm thinking of switching up my plans for what I'd compete with.
I'm probably going to go single-stack for USPSA and run my Para Expert with Dawson Precision fiber-optic rear sights on it. I'm comfortable shooting it and the only real choice is between it and my Citadel 9mm 1911, with the advantage to the .45 being major scoring. I've got a chance to get started down this path with an upcoming special classifier match (and another one a month later) to start off with a classification to go forward from.
For IDPA, I'll run the Glock 17, probably as ESP since I'm going to change out the connector and trigger spring because I prefer the different trigger break/reset it creates (which invalidates it for SSP). I'll shoot events and when the classifier comes around, I'll shoot it, but I won't worry about "chasing" a qualification.
In any case, I'm not competing to be a "competitor," I'm doing it for practice and skill-building. I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts, especially if you're also a competitor (casual or hardcore).
