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Shot league skeet and trap in my younger days. Eyes, motor skills and nerve damage to both hands and arms make any shooting competition a non-event these days. I encourage it though for others here.

Paladin wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:31 am Force-on-Force was really the next "Level" for me. Much more realistic. I'd encourage action pistol competitors try Force-on-Force because it can be just as eye opening as your first competition.

Yep, done two force on force classes and they’re great.

Have a gnarly picture somewhere of a nice sims doubletap a friend delivered to my guts.

well while i was on active duty, every qtrly and requal range day was a competition

once i retired it became more for ME as relaxation forced focus event , a way to push out all the brain clutter and focus on muscle memory and enjoying the range time, and the machines that bring us joy.
my wife is my competitor, we enjoy the time and relaxation
our range is small so at times we may have 3 or 5 people there and they eventually fall into the, hey want to practice targets as a way of camaraderie


i enjoy private day at range (those days in the week when everyone works and its empty)
those days we practice 5 yard, 3 yards, 25 yards. accuracy, smoothness, comfort and focus , vice timed or number.
i have some great old army target prints that guide you what your doing right or wrong, then once we are on target, out come the dirty bird splatter targets


rifle range time i prefer alone. as there seems to be as of late to many people concerned about how the rifle shooters are on accuracy and their choice of rifle, you know watchers vice fellow shooters.
i can do great with the ar10 as well as the bolt action savage

i guess we or I fall into the OLDER crowd, we do range time for relaxation, which in turn improves accuracy, smoothness, and focus.

My firearms competition experience is limited to two areas:

1. The occasional skeet shooting with friends

2. Back in California, an old shooting buddy of mine and I used to have friendly contests to see who could knock down a row of spent shot shells the fastest at 25 yards with .22LR rifles.

Both were basically amateur golf with firearms for me—more about the fun of shooting and good fellowship with good friends. I have had very little desire to compete at anything ever since I graduated from high school. I was a pretty high-level competitive swimmer during my high school years, and I gave it a great deal of time and effort (12,000 yards/day in the pool—6,000 at 6am, and 6,000 at 3pm…and a large part of that doing butterfly sprints). After that, I got kind of burned out on competition. Even years later, when I was roadracing motorcycles, I was never in it to win it. I just wanted a chance to go fast on a bike in a relatively safe environment, and the very best seat in the house when watching a motorcycle race is on the track on the back of a motorcycle.

I had had very little experience with firearms until I was already grown and married. Ever since, I’ve enormously enjoyed shooting…and fellowship with friends with some cat-calling and teasing…but I’ve never again had a desire to compete in any kind of structured environment.

I can recognize the value in competition for others—particularly the tactically oriented competitions within the context of being a private citizen who carries. And although I've rarely done it, I also recognize the value in competing against myself with a timer and practicing draw strokes, etc. But for better or for worse, I have had zero desire to match my skills against anyone else’s in almost any endeavor; and that’s why I’ve never joined in any pistol competitions.

And now at 70 years old, I don’t think I’ll start. But I’m always happy to go shooting with a friend or friends…particularly with long guns.

The Annoyed Man wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 10:49 am But for better or for worse, I have had zero desire to match my skills against anyone else’s in almost any endeavor; and that’s why I’ve never joined in any pistol competitions.

I get that and that's why I don't go around to other clubs or matches. Thanks to The Marshal, another member here, who introduced me to the club I've now been a member of for 10 years, I found a place where I can have fun and learn. There are many more folks far more knowledgeable than I and they are also a fun bunch. Some of them do compete at higher (some much higher) levels.

I do shotgun things for fun and just try to do better each match and year to year at least enough for it to be fun. When I was doing handgun personal defense matches that is tougher to gauge match to match because each match and stage is different and can't be compared to each other. About the only way I judge myself against myself from match to match over time is to decrease the points/time I lose due to missed shots. It's nothing I keep track of too specifically like in a spreadsheet or anything, but just in the back of my head. For me, I think I keep it light and fun by not overanalyzing it with a spreadsheet.

I ran into another club member yesterday on the skeet field. He's 80 years old and was out trying out some new hand loads and I was out trying to get a new O/U adjusted to me and get used to it. He let me shoot two rounds with him and it was a lot of fun. He helped me out with advice on how to setup my shotgun. I wasn't keeping score on my first round, but might have hit 8-10/25, while getting 12-15/25 on the second round after making an adjustment to the comb. He shot 22/25 on the first round and then 25/25 on the second round. We talked for a bit after we cleaned up and closed up the houses and found we have a bit in common.

Oops, rambling.

Anyway, I don't compete to see how I do against others. I compete, when I can, to stay sharp. Which, God forbid hopefully never happens, may help me to come out ahead if I ever have to compete for real.

C-dub wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:22 am Anyway, I don't compete to see how I do against others. I compete, when I can, to stay sharp. Which, God forbid hopefully never happens, may help me to come out ahead if I ever have to compete for real.

Yep, absolutely agree.

The word competition may throw some folks off. There is no reason you have to view it as a "you vs everyone else" event. It's you vs what you can do under pressure on the clock. That's it.

Another thing I love about competitions is that they force me to get uncomfortable and grow. When we practice on our own, we tend to practice the things we are already good at. That makes us feel good, and range time and ammo are limited so we enjoy reinforcing the positives.

I wouldn't practice things like strong hand only or weak hand shooting nearly as much if I didn't shoot competitions, because its not fun and I don't enjoy working either skill into a self motivated range session.