After watching Wizard at his first IDPA match, I decided to give it a go this month. I pretty much went with his initial goals in mind (don’t shoot yourself, don’t shoot anyone else, don’t get DQ’d, don’t come in last). Well, the “don’t come in last” part was more of a “it would be really nice if, but I’m not going to kid myself” kind of thing. Oh, and avoid procedural deductions. The better shot placement and moving/getting set up in a hurry are hard things to work on, but I’m an adult and should be able to follow directions.
I took the Px4 along so that I could shoot in the same class as Wizard with his Glock. My XDm is a true SA pistol, and therefor in a different category, and I still haven’t obtain the extra mags required for my Bersa. Conveniently, I was at the range Saturday morning with Naienko’s father and got some last minute trigger time with the Px4, which was a good thing.
I have to admit, I was slow at just about everything. This was partially intentional since I had little clue what I was doing. I wish I could say that this meant that I was dead on target with all my shots, and that I didn’t hit any non-targets, but I’d be a liar. I’m definitely going to need more practice, but what else is new.
I did have two malfunctions while running the stages. The first one (on the first shot of the first stage, no less) was purely operator error. I failed to disengage the safety when I reholstered the gun after “make ready.” You guessed it. Timer went off, I unholstered, aimed, and nothing… not even a click. After a second or so I realized what had happened, cursed myself, flipped the switch and went on.
The second one actually saved me from what would have been my only procedural of the day. I was supposed to shoot two targets twice in sequence (hit one once, then the other at least once). I shot the first one, then tried to shoot it again when I had a failure to feed. I think I didn’t slap the magazine in all the way, since the round wasn’t even stripped out of the mag. In the time it takes me to do a tap and rack, I hear someone yelling “right!” (I had shot the left target). I quickly engaged the correct target and went on.
Oddly enough, the two stages where I had mechanical or operator problems were the two that I did best compared to everyone else. Not sure what that means.
Obviously, I failed to put any extra holes in anyone (including myself), and I also failed to get DQ’d (although, one of the regulars did for turning the wrong way). Oh, and the not coming in last? I actually beat somebody! Go me! I was second to last! Third to last if you include the guy that got DQ’d!
Looking again at the score sheet, if I hadn’t completely forgotten the first target on the first stage, i’da moved up about 4 slots to “not worse than people who’ve never done this before” range.
Ha ha, both of y’all are pretty much screwed; you just don’t know it yet. I shot my first IDPA match in Manchester TN a little less than a year ago. Then I was a regular at a club near me in Chattanooga. Then I started shooting 3gun. Then I started the east TN circuit of Middle TN, Oak Ridge and Cleveland so I could shoot more often. Now I’ve joined my local club, am an IDPA safety officer, and on the committee. And I’ve handloaded over 10k rounds in the last year.
Suckers.
Welcome to the sickness. I’m about 13 months in front of you and can tell you that IDPA is definitely addicting. It’s a lot of fun, but I think it’s the people that are what makes it a great sport. Enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about your speed so much. I’ll tell you what Morgan Allen told me. You can’t shoot fast enough to make up for a miss. Be accurate. The speed will come. I wish mine would come faster. I think there are glaciers that move faster than I shoot, but I’ve never had a bad time with the folks I shoot IDPA with.
I had to laugh at your goals for your first match, which were very similar to mine: don’t do anything stupid and don’t come in last. I succeeded in both, although I was also second to last. 🙂 I’ve been at it since last April and now usually come in around the 70th – 80th percentile. I shot the classifier a couple of weeks ago and was thrilled to make Marksman. I was half afraid I’d get novice, but it turned out I was only 8 seconds from Sharpshooter. Woohoo! It is definitely a fun sport with lots of great people.
It’s an easy fix to change the PX4 from an F model, to a G model. That way it’s just a decocker instead of a decock/safety lever. Shoot me a message and i’ll get you the instructions.