Re: OT -- It wouldn't have gone down that way in a TEXAS zoo

In the shooting events I was trained in, a significant amount of the
shooting was done without aiming.

Some was done in the dark.

Aiming doesn't exactly describe what we're doing either. How I shoot depends
on where the target is. For close up shots, it's point and shoot. The longer
shots, particularly the ones protected by simulated hostages, I at least see
and assure proper allignment of the sights. It's not bullseye shooting,
where you acquire the target, focus on the sights and squeeze the trigger.
It's more like point in the right direction and try not to jerk the gun too
much as you pull the trigger.

Almost all of my shooting is done after dark, but it's not done in the dark.
There are lights about 75 yards away shining towards the rear berm. There
are stages in some competitions that are done in the dark. I've not yet
participated in any of them.

In one event, we had to walk backwards on a 10' long 6x6 on blocks
and shoot a target coming at us.

My most challanging one so far was to stand on a 2x2 foot platform suspended
by chains while shooting swinging targets. You didn't have to move much to
set up motion in the platform that made it hard to stand, let alone shoot
accurately.

In another comp, we had to sit at a card table and shoot three guy
targets > on the other side, from a concealed draw.

That's an element of several of our stages except we never start out
concealed. IDPA does it all the time.

Everyone else, "inside the box", scooted backwards, drew, and fired.
I pushed the table forward into the first two "guys", one in a chair and
one standing behind him, knocking them down, and shot the third guy, on
the left, sweetly up through the table. I then stood, and shot the other
two
back down through the table.

That probably would not have been legal in USPSA, where most things that are
not specifically designated as soft cover are presumed to be hard cover.
Personally, I would not shoot through the table because they are purchased
with money the club gets from my dues, but I have no problem with your
solution. It showed the kind of strategic thinking that works well in any of
these sports. I remember one stage where there was a popper behind a
barracade. You were required to hold it up until you were ready to shoot.
The stage description said nothing about how or where you were to shoot
from. Everybody up to me, reached through the port to hold the popper and
shot through the port to hit the targets. I simply stepped around the
baracade. I drew while dropping the popper, speeding the time from start to
first shot considerably and moving me close enough to the target that my two
shots per were very quick. There were a lot of people pissed at that. Not my
fault they didn't think of it.

Another example that I didn't get away with was when the stage description
said gun unloade on barrel. It did not say slide forward or hammer down. I
set my gun down with the hammer cocked and the slide locked back. They made
me drop the slide and hammer before they let me start. I still think they
were wrong, but you can't fight the Match Director's call.

A similar incident pissed me off a lot more. The start position was laying
on the ground, gun unloaded and flat on the ground, magazines also on the
ground. I can shoot pistols from almost any position except prone. I have no
experience shooting pistols prone and really stink at it when I try. When
the beeper went off, I came to my knees, picked up the gun, loaded it and
starting shooting. They gave me a penalty for every shot fired. I protested.
Based on their belief that I knew what they intended, they refused to let
the score stand. Based on the fact that they had failed to specify what they
meant, whether I knew or not, they gave me a reshoot. I shot about as I
expected, lousy.

Pass/fail, you had to get one head shot or two kill zone shots.

Virtually all our shooting requires two scoring shots. Our entire target is
smaller than the official sillouette targets.

I remember them being pretty pissed about the table.

Hey, if they didn't like it, they should have included something in the
instructions.

I told them it was me or the table, and I was too young to "die".
This exercise was taken from a real shootout, in which my instructor
(retired DEA) was wounded, and killed all three guys.
He said he hadn't thought to shoot through the table.

We actually set up some stages to promote shooting through cover.
Unfortunately, the way the rules are written, everything is hard cover
unless specified otherwise. That means we have to specifically say it's soft
cover, a dead giveaway to how the stage can be shot best.

The kind of stuff we're talking about here is exactly why I enjoy USPSA so
much. From the little I know about IDPA, it's probably a more practical
discipline, but not nearly as much fun. Such things as having to reload from
cover, retaining magazines unless the reload is done from slidelock, and
significantly shortened stages due to limits on magazines and magazine
placement are all good ideas for training for real world encounters, but
they're just not much fun.

Lee


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: To Have Or Not To Have Firearms
    ... There are many harder things to do, even if we confine it to pistol shooting. ... It's possible, even credible for a good shot, but I wouldn't want to bet my or my loved ones' lives and well-being on doing it on demand. ... to an admission of neglecting one's range time. ... The notion that Joe Blow can wander into the Kokomo branch of Ammu-Nation, buy the handgun of his choice, and at some unpredictable point in the future whip his weapon out and - without training or practice - effortlessly hit a small, fast-moving target intent on rapidly causing him serious harm just fails the giggle test, even before you consider that there may be more than one dog. ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • OT Five years goes quickly
    ... the other about shooting the following Tuesday. ... 15-second familiarization and then said "so shoot!" ... two magazines of ammo. ... I shot a few thousand rounds of ammo along the way. ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: Goddamm, Cheneys got his head up his ass
    ... moving target. ... According to Cheney, ... the guy he shot was down in a gully and not totally visible. ... If you aren't absolutely sure about any of this, don't shoot, period! ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Re: Mystical Confessions
    ... the idea of possessing multiple guns that are not my own. ... I've shot these guns.. ... Pulled the target in.. ... Shooting away.. ...
    (misc.fitness.weights)
  • Re: Is "Dead Stroke" just luck?
    ... cue ball was what I intended. ... none of the clarity or unconscious shooting ... In fact, many times I shot difficult shots, no ... The backside of the target faces the archer. ...
    (rec.sport.billiard)