Basic Tips on Shooting USPSA or IDPA for the First Time

I think everyone who owns a sports car owes it to themselves to take a few driving lessons on a real race track.  Unless you really feel what it's like to drive on track conditions, and learn the techniques of real high-performance driving, not only are you not getting everything you can out of your car, but you will also likely be less safe than you would be otherwise.  Likewise, everyone who carries a pistol for defense, or who keeps one on the nightstand, owes it to themselves to get out and run the thing under stressful conditions.  That could be an expensive multi-day training course, or it could be the crucible of competition.  However, courses are time and money intensive, and competition is stressful and can be a major blow to the ego.  The following tips will hopefully allow someone who is going to a competition for the first time be a little more prepared, and a little less stressed out.

- Know how your gun works. All the time people step up to the line and act as if they've never seen their own pistol before. I'm sure a lot of that is just nerves, and that's ok. But still, if your gun has a safety, a decocker, a funky magazine release, etc it would be a good idea to become intimately familiar with them before coming out to a match.  You can easily accomplish this by spending a few moments at home dry firing your EMPTY gun.  Get used to inserting magazines, removing magazines, charging the weapon, applying safeties and decockers, etc.  

- If you haven't already committed to a caliber, start with 9mm. It's just easier to shoot. You can get into .45 later when you want to try IDPA CDP division, or .40 when you want to shoot USPSA Limited division. At least in the beginning, start with a round that makes it easier to get accurate hits, and is cheap to purchase for practice.  There is no shame in starting, and staying in IDPA SSP and USPSA Production divisions, and both of those are primarily 9mm divisions.  

- For your first match, you will probably have a lot of well-meaning people trying to offer all kinds of advice. Ignore them. You should only focus on two things: safety (basically just muzzle awareness and trigger discipline) and following the range officer's commands to the letter. If you're a natural or a badass, try to win your second match. For the first, just be safe.  No one will be judging you on your hits, your speed, or your technique.  All anyone really cares about is safety - the rest is just for fun.

- Unless you're a police officer, wear your normal clothes. This is me being snobby, but none of the good shooters wear tactical gloves, tactical pants, tactical knee pads, tactical boots, etc. Save the stuff from nutnfancy's youtube videos for a tactical carbine class.  And leave the camo at home.  If you're on an outdoor range, you want to be seen when you're downrange taping targets.  


- Help out.  When people are taping targets, grab a strip of pasters and go help.  When it's time to break down, don't just grab your stuff and leave.  Everyone's favorite new shooter is the one who asks questions about what's happening and who helps out with the "work" aspect.