Tried out an IPSC club shoot and had fun

I took some leave from work in December and finally got my new gun. It’s a Glock 19 gen 4 and I wanted to try it out. I normally carry a Gen 3 so I wanted to get used to my gen 4 and also make sure there were no problems with the gun. My other issue is that work’s been so crazy the last few months that I haven’t had a chance to go shooting and I was feeling really rusty. I called up a shop called Spartan Arms in Greenstone and the guy on the phone said the range was closed but I was welcome to join the IPSC club shoot that was taking place. I just had to bring R100.00 and at least 100 rounds. I had some diplopoint reloads that I’d bought with the gun so off I went.

I got to the store and looked around. They have a great selection of stuff to buy. I signed up and waited for my turn. I can’t believe how nervous I felt because it’s not like I haven’t done a lot of shooting already. I guess it was the new environment. The range officer and club members were all very helpful and welcoming. I was very impressed with the focus on safety. I was just as rusty as I felt and combined with the nerves, I had quite a terrible shoot because I forgot to focus on the basics.

I went in with a defensive shooting mindset, which I think was not quite right for the format of IPSC, which seems to be very orientated towards  challenging target shooting as opposed to self defence. What I mean by this is that no one really cares about things like use of cover but accuracy is king. I personally found a lot of benefit from going to this Club shoot and will definitely do so again. It’s important to keep a high level of shooting ability and the guys at IPSC definitely know how to hit those targets. I will need a heck of a lot of practice to do well in a Club shoot like that.

All in all, I highly recommend IPSC based on my tiny experience. Next time I will go through with more of a ‘game’ mind set and just focus on basics like sight picture, trigger squeeze etc. I do still want to try another format called IDPA, which seems to be more defence oriented. I certainly believe that while both IPSC and IDPA are games, they can certainly improve your shooting skills a lot in a safe environment.

At the end of the day, I got to test my new gun, get rid of the range rust, meet some great people and have fun. I have lot’s to learn and will do it again as soon as I have time to shoot and money for ammo.

Image source: IPSC website

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