Q&A: Killed in the Streets!

Eric Lucas, I have a question for your Q&A; if you would like. I know this touches on a subject you have talked about in the past. The closest USPSA club to me is an hour away. They shut down fairly early in the season. Last summer I still wanted to do some more matches and the next closest match is a 3 hour drive one way. Their website said that set up was at 3pm, shooting started at 6pm and should be done by 9pm. It seemed to imply that being present for set up was mandatory. I called them and explained that it was going to be 6 hours of driving for me and asked if set up was mandatory. This resulted in a fairly insulting lecture on how important volunteering is in this sport but the guy never gave me a definitive answer to my question. Now I get how important volunteering is but I’m not sue I want to make a 12 hour day out of this. My response was to skip it and spend the time and money practicing. I’ll spend my money going to some lvl 2 matches next year. I don’t know what kind of stress the guy was dealing with but I wouldn’t feel welcome if I wasn’t there 3 hours early. What’s your take, should I reconsider or drive past to the next one 4 hours away? Also, I am working on a first match type voice mail that I hope to send soon. T. C. TC from Ft. Mill, SC here, with a question for the Q&A; Show. How do you see competition shooting benefitting those who carry for self-defense purposes? We have all long heard the arguments from the “tactical” community about how competition shooting will get you killed on the street. How the competition “spray and pray” model of running about, disregarding cover and flinging bullets all over hell to breakfast is a sure fire formula for death and disaster on the mean streets of Anytown, USA. My own experience of being a 20 year veteran of federal law enforcement and competitive shooting, as well as infantry combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has underscored just how valuable competition shooting is, for me, when things get loud. I have never understood the perspective of those who believe that being able to operate your firearms efficiently, to be able to shoot fast and accurately, as one must to be successful in competition, is not tactically desirable. I am, however, very curious as to your take on the topic. Do you see competitive shooting as helpful for those who carry for self-defense, as you do? If so, what are those advantages? Do you see any disadvantages, and if so, what are they? Thanks for what you do. Carry on. Austin I know you have talked about this before, but when you bring a new to competition shooter to a match how much should you focus on them verse trying to shoot well, do you just write the match off and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do? What are your thoughts? Brett I just started shooting USPSA in April. My wife and I both shoot and absolutely love the sport! My question is that I am now a high C with 58%. My last few classifiers had been in the mid 60% range. I would really like to end my first year as a B. I am shooting next week at Pitt County. The classifier is 99-22. Should I try to burn it down as fast as I can to try to get that high hit factor? Or play it conservatively to keep my high C? Of coarse when the buzzer goes off all plans go out the window! Anthony I was at a local USPSA club match a while back and a fellow shooter noticed I was dropping my head as I would address my sights. I didn't think much of it at the time when I was shooting my limited gun with iron sights. Now that I have decided to run carry optics it has became more obvious that I have been dropping my head to get a good sight picture. Is there any benefit to address sights without bringing your head down during the draw stroke and bringing sights up to your target focus area? Other than possible unproductive movement? Thanks. Ronald Should carry optic shooters be required to wear their underwear on their head? Ray What caliber and division would you start a new Jr shooter in, and what's the best way to get my daughter started? Drew Lucas, I went cheap to begin with on holsters and mag carriers to make sure I liked action pistol shooting. Now it's been about half a year and I'm more excited than ever. I'm shooting IDPA mostly, can you tell me what I should look for in better mag carriers? I'm using a double pouch now and have trouble indexing on the 2nd magazine. Kevin At what point on the draw do you put your finger on the trigger? Normally when I draw and shoot I have my trigger finger indexed on the side of the gun outside the trigger guard until I get close to on target and then I move my finger to the trigger. While dry firing I noticed I could speed up my shot time by getting my finger on the trigger sooner, prepping the trigger while still extending and getting a sight picture and then pressing the trigger the rest of the way once I had a good sight picture. I was worried I could DQ doing this for having my finger in the trigger guard on the draw if I put my finger in too soon, but 10.5.5.1 seems to say as long as I'm not sweeping myself with the finger in the trigger guard then it's not a rule infraction.