Brian and I have our first IDPA qualifier in a couple weeks. This is a standard course of fire that all IDPA members do at least once a year. The end result is sort of like a handicap in golf. There are 5 levels: Novice, Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert, Master. In matches, there is an overall winner & most accurate (least points dropped) taken from any class, and then you compete against folks shooting the same type of gun at your classification level.
Today, so we wouldn’t go in cold, we set up our own qualifier course of fire and shot it. Summary… what looks easy on paper, isn’t. (-:
Brian had trouble with tactical reloads and making sure he had good sight pictures. The general rule is you can’t shoot fast enough to make up for a miss. And he had about 40 second in misses (ouch!). He qualified as Marksman. Take away a few misses and speed up his tac reloads and he is smack dab in the middle of Sharpshooter.
I shot a 118 – 2 seconds under the Stock Service Pistol Expert time. Which I’m actually pretty happy with considering that when I shot the first 7 yard stringI found out that my sights were out again! Argh!! I took my lumps there, did Kentucky windage the rest of the way and finished it out. I had trouble with one of the tactical reloads (need to practice those more). And a hot cartridge lodged on my arm and burned it on one of the 20 yard strings (definitely distracting me!). I think I can shave about 10 seconds off that without too much trouble.
We will do one more practice run before the real deal in 2 weeks.