This week on the podcast, live from the hotel room the night before the final day of Production Nationals, I talk about how things have changed in the last year, and what I’m looking to get out of shooting Nationals this year.

The post #39: USPSA Nationals 2018 appeared first on Berry Shooting.

Two weeks ago, I shot the 2017 US IPSC Nationals the biggest (and only) match in the US under IPSC rules, the international version of USPSA. The rules of the two are mostly the same, but the small variations can make key differences.

For example, the IPSC rules about walking the stages the day before you actually shoot the match are the same, but are enforced differently. Where the US defaults to allowing competitors to walk stages any time the range is open and there’s not a squad on the stage, IPSC goes the other way: competitors are not allowed on the stages any time other than their time slot to shoot the stage.

For a USPSA match, to be competitive, you have to show up a day early to walk through the stages and get any advantage you can. With IPSC, there’s not really any point in doing that since at best you can watch the staff shoot the stages, but not actually walk them through yourself. Not allowing walkthroughs the day before also avoids the problem of there being one or two stages that are especially complex where all the competitors end up tripping over each other as they all try to see every nuance in the stage during their day-before walkthrough.

I ended up liking that aspect of the match, even if it meant that I had a somewhat rough time going first on the last stage of Day Two, a 32 round field course with lots of options. In a strange way, it was nice to be freed of the requirement to spend 30 minutes walking through a complex stage and looking for every possible edge. I know at a big match, my competition will be doing it, so  I’ll do it too in order to be competitive. But of the whole experience, spending that time is probably one of my least favorite parts. I would compare it to playing speed chess vs regular chess. When the rules of the game force you to quickly come up with something that’s sufficient, it’s more fun than having a de facto requirement to laboriously solve for perfection.

Despite only having 5 minutes to look at each stage, my strongest stages were the longer ones. Short courses, defined as 12 rounds or less, are rare in USPSA outside of classifiers. But IPSC rules require that half the stages in the match be short courses, and a few of them exposed weak points in my game. Of my three mikes in the match, two were on on very short 6 or 8 round stages. They never should have happened in the first place, but I think I’m used to very short stages being Virginia Count (limited) classifiers. IPSC got rid of Virginia Count a few years ago, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to think about that when I was shooting these stages. I’ll have to remember that for next time.

This match also took equipment check more seriously than I’ve ever seen at a USPSA match, including a sheet to check that you’re not changing what’s on your belt depending on the stage, and you’re complying with the rules of your division. I don’t think a lot of competitors try to rearrange their belts on the fly, and I don’t think it would help very much even if they did, but it was nice to see a high level of rigor applied to administering a national-level match.

Also, this was the first time I got to shoot Production with 15 round mags, and it’s definitely way more interesting. You just have more options when you can move between two positions without always reloading. With 10 rounds in a mag, if each position requires 6 rounds, you have to reload between each one, where having 15 round mags means be able to keep your gun up and shoot entering and leaving positions more often. It’s not enough of a difference to make me go to USPSA Limited just for the higher capacity, but I’d be happy if USPSA Production moved to 15 rounds.

IPSC Nationals is usually sparsely attended, for a few reasons. Every division has slightly different rules than USPSA, including loading to a slightly higher power factor or using smaller basepads or having to use factory parts in Production. It’s also always in Frostproof, Florida, which means it’s a significant amount of travel for almost anyone who wants to shoot it. The stages are characteristically hard, both in difficulty of the shots involved and the lack of run-and-gun, hosing stages.

The end result is that the crowd of shooters who shows up ends up being somewhat more serious competitors than your average big match. If I have one regret about this part of the match, it’s that I was so intensely focused on the shooting my game that it wasn’t until the middle of the second day that I started relaxing and talking to the rest of the squad a little more.

Normally, this match is one of the matches you have to shoot if you want to qualify to represent the US at the World Shoot every three years. But since this year is a World Shoot year, the teams have already been chosen and you don’t have to shoot this match to qualify. I took this as a positive since I knew my first IPSC experience would probably not go perfectly. Just going and shooting and dipping my toe in the IPSC waters made this match a success for me.

It also served as a practice run for this year’s USPSA Iron Sight Nationals in St. George, Utah. It was a chance to figure out what gear worked (my REI camp stool is still going strong and awesome as ever) and what didn’t (I can no longer recommend the Mobius Mini as anything but a budget alternative hat cam since it crapped out and missed a few stages). The match helped me identify areas to train and reminded me not to do anything I haven’t practiced on match day if I can possibly avoid it. It helped me see how stage plans that might be good enough for a stage win at local matches still leave room for improvement.

I went to this match to learn, to get experience with IPSC, to get experience at Frostproof, and to be challenged. All of those things happened. This match will be at the top of my list to shoot every year if I can make it.

The post Thoughts on IPSC Nationals 2017 appeared first on Berry Shooting.

Stages from the 2017 US IPSC Nationals, in the order I shot them.

2017 US IPSC Nationals results

Stage 5
First stage of the day. Called the steel misses before I left them, but two makeups on a six round stage hurts. I had my hat pulled down low so the sun wasn’t right in my eyes, but it definitely didn’t help.

Stage 4
Was first on both of these stages and waffled on whether or not to reload when transitioning the gun. As I walked over to get handcuffed, I decided not to, but that meant after my first miss on the DA shot I had 15 rounds left for a 14 round stage. I became very deliberate, which turned in to decent points, but was very slow. I was very aware of shooting in to the sun on this one. But that was a known thing going in to the match at Universal Shooting Academy in Frostproof, Florida.

Stage 6
The first of three light strikes in the match, each one on the second shot of a target, as I was transitioning away. I had a batch of ammo loaded that I was very confident in for making power factor and figured the slightly heavier springs in my IPSC setup (vs the slightly lighter USPSA setup) would pop the primers reliably. That turned out to not be the case. Lesson: don’t rely on guessing. Test the exact match ammo with the exact match gun and setup.

Otherwise, pretty good. That second reload definitely cost me as much as the light strike.

Stage 7
Committed the classic blunder of relaxing on the easy target and missed my second shot on the first target. Brutal penalty on such a short stage.

Stage 8
Drew right out of the holster and started shooting without confirming my sights, and put charlie delta in to the right hand target. It was a nice group, just in the wrong spot because I didn’t take the extra tenth to correct in to the alpha.

Stage 1
This stage had an option: shoot some extreme leans on 15 yard swingers or go prone and shoot them. I haven’t practiced prone very much, so I over-estimated how stable it would be compared to the very hard lean. Lesson: don’t try to do stuff in matches you don’t practice if you have a choice. It’s probably not as appealing of a choice as you think (if you practiced it, you would know that).

Ended up taking a mike on my second shot on the left swinger. I called it iffy at the time, but I didn’t have a lot of confidence in being able to make it up (even prone, 15 yards is a hard shot) so I left it and hoped. No dice.

Also had my second light strike here, as the swinger was swinging away, so I had to wait for another presentation. Pretty much the worst place it could happen.

My Mobius Mini started crapping out on this stage, so no first person video of the targets.

Stage 2
A stage with a lot of options on which targets to engage through which port. I picked a simple plan that minimized total distance moved, but having to shift to multiple positions and take targets from far away cost me a lot of time. I had the most points, but was about 3 seconds off the pace (13.XX vs my 16.23). The winning plan involved moving more but put you a lot closer to the targets.

Stage 3
Was first on this stage, and it had a ton of options because most of the targets were available from multiple places. I kept trying to come up with a plan to avoid stopping for one target in the middle, but I couldn’t get it to work in the 5 minute walkthrough. Happy with the finish, and my only regret is the number of makeup shots it took to get good hits, but even that I can’t complain too much about. Each of them was better than taking the delta or mike.

Once again, no hat video. Mobius Mini going in the trash.

Stage 13
The first stage of day 2, this time facing away from the sun with amazing target lighting. Another terrible time for a light strike, but at least the DA second strike was an alpha.

Paid attention to the activator sequence but not the timing, so I shot both activators as quickly as I could. That ended up exposing the second and third max traps at almost the same time, resulting in having to run to the end of the stage to pick up the last two hits (the one shot I got off was a called miss). I shot a risky stage plan and got burned by not paying attention to the precise timing, but that’s a lesson for next time.

Stage 14
Another stage with no complaints aside from the number of makeup shots. A little more patience before breaking each shot would have saved a lot of raw time.

Stage 15
Generally mediocre. Not fast and not great points. Felt myself speeding up toward the end of the stage, resulting in charlie delta on the last paper and the steel miss. Something about the targets being wide open made me lose discipline and get lazy.

Stage 16
Got a bad grip out of the holster, which was literally the most important part of the stage. I just took it for granted and was thinking about working the trigger smoothly. Missed the second shot on the second target for no good reason. Couldn’t have been any worse if I took the time to fix my grip, but was in the wrong mindset.

Also, didn’t think ahead of time whether I could take makeups, even though I knew at the time that IPSC doesn’t even have Virginia Count (limited) stages anymore! I erred on the side of caution and took the miss, but that was a failure to prepare properly and know the rules.

Stage 9
This is shooting on the move way faster than I usually practice and the points weren’t great. But ultimately that makeup on steel is what hurt me on this one. No real excuse except it was another Frostproof stage with the sun in my eyes.

Stage 10
Another case of just aiming at the wrong spot. Took two charlies both right next to each other on the last target because I didn’t finish transitioning all the way to the middle of the target.

The start position meant being a little off balance too, so I think I pushed off too hard which made my first setup very rough.

Stage 11
Another very unusual challenge. Got bit by focusing too much on gripping the gun and didn’t get a good hold on the magazine, so it went sideways in my hand.

Stage 12
Ended up going first on this stage again, which manifested mostly by being a little sluggish and not as decisive as if I’d had a few more shooters to really solidify my plan. (IPSC 5 minute walkthroughs are no joke.) Was very hesitant because I knew both of the second two magazines didn’t leave a lot of extra rounds for makeups.

Nearly center-punched the no-shoot moving in to the second position because I was moving so aggressively, but just made it up and moved on. That rattled me but the rest of the stage went okay. That first position was very nerve-wracking so I was glad to get out of there alive.

Overall thoughts

I knew this match would be lightly attended for a few reasons. Registration for the match opened less than 90 days before it started, and it was scheduled for the middle of July in Florida. Not to mention the fact that since the World Shoot is this year, it wasn’t a requirement to shoot this match in order to qualify to be on the US World Shoot team.

I’m pretty happy with how my actual trigger pulling went, including making up most of my bad shots (outside of short courses which me default to shooting them like classifiers without makeup shots). The two main issues were 1) not having the ammo and gun setup 100% squared away well before the match and 2) stage planning. On stage 1 I shot prone despite not having practiced it at all, which was a mistake. On stage 2, I took a very conservative plan because I placed too much of a premium on time spent moving and didn’t think about how much time it takes to aim.

Not to mention managing to perform reasonably well in the challenging Florida heat.

So, the to do list starts with fully debugging the gear before going to a Nationals (duh!) and then on to really being comfortable with the tradeoffs between things like moving vs aiming and leaning vs shooting prone.

As I write this, it’s about 70 days until USPSA Nationals.

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