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There are several games in which shooters can compete with handguns. There's the bullseye game for pure marksmen, PPC for policemen and IHMSA for long-range fanatics. Defensive shooters like to hone their skills with IDPA or IPSC, while Frontiersmen prefer SASS and its derivatives. I encourage all handgunners to try their hand at some form of competition because it teaches you about your ability to shoot under pressure, and that's very important. Plus, the atmosphere surrounding a match is great, particularly in the exchange of ideas, techniques and the like. It is indeed unfortunate that certain people always look for ways to get an edge, usually by shading the rules, if not actually breaking them. However, once there was a game that kept shooters from breaking the rules by severely restricting the number of rules in force.
January 23, 2012
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In a lifetime of shooting, I have been involved in a number of forms of competition. My first pistol match was in Basic School at Quantico over 50 years ago. It was a bullseye match fired on the National Match course of slow, timed and rapid fire. Over time, I became an avid, if not spectacularly successful, bullseye competitor. Naturally, I had to have all kinds of specially modified pistols to shoot the course. Later, as a police officer, I was bitten by the PPC bug and traveled all over California to compete. It was a great time (particularly when I was driving a Volkswagen and gas was 30 cents a gallon) and I had the practical advantage of competing on the same course I fired for qualification. Literally, I was training as I was competing—great idea. Then, I became interested the IHMSA game, where we shot at silhouettes of game animals at great distances. This took a powerful and accurate handgun, but the basics of the game were still sight alignment and trigger management. In time, I discovered IPSC, IDPA and SASS and had brief flirtations with these sports. Yep, I have had a heck of a good time competing with handguns. In so doing, I have developed a huge fund of knowledge on how to lose a pistol match, because I have lost more than my share of matches.
August 09, 2010
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These two Walker Colts are Italian reproductions used by Tex to win End of Trail and numerous other SASS matches.
August 05, 2009
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Firearms used by John Wayne, Jesse James and Annie Oakley sit on display at the National Firearms Museum.
June 08, 2009
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