So in the past year or so, the folks at GADPA, a large Atlanta-area organization that oversees multiple matches, broke away from IDPA and announced they were writing their own rulebook. Well, it’s finally here and… well… I can’t say I’m eager to shoot a GADPA match. First off, the scoring is a mess. The target is another attempt to be more “realistic”. When IDPA came up with their target, they deleted the “credit card” …

Today’s reading comes from Page 75 of George Leonard’s Mastery: There’s another secret: The people we know as masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it. The truth is, they love to practice–and because of this they do get better. And then, to complete the circle, the better they get the more they enjoy performing the basic moves over and over again.

Back when I had the fortune to interview Steve Anderson for episode 107, one of the (many) things that stuck with me was a moment where he talks about accepting your current level of skill and not trying to shoot better than you actually are on match day. Playing his straight man, I replied that that sounds like a great way to shoot a boring match. Which, it is. Saturday was Sir Walter Gun Club’s …

Caleb, in his recent appearance on Ben Stoeger’s podcast, went on a profanity-laced rant against Production Optics that is both awesome and correct. I’m not going to embed the video because, seriously, profanity, but if you want to experience the awesome, click here to go right the start of the rant. By way of context, Production Optics is an idea that’s been circling in both USPSA and IDPA for a while and the most concrete …

As I’ve ramped up my dry fire over the past six months, one of the things I’ve really come to appreciate are weighted dummy rounds. Even loading mags to 10 rounds for IDPA SSP or USPSA Production, good weighted dummy rounds triple the weight of a magazine. In a division like CDP/Single Stack or Limited where you’re reloading will full magazines, practicing inserting the mag with enough force to depress the fully-loaded magazine spring becomes …

Flying a bit under the radar of the firehose of SHOT Show news coming out this week is this announcement from IDPA, sent to members via email: We are happy to announce that the membership clearly told us that they wanted a Compact Carry Pistol (CCP) division. The full details of that division will be coming out shortly but competitors and MD’s can start making plans now. The division is based on ESP but the …

In classic FedGovCo fashion, ATF has dumped this Sig brace letter after business hours on a Friday before a 3-day Gov weekend. If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you will. The most worrying thing about this announcement is the way the online gun community is tearing it’s hair out, blaming people for writing in asking for clarification of the regulation. We have no idea if that is what caused ATF to make this ruling, …

A response I wrote elsewhere to some good-natured ribbing from a fan of the show about my new competition belt and magazine pouches and the skills > tools mantra: Heh, yeah. The idea is that gear just needs to be “good enough”. I switched to a double belt as means to an end: dry firing better. I found threading mag pouches and holsters on to my belt around my existing belt loops meant everything was …

So last Monday, I shot the second Wake Action Pistol match for December. Now, as the stage designer, you’d think I’d know the stages and their briefs and procedures front to back. But in the middle of a match, it all goes out the window. So, here’s the video: Stage 2: Trying to be nice to the other RO on my squad, I volunteered to shoot each stage first, thinking that surely I know each …

I’m sure you’ve seen it: the “diagnostic pistol target” with a series of pie slices around a circular center. Shoot the center and see where your hits end up and tells you what’s wrong with your shooting. I won’t reproduce it here because it’s so unproductive I don’t even want to spread it any further. If you haven’t seen it, be glad. You probably will if you hang out in this hobby long enough. This …