Classify our match type?

[chris in va]

I shoot once a month at a local match. We generally don't allow 'race' guns and electronic sights are disallowed. We do follow the major/minor scoring system but we aren't chronographed to determine power factor. If I want to use 230 gr 45's at 650fps, no problem.

Some guys have long slides and flared magwells, while others have extensive work done to triggers and other innards. We generally don't have a mag capacity limit and it doesn't matter if you use a revolver, single or double stack.

So USPSA, IDPA, other?

[RickB]

The differences between USPSA and IDPA are more about stage design and scoring, than the types of guns allowed.
Do your courses of fire allow the shooter broad discretion to "shoot 'em as you see 'em", or is there more of a script that dictates the order in which the targets must be engaged?
Do you take cover from the targets, or move away from obstacles so that you can hose as many targets as possible from one spot?

[chris in va]

Depends. Some stages are just 'mow them down' with a mag change, others require you hide behind cover or walk a path and hit targets on either side. Other bays require you to be moving or get docked a +5.

[Jim Watson]

If you don't follow IDPA or USPSA rules, then it isn't IDPA or USPSA, it is "other."
I call them outlaw matches.
No doubt they are great fun for the locals who only shoot locally.
They might get an unpleasant surprise if they went somewhere and entered a sanctioned match and found their equipment not competitive or completely disallowed and their techniques garnering them poor scores and penalties.

I am going to find out this season. One club gave up on IDPA because they did not want to implement the new rules, and did not want to challenge their membership's math with USPSA scoring. Another is like the OP's, they are doing it Their Way. The match director told me "We advance, my training did not include retreating."
I will see if these outlaw shoots are harmful to the IDPA techniques I have been hammering into my reflexes for the past 16 years.

[RickB]

I used to shoot matches as decribed by the OP. Sometimes, we'd stand in one place and hose, other times we'd engage certain targets from one box, then move to another box for the next engagement, other times we'd be engaging while moving between boxes (it was an indoor range, so they were very careful about direction of fire, so we had to stay on a certain "path"). Sometimes we had to reload before moving, sometimes we'd reload while moving.
It's fun.
As Jim noted, such matches are not going to be very good preparation for shooting either IDPA or USPSA, if you're not following the rules of either.
If your penalties are in the form of time "+5"(seconds?), the scoring sounds more like IDPA, which is a lot easier to apply, and understand than is USPSA's hit factor scoring.

[WESHOOT2]

Is it fun?

Then 'what kind' doesn't matter.



I personally prefer the more 'independent' nature of USPSA matches (vs IDPA), and note one may shoot them as 'tactically' (safely) as desired.

[chris in va]

I figured as much. We all have a great time and I like there are fewer regulations as to what is carried and used. Granted the guys with 1911's and revolvers have a harder time with reloads but we are all there to learn a few things and forces us to think and move.

It's not terribly realistic as a real SD situation calls for retreating to cover, but considering the danger of doing so with a loaded firearm and the varying age of participants, it wouldn't be feasible.

[Nick_C_S]

Sounds a little like the competition I attend once a month. Although ours is considered an IDPA match. We use IDPA scoring rules, targets, etc.

But it's not a sanctioned match. And many don't shoot regulation guns. I've seen 8-shot revolvers; 6" barrels; over classification weight; non-regulation holsters etc. We don't chrono rounds, there's no power floor - I've literally seen bullets flying, they're so slow - literally.

I am self-policed at these matches, however. Even though it's not a sanctioned match, I shoot a 6-shot revolver, 4" barrel, and within weight/size; all IDPA compliant equipment. And my ammo is loaded to achieve power floor - with some fps to spare.

Nobody cares if some aren't IDPA compliant. We all have fun.

[chris in va]

Yup, sounds exactly like ours.

And honestly I feel matches should be more like this. When you start running into excessive regulations and 'power factors', it takes away from the real purpose, learning gun handling and self defense drills.

[Jim Watson]

I am self-policed at these matches, however. Even though it's not a sanctioned match, I shoot a 6-shot revolver, 4" barrel, and within weight/size; all IDPA compliant equipment. And my ammo is loaded to achieve power floor

I think this is what I will have to do at outlaw matches in this area.
Unless they get so prevalent that I shoot a rooneygun set up to take advantage of their lack of gun divisions. Then hope I don't get spoiled by a movie capacity magazine.

[g.willikers]

One of the places that have similar type matches as you describe call them "Local Rules Matches."

[Nick_C_S]

(we) call them "Local Rules Matches."

Yes exactly. Sometimes we jokingly say "El Dorado rules." (El Dorado is the name of the shooting range.)

[RickB]

When someone designed a not-quite-legal stage for a local USPSA match, it was determined to utilize "West Virginia scoring".

[g.willikers]

What's that?
Shoot 'em full of holes and bury them in the woods?
(Been watching too many episodes of "Justified").