Fly.... have no fear.... Thomas was wearing his skin tight "brand" shirt ala USPSA
Skin tight? Hey now, I don't wear spandex!
And yes, I WAS wearing a vest. And looked quite fashionably tactical, thank-you-very-much.
It is probably no secret that I like USPSA better than IDPA. That's not anything against IDPA---I just like the puzzle-solving aspects of USPSA. For
me, that's one of the things that makes it fun, and takes us one further step away from bullseye shooting. (Cue the complaints from people who like bullseye. [sigh] Nothing wrong with it, I just personally don't get amped to practice by that.)
To my way of thinking, having to think critically and make decisions on my own based on my particular skillset, and then after that manage the gun correctly, is not only a good test of shooting skills, but also just FUN. IDPA doesn't require the decision-making that USPSA does, as the stages are (mostly) far more scripted in what you have to do.
That being said, IDPA is
also fun, and I enjoy that too.
I must admit, I had sorta "meh" expectations of what this particular match would be like, for reasons that aren't particularly important. I am happy to report that I had a
great time. Seriously, it was a blast. The stages were short but fun, the weather was pretty much excellent, the staff were good folks (couple of occasions of needing-to-know-the-rules-better, but mostly pretty good), and the squad I shot with was fantastic. Shooting with the Nebraska folks was of course fun (and we gave each other plenty of commentary to "help"), and the rest of the squad was good people.
It was fun. If next year's match is possible for me, I'll plan on going again. We should bring a larger contingent of Nebraska folks, though...
(And maybe we'll have convinced Zebra to shoot IDPA by that time. And Julie too, though every time I mention IDPA to her she asks if she can use her Open gun... We can try, at least!)
Got my match video together---it was interesting to watch, from an outside perspective. I was really hesitant in my movement especially at first (nervous about how they were going to do cover calls, lots of galumphing backwards on stage 3), and after I cranked my back on the 8th stage (man that hurt!), I apparently forgot how to shoot because my 9th and 10th stages were by far the worst of the match.
Matter of fact, of the 34 points down I had for the match, almost a third of them all occurred on the last stage! (11 down on one stage. Ouch.)
But yeah, I was the SSP Division Champion, and the Match Champion (which is an unofficial thing---they don't officially recognize that, though everyone looks to see who it was, just like in USPSA), but I also will get a match classification bump out of it---so once the scores get sent to IDPA, I'll be Master class.
Not too shabby for my first major IDPA match, and my 6th ever IDPA match.
Here's my match video, in case anyone wants to see what the stages looked like:
Official scores were posted here:
http://www.capitalcitygunclub.com/idpa/scores/2014-10-11.htm...I'll note that since I went to a state-level IDPA match, that means you IDPA shooters need to come to our state-level USPSA match next year!
