Can somebody please give a basic breakdown of classes and equipment?
You MP9 would be an excellent production class gun. You'll need a holster, mag pouches, and extra mags.
- holster: any holster that covers the trigger will do, start off w/ those nylon generic holsters for $10 ea.
- mag pouches: If you want to you can use your pockets. Or get the uncle mike's double mag pouches for $10 ea
- extra mags: IPSC stage can have 30 something rounds. So you should carry at least 40 rounds. Sometimes steel, miss, mag changes can cause you to use more rounds per stage. For production, having 5 mags is good: 1 in the gun and 4 on you.
That's it. Bring 200 roudns and very important: cap and water to your first match.
Edit: Somebody above suggested watching a match. That's a good idea, but you'll get very bored. If you take that route, bring you gun in case you want to participate (if you are a safe shooter). Texas Solo, I noticed that you are in San Antonio, there is a club called River city shooters based in South San Antonio that hosts IPSC and IDPA; there's also Alpha Mike's in North San Antonio that does something like IPSC, and Texas Tactical in north that does something like IDPA these clubs would be conveinent for you.