where to start as a begginer in competitive shooting

ive never heard of muzzleloading competitions at all. I did go watch a idpa competition this past weekend along with gssf competion. I will be shooting the next idpa match in two weeks. only thing is im not really a fan of the vest!
 
i wouldnt mind try some sort of benchrest rimfire competion. but the only ones locally im told are very accurate rifles and i wouldnt be able to compete with a 10/22 no matter how much i have in it lol. thats what was told to me when i asked around at the local reloading shops and gun stores. the muzzleloader seems interesting definetly different i dont think ive shoot a muzzleloader more than three or four times lol
 
only thing is im not really a fan of the vest!
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Neither am I, so I don't own one. I carry at IDPA like I carry on the street, with my untucked shirt covering my pistol. I may be 1/10 of a second slower, but I joined IDPA to improve skills, not win matches.

Welcome to IDPA. You'll love it.
 
Paintball has nothing whatever to do with firearms. Has ZERO application to any live ammo shooting sport. Neither does Airsoft.
Bullseye shooting is the place to start. All other shooting is based on it. Despite what some will have you believe. You need the basics of shooting first.
If you don't belong to a shooting club, join one. Opens all kinds of doors. Doesn't matter what that club does most often. The other members very likely shoot other stuff elsewhere and eventually you'll be invited.
Other shooters will go out of their way to help a new guy. Including letting you shoot their firearms. Shooters are just like that.
Pick a type of shooting competition(there's something for everybody) you might want to do and go to a match. Just remember that IPSC and IDPA have absolutely nothing to do with CCW. They're shooting games and nothing more.
Forget about placing or anything else and go for the fun of it.
 
I've found I've learned a lot by shooting IDPA matches that is useful to know and transferable to concealed carry.
 
GSSF is probably the easiest introduction to action pistol since there is no drawing from the holster and no movement. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of GSSF matches available to most people (two per year in my area).

Of the actual run-and-gun pistol matches, I feel that IDPA is the easiest to start with. It has more restrictions on the maximum number of shots required and the amount of movement on each stage. Additionally, 99.5% of shooters engage the targets in the same manner/sequence because of the IDPA rule about not exposing yourself to unengaged targets.

I wouldn't say that you can't start in USPSA, but I think that IDPA is a slightly more simplified sport.

I would strongly recommend to the OP to research local IDPA and USPSA clubs (use the Find a Club feature on each sport's website), and find out if any of the offer an Intro to Action Shooting class. It's a lot less intimidating the first time you compete if you have gone through some form of introduction beforehand.
 
Where to start

I think IDPA would be the best place to start.All you need is a holster and double mag pouch.Come out and have fun.You might want to watch a match before you start.See on youtube.
 
No one mentioned Cowboy Action! That's where most my ammo is "unloaded" these days and for a good number of our folks, cowboy is their first competitive shooting sport.

For a beginner, I'll add another recommendation for Steel Challenge.
 
Start

" Bullseye shooting is the place to start."
No doubt. You can begin with a .22 pistol. The emphasis is entirely on accurate shooting. There are no activities or skills to master other than the basics of accurate shooting. No running. No holsters. No barricades. No learning to draw from a holster. No rapid magazine changes. No period costumes.
Just the shooter, the gun and the target.
 
Except that Bullseye is done one handed.
A useful skill, no doubt, but does it prepare for the other handgun events, done primarily with the two handed grip and and other very different techniques?
 
for precision shooting, without time pressures, i concur with one handed bullseye.

sometimes, in competition, and in real life, you don't get to use both hands. carrying something precious, dog on leash, or otherwise occupied. great skill to learn.
 
Yep

Except that Bullseye is done one handed.
A useful skill, no doubt, but does it prepare for the other handgun events, done primarily with the two handed grip and and other very different techniques?
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My feeling is that shooting one handed unsupported prepares a shooter for two handed events a lot more than shooting two handed prepares one for shooting Bulleye. The emphasis in Bullseye/"conventional pistol" shooting is application of the basics; there is nothing else.
 
A commonly heard criticism of Bullseye is the idea of taking so much time to shoot, and waiting for that near perfect sight picture and trigger focus.
Maybe not a useful habit to have for other disciplines.
Comments?
 
g.willikers, if your goal is to shoot straight line or clay sports where there is no timer, then bullseye is fine. If, OTOH, your goal is action shooting where timers are used, bullseye is a handicap.

I started in the straight line sports, and was successful winning a lot of matches, but I got bored and moved on, eventually landing in 3Gun for the past several years. Breaking the habits of "perfect' sight picture and replacing them with "acceptable" sight picture literally took me about 10 years of conscious effort.

Accuracy can be taught to anyone, speed can not. When you have instilled techniques and habits for precision into your fabric of shooting skills, they fight with speed to no end.

When you look at the matches that employ both time and accuracy, the speed guys are always at the top. The pure accuracy guys just can't overcome the pursuit of the perfect sight picture combined with the perfect trigger press.
 
accuracy

When you look at the matches that employ both time and accuracy,
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No experience with that type of shooting other than the timed and rapid fire events that are part of Bullseye.
And then there is Olympic rapid fire....that is pretty fast. At 25 yards the last strings are five shots on five different targets in four seconds from a gun down position.
What is considered "accurate" vs "acceptable"?
Not a criticism....I really would like to know.
I expect that the choice comes down to mindset - neither good nor bad.
For the OP...it seems to me that Bullseye's focus is narrower and there is less needed to get a start.
Pete
ps - "straight line sports"....I have been doing this for a good while now and that is a new term for me. What, if you have a moment, are some other straight line sports? What makes for one?
 
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I ran a Bill Drill the other day, 6 shots from the holster in 2.2 seconds on target. Top competitors are shooting 4-6 rounds per second on arrays.

Accurate is hitting the center of the target repeatedly.

Acceptable is scoring the hit needed balanced by time. In USPSA, we use hit factor scoring and the maximum points are typically on a 5" x 11" rectangle.

Straight line sports is a term used around here frequently and refers to those sports with a common static firing line shooting a target at a given distance. Hi-power, silhouette, smallbore, schuetzen, etc.
 
Thanks

Thanks for that definition...have added that to my shooting vocabukary.
Those shot times are Very fast.....puts a perspective on things.(I dont know that I could move my finger that fast.)
A 5"X11" rectangle....what are the ranges invoived at those speeds?
Pete
 
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