I am a shooting enthusiast, particularly as a handgunner. I am no USPSA Grand Master, nor have I tried to be, but I shoot at a high level, especially from concealment, which throws a specialty wrinkle into it. I absolutely love the benefits reaped from competitive shooting, as competition pushes all participants to get better. Still, I have never been particularly enthralled with competitive shooting as I have always only used it as a vehicle to skills improvement pertaining to the defensive use of the pistol. I think it is a great thing that there are many shooting enthusiasts out there now, many of which are very good shooters. Compared to the general population, we are a drop in the bucket, but at least we are to the point of having a community. Friendly competition drives us all to get better.
With that said, I don’t care. Unless you are one of the half-dozen guys who are the world champions who win all the big matches, there is always someone better. I practice to high shooting standards, but I could care less about being the best at this point, and I will never be one of the best anyway. But the main reason that I don’t really care is that, it does not really matter compared to what I have always most cared about.
What do I most care about, pertaining to the shooting and self-defense world?
I care about the single mother, alone with her children in a dinner, when monsters enter and the means of her family’s survival is her ability to use her concealed handgun. That’s what I care about.
The shooter who has this patch, and that pin, and this ranking, and can do a sub-second draw and a sub-two-second Bill Drill (I can do those things too, I am not opposed to practicing hard) I really don’t care about. That guy or girl who can do those things is an enthusiast. Ironically, some of the best shooters in the world have no defensive mindset and don’t even carry a gun, but the defensive oriented shooters that can also shoot at a high level are a force to be reckoned with, no doubt. But, they are a tiny fraction of the already tiny shooting world.
Online we can see the specialty niches even within the world of handgun shooting; the 25 yard B8 guys who can shoot perfect scores. The sub-second draw hotrods. Etc…, It is all wonderful, but at the end of the day, I don’t care. I do, however, care about getting the average armed citizen more squared away so that they can face evil, should it come to pass on their watch, and getting the non-enthusiast to invest in themselves is the greatest obstacle we face, but we can keep trying, and impart as much skill and preparedness as we can.
So, guys, keep working on those 100ths of a second off your draw time, or make those B8 groups even smaller. I don’t think there is much practical difference between a .95 draw and a .85 draw besides bragging rights, or between a 90% or 100% on a B8 at 25 yards. But, if you want to do something that really does matter, get a friend to the range and impart some skills and some mindset. That does matter.
Live fire practice is essential. To buy the ammo that I use for training at the best possible price, go to:
https://www.ammoman.com/9mm-blazer-brass-124-grain-fmj-5201-1000
Reflex Handgun 