When many people go to an indoor range, this is all they have to work with. An individual stall, and a single paper target. This particular range is one of the nicest indoor ranges I’ve had the chance to use, West Coast Armory in Bellevue, WA. West Coast Armory, unlike many indoor ranges allows shooters to draw from the holster after passing a safety check; their staff is friendly and experienced and the range itself is very well set up for IDPA practice. However, if your facility doesn’t allow you to draw from the holster, one of the most valuable things you can work on to improve your IDPA shooting is your press-out.

Start with your gun compressed in your ready position, as show in the picture, eyes on the target. From there slowly drive the gun towards the target, which should preferably be an IDPA or IPSC target with open scoring zones. As the gun comes toward the target, begin to pick up your sights before the gun is completely on target. The goal of the drill is to have the shot break at the same moment as you get your perfect sight picture, not too soon and not too late. There is a potential in this drill for you to fire too early – it is perfectly safe as long as your sights are aligned on the target during your press out. That’s why it’s important to dry fire this drill before trying with live ammo. Dry fire this drill repeatedly. In the image, you can see that the hammer is falling as the shot breaks, which is perfect timing for this drill. Dry fire is very important though to make sure that your timing is good when practicing this drill.

Simple dry fire practice and press-out practice will drastically improve your performance on the range. You’ll find that the ability to drive the gun rapidly to the target from the ready position will translate to picked up speed on the draw.

Ruger SR9c Update

This weekend, I also had the fortune to use the Ruger SR9c at a local IDPA match to practice some of the things we’ve been working on in the Quest for Master Class. You can see the entire match video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXLzSHKST3Y

As usual, the SR9c performed flawlessly, and I’m looking forward to taking it out to the range to shoot a few classifiers and get classified in Master Class. The more I shoot this gun, the more I enjoy it as a compact 9mm. The SR9c is a little larger than a Glock 26, but smaller than a Glock 19 – which makes it the perfect carry solution for someone of average size. With the dual recoil spring and superior ergonomics, it’s also incredibly easy to shoot. Under match conditions I’m regularly turning in 0.20-.25 second split times, and in practice have actually hit 0.18 with splits. The availability of 17 round magazines that will function 100% without use of the grip sleeve means that if a shooter carries the 10 round magazine as their primary, then in a concealed carry situation you have access to 10+1 with 17 rounds ready for an emergency reload. In a package that is smaller and lighter than a Commander sized 1911, those numbers are hard to argue with.

Quest for Master Class Statistics

Rounds Fired: 5498
Fastest Time: 84.66
Club Matches Won: 7
Major Match Best Finish: 12th
ESP Classification: Expert
SSP Classification: Expert

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

After it’s all said and done, we ended up with a 39.27 on Stage 3 of the IDPA classifier, which is definitely inside the goal time of 40 seconds. With the Stage 1 time of 27.12, a Stage 2 time of 23.98, and a Stage 3 time of 39.27, that produces an aggregate score of 90.37 seconds for the entire classifier, which if shot as a continuous COF would be good enough for Stock Service Pistol Master Class. Now that you’ve seen each stage broken down, our next episode will hopefully feature all three stages shot together for a Master Class time.

Let’s look at what happened on Stage 3 to get that 39 second time. Stage 3 presents a huge challenge for most shooters, myself included. I don’t enjoy shooting at 20 yards, and with combat sights it can sometimes be difficult to get a proper sight picture. The Ruger SR9c has excellent sights for a carry pistol, and knowing the point of impact for the rounds makes it much easier to establish that proper sight picture to get good hits. This particular run I put a high premium on accuracy – while my raw times were slower than I normally average, my points down were actually lower on Stage 3 than they were on Stage 2. I had excellent hits, and because of that I was able to find the balance of speed and accuracy that allowed me to get under the 40 second goal. Here are the par times I use for Stage 3:

• String 1: 6 shots, reload with retention/tac load, 6 more shots – 15 seconds aggregate
• String 2: 6 shots, reload with retetion/tac load, move to barrel and kneel and fire 6 more shots – 15 seconds aggregate
• String 3: Draw, kneel, fire six shots around either side of the barricade – 6 seconds aggregate.

If you hit those par times you’ll be right around 36 seconds for Stage 3, which is an excellent place to be. The trick on Stage 3 is as mentioned above – a balance of speed and accuracy. While the 20 yard shots can be taken faster, going too fast will cost you in the accuracy department, and similarly focusing too much on accuracy will cost you speed. My practice for the 20 yard stage is also detailed in the video – my favorite drill is to draw and fire 1 shot in under 2 seconds to a Down Zero hit. If I can get that 5 times in a row, I’ll try for 2 shots in 2.25 seconds, and then add more targets as I’m able to get those hits.

Of course, what everyone really wants to talk about is the tactical reload/reload with retention. I’ll tell you the secret to getting faster with those: “practice”. Lots and lots of dry fire practice is the only way to get faster with your reloads with retention. As talked about in a previous episode I prefer the reload with retention to the “tactical reload” as it gets the gun back in action with a two handed firing grip faster and involves less fumbling with mags. Practice your mag changes in dry fire, and you’ll be able to smoke them in matches. I’ve actually started using the RWR in IDPA matches the same way I would use a speed reload in USPSA. Since no IDPA stage is longer than 18 rounds, if I’ve engaged 4 targets with a total of 8 shots and I’m not exposed to any further threats, I’ll often do a reload with retention while changing shooting positions (as allowed by the rules). I’ve found this is just as fast if not faster than doing a slide lock reload in the middle of an engagement, as I don’t have to interrupt my shooting to reload the gun. Practice this method and see what happens!

Next episode we’ll come back and shoot the whole classifier – it’s time to hit SSP Master, and I feel a strong run coming on!

Quest for Master Class Statistics

Rounds Fired: 5237
Fastest Time: 84.66
Club Matches Won: 6
Major Match Best Finish: 12th
ESP Classification: Expert
SSP Classification: Expert

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

In Stage 2, you have only 4 strings of fire, so your presentation isn’t as critical here as it was on Stage 1. The first two strings of fire are shot on the move – starting at the 10 yard line moving forward, then starting at the 5 yard line moving to the rear. Each of those two strings consists of two shots to each IDPA target. The 3rd string is as famous as it gets – Jeff Cooper’s El Presidente drill. Facing away from the targets, turn, draw and fire two shots at each target, reload then fire two more shots at each target for a total of 12 shots. The final string is two shots per target, strong hand only and can be a place where people drop a lot of points.

Using the same guidelines as we did for Stage 1, here are the aggregate times (adjusted to include points down) that you’d need to get under that goal of 25 seconds for Stage 2.

String 1: 4 seconds or less

String 2: 4 seconds or less

String 3: 10 seconds or less

String 4: 7 seconds or less

All of those times are easily achievable with a little bit of practice. In my opinion, Stage 2 is the easiest of the three classifier stages. I generally post my fastest times here and have the fewest points down on this stage of all three whenever I shoot it for real. Let’s take a look at this week’s video and see how I do.

Unlike Stage 1’s choppy, uneven performance I was quite pleased with my run on Stage 2. A raw time of less than 21 seconds and an aggregate time of under 24 seconds and only six points down? I’ll take that any day. The thing about this run through Stage 2 was it wasn’t blazingly fast, I didn’t shoot a sub 5 second El Pres or do anything particularly cool. What I did do was get good hits, follow my front sight, and make sure that I wasn’t doing stupid stuff with the gun. On String 1 and 2, the most important thing I did was take my time with the first shot. Because you’re moving, if you hurry the first shot on these strings it will throw you off for the subsequent shots. Get this hit, because it sets the tone for the next 2-4 seconds! Don’t take big steps, either. While I’m constantly in motion, the “heel-toe-heel-toe” style walk is very stable. It’s not practical or even a reasonable facsimile of how I’d walk in a gunfight, but for the purposes of the game of IDPA, it’s perfect.

Moving on to El Presidente, you have what is one of the most misunderstood pistol drills on the planet. El Pres is a great drill, as it tests multiple aspects of the fundamentals of marksmanship and forces shooters to move their feet, reload, make transitions, and generally demonstrate every basic skill of combat marksmanship. But on the IDPA classifier, there is no need to go as fast as possible on this drill. What’s more important in the scope of the IDPA classifier is to get good hits. If you can shoot this drill in 4.52 seconds it doesn’t do you a whole lot of good if you’re down 12 or 15 points! On this run, I shot it in around 8 or so seconds, which again isn’t a blazing fast time…but because I had excellent hits it was good enough!

The final string on Stage 2 is strong hand only, and I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s a piece of cake. If you’ve beaten the par times for Strings 1-3, you can give yourself a little extra time here and get really good hits. Remember, shooting strong hand only doesn’t change your sight picture or your trigger squeeze, so take your time and get your hits.

Ultimately, that’s the takeaway for Stage 2 of the classifier – take your time and get good hits. Because three of the four strings are speed shoots, it’s easy to want to go wild and slam these strings as fast as possible, which will give you a whopping bunch of points down and put you in a world of hurt for Stage 3, which is the hardest stage. Resist the temptation to hose Stage 2, and you’ll set yourself in a strong position for Stage 3. If you want to push your skill level, Stage 2 is a good place to try and pick up lost time on Stage 1 or try to give yourself a cushion on Stage 3. Just don’t do it at the cost of a good time here!

Quest for Master Class Statistics

Rounds Fired: 2903

Fastest Time: 84.66

Club Matches Won: 5

Major Match Best Finish: 12th

ESP Classification: Expert

SSP Classification: Expert

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

Founded in 1987 FAS provides top notch defensive training for civilian and law enforcement personnel. As one of the sponsors of the Quest for Master Class, FAS donated the use of a dedicated range for the series that allows us to shoot some of the footage that you see on each week’s episode. But FAS isn’t just a good place to practice IDPA, but as mentioned they are a leading provider of defensive training in Washington State.

I first became acquainted with Firearms Academy of Seattle through one of their instructors, Kathy Jackson. Kathy runs the website The Cornered Cat, which is a phenomenal resource for new shooters and focuses on some of the unique issues that female shooters face when entering the sport and making the decision to carry a concealed firearm. FAS quickly jumped on board the Quest for Master Class after that. With facilities for pistol, a dedicated steel range, shoot house, 360 reactive target range, and a rifle range out to 200+ yards FAS has the facilities to cover every aspect of a civilian self defense encounter.

Classes range from basic Handgun Safety and Handgun Selection seminars; which teach gunhandling and self-defense firearm selection fundamentals all the way up to Advanced Tactical Handgun which includes critical force on force training using Airsoft pistols. This course catalog also includes equivalent precision rifle, carbine, and shotgun courses so you can develop your skills across a platform of weapons. Most interestingly to me is the FAS Handgun Master Test, a 54 shot course of fire that tests a shooter’s skills with not only accuracy but low light, moving targets, and weak hand only shooting.

In this week’s video, we have some fun on FAS’ steel range, as well as show you some of the improvements that have been made to our dedicated IDPA bay and have a brief chat with the founder of FAS, Marty Hayes.

If you’re in the Seattle area, whether as a resident or just visiting and are looking to improve your defensive skills with your CCW gun, your home defense carbine or shotgun, or simply want to learn from a great staff at an excellent facility, check out Firearms Academy of Seattle.

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

On the first stage of the IDPA classifier, one of the critical elements is the draw.  There are six presentations on stage 1, which means that a quarter second of savings in time per draw turns in to 1.5 seconds.  Similarly, there are 8 target transitions on stage 1 – again a huge place to pick up time by improving your speed at transitioning the gun from target to target.  This week’s video takes a look through the entire classifier.

In the video, we finished the run with an aggregate time of 28 seconds and change with points down added in.  While not a terrible time by any measure, it was a definite whiff on the goal of 25 seconds, and that’s due entirely to my sloppy performance on two key areas.  On String 6, the half-El Presidente drill, I had trouble on my first shot and lots of trouble on my reload.  Bobbles there are going to ad a ton of time to your score, and I’ve shot that drill clean before in under 5 seconds.  My time in this run was over 6, which is not fast enough to get the job done.  Another huge problem area was String 4.  This string requires two head shots to each target, and for whatever reason I simply could not get the front sight in position.  I ended up shooting it much slower than usual, a total time of 4.88 seconds.

There were bright points however on the classifier.  My weak hand only shooting has improved dramatically through dry fire practice, which is allowing me to really ramp up the speed on String 5, the weak hand only string.

For those that are curious, here are the par times that I use when shooting the first string.  These are adjusted, so your aggregate time after points down should be at or under these times to hit the 25 second goal:

String 1-3: 2.5 seconds or less each
String 4: 4 seconds or less
String 5: 3.5 seconds or less
String 6: 6 seconds or less
String 7: 4 seconds or less

Aiming for those par times will get you under that 25 second mark.  Beating those part times will give you room to spare on Stages 2 and 3, where the difficulty is increased.

Quest for Master Class Statistics
Rounds Fired: 1595
Fastest Time: 84.66
Club Matches Won: 2
Major Match Best Finish: 12th
ESP Classification: Sharpshooter
SSP Classification: Expert

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

Now, a lot of people are probably wondering out there “hey, I thought this was the quest for IDPA’s master class, not USPSA?” Well, you’d be correct in that the end goal of all of this is to get IDPA’s 5 gun master designation. However, USPSA is a great stepping stone to get us to that platform. Just like last week were we talked about the benefits of shooting steel to an IDPA shooter, today we want to look at the benefits of shooting USPSA to a primarily IDPA shooter. First thing I’m going to do is list some names for you.

• Dave Sevigny
• Jerry Miculek
• Bob Vogel

IDPA has two national championships each year, the S&W Indoor nationals and the National Championships later in the year. Looking at Stock Service Pistol, Enhanced Service Pistol, and Enhanced Service Revolver, those three guys above have won their divisions at every single Indoor and National championship going back to 2008. Jerry has absolutely dominated, he’s won ESR at both Nationals (Indoor and regular) forever. What do all three of those guys have in common other than being great shots? They’re all USPSA GrandMasters and primarily shoot USPSA. Now we’re not trying to start an IDPA vs. USPSA shouting match here, in fact just the opposite. But the fact of the matter is that USPSA requires you to do things that you don’t do in IDPA, and doing those things makes you better at IDPA. For example, in IDPA you’d never have a stage with 8 steel targets and then 24 paper targets that require a single shot. USPSA allows that, and it’s precisely that sort of practice that improves you as an IDPA shooter.

Show me the money

Of course, I can say that shooting USPSA makes you a better IDPA shooter until I’m blue in the face, but you don’t have to believe me. In fact, I didn’t believe it until I tried it. I was very successful at my club, often winning IDPA club matches outright and generally considered “good” in our IDPA circle. So I went and shot a club level USPSA match, and I got destroyed. It wasn’t even close. I did things that don’t make sense to do in the context of USPSA, because I wasn’t used to the problem solving element of USPSA. That’s where a USPSA shooter has an advantage over a pure IDPA shooter – the mental game. In a USPSA stage it’s simply “shoot it like you want and stay safe”, there are no rules for engagement procedure, so it’s up to the shooter to solve the shooting problem. IDPA generally has very specific rules of engagement for scenarios, although that’s not necessary according to the rules – it’s become a culture thing. However, the aspect of USPSA that teaches you to think on your feet will make you a better IDPA shooter. In USPSA, you’re using every possible aspect to your advantage – footwork, approach lines, anything you can do to shave precious 10ths of a second off your time. If you take that mindset of attacking the course to IDPA, you’ll improve. I have! I’ve started shooting USPSA with much more frequency and I’ve already seen my IDPA scores improve as I look for the most efficient way to shoot IDPA’s stages.

The Match

At the Indiana USPSA Section match, I was once again shooting the Ruger SR9c. Because of USPSA’s rules, I was automatically at a disadvantage, because the Ruger SR9c isn’t legal for Production division, thus landing me in Limited-10, shooting against race guns that score more points. The Ruger did its part though, shooting accurately and trouble free for 276 rounds of 147 grain FMJ. In fact, the Ruger was so easy to shoot I ended up finishing in 12^th place overall in Limited- 10, which considering the handicaps imposed on me by USPSA’s rules I’m extremely happy with that.

Speaking of the gun, this match was a testament to how well it runs. When being fed decent ammo, the gun simply shoots, then shoots some more. In 90 degree heat, not being cleaned or lubricated, getting dirty from my hands, and still shooting. I’ve now fired over 1000 rounds through the Ruger in less than a month – that’s more shooting that most people will put on their guns in a year and it’s still ticking along. I’m quite pleased with the little gun and how well it handles. The 3.5 inch barrel is fast out of the holster and has more than enough accuracy to get the job done. In fact, I kind of wish that Ruger would make this gun with the full length grip but the short barrel. I like a little bit more gun to hold on to, but I’m starting to kind of like how fast a short barreled gun handles. Ruger definitely has a winner here.

Check out next week when we’ll be shooting Stage 1 of the IDPA classifier and looking at a drill to improve your draw speed!

Quest for Master Class Statistics

Rounds Fired: 1075

Fastest Time: 84.66

Club Matches Won: 2

Major Match Best Finish: 12th

ESP Classification: Sharpshooter

SSP Classification: Expert

Why Steel?

Obviously, what we’re doing is the Quest for Master Class, specifically IDPA’s 5 Gun Master designation. So why would we branch out from that and shoot Steel Challenge like I did on Saturday, or USPSA like I’ll be doing this Sunday? The answer is simple in the case of Steel (and for USPSA, but that’s next week). Steel teaches you two extremely skill sets that make you a better shooter at whatever you do: faster transitions and aggression. In Steel Challenge, each target gets one hit – that means if you do a stage perfectly, you’ll fire 5 shots per run, one for each target. In Steel Challenge because each target only requires one hit, you spend the majority of your time transitioning from target to target. Swing too far past a target and you’ve cost yourself time, break the shot too early and you’ve done the same thing. This is tremendously beneficial for an IDPA or USPSA shooter, as cutting the transitions on a string of fire can have enormous time benefits. Look at the IDPA classifier, for example. With the exception of the first three strings of fire, every single string on the IDPA classifier involves transitioning from target to target.

The second major benefit to Steel Challenge is the aggressive quality it instills in shooters. Steel is unforgiving. You have to hit each target, there are no overlays or appeals or “judgment calls” in steel. You either hit the target…or you missed and you keep shooting until it’s a hit. That’s where the aggression comes in to play. The great shooters at Steel Challenge understand the balance between attacking the course and playing it safe. It is entirely possible to shoot every stage at a Steel match and hit five for five on every target…but you’ll probably be too slow to win. The more you shoot Steel, the more it teaches you to attack the course and to leave everything on the range. In fact, Steel is perfect to teach this because it has the “throwaway time”. In a Steel Challenge match, each stage fired is 5 strings, and the slowest string is thrown out. A great way to teach yourself to attack a course is to play is reasonable safe on the first four strings, and then go for it with everything you’ve got on the 5^th string. When you see how fast you can go, it encourages you to be more aggressive on the first four strings and the next thing you know you’re shooting strings under 5 seconds…then 4 seconds, and then who knows? This directly benefits you as an IDPA shooter. The rules of IDPA in many places encourage timidity in shooters, cover, slicing the pie, and reloads with retention are not “aggressive” techniques, and yet consistently the IDPA champions are shooters that also shoot Steel Challenge and USPSA, sports that reward aggression.

Staying Dry

The second part of this what to do when you can’t get to the range. How do you keep your skills sharp when the weather doesn’t cooperate? The answer of course is dry fire. If you’re rained out like we were on Sunday, that gives you an opportunity to perfect your techniques in dry fire. In this week’s video, we look at the IDPA Reload with Retention, and simple drill to practice the reload so that the next time you shoot the classifier, you won’t freeze up on the Third Stage where it’s required.

This was a pretty good week in the Quest for Master Class. The Ruger SR9c picked up a win at the club Steel Match in Production division, and I got prepped for next week’s USPSA State Section Match. Next week we should have video from the State USPSA match, as well as a report on why USPSA will make you a better IDPA shooter.

Quest for Master Class Statistics

Rounds Fired: 799

Fastest Time: 84.66

Club Matches Won: 2

ESP Classification: Sharpshooter

SSP Classification: Expert

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

Gun Control
Don’t worry, I haven’t switched sides. When I’m talking about gun control, I’m talking about the most critical aspect of speed shooting – managing the gun’s recoil. If you can’t manage recoil, then you can’t get your sights back on target quick enough to make those second and third shots with fast splits. The first time I shot the IDPA classifier, my scores on the first three strings of fire (which are all Mozambique drills) were around 3.5 seconds each. This time, going for speed, the LONGEST time I had on those strings was 2.58 seconds, and the other two were just a hair over 2 seconds. A huge part of that is controlling the gun’s tendency to want to bounce around in recoil. This is made easier by the fact that the Ruger SR9c is a very soft shooting gun due to its dual captive recoil spring. I keep saying this, but it’s the fastest and softest shooting subcompact I’ve ever shot.

Stage 1
Today we’re just looking at Stage 1 of the classifier. It’s actually one of the easiest stages to shave time off, as it’s composed of 7 strings of fire. The first three strings are all the same – each string is 2 shots to the body and one to the head of the three IDPA targets. Three shots per string. Up next comes 2 head shots on each target for the 4th string (6 shots). Then things get fun, because you have 1 shot to the body of each target…weak hand only. The 6th string of fire is a Half El Pres – start with 3 rounds in the gun, and your back to the targets. On the signal turn, draw, shoot each target once then reload from slide target and shoot each target one more time. Your 7th and final string is 6 more shots, two to each target, but this is using only your strong hand. The nice thing about the 1st stage on the classifier is that it’s very easy to shave time off on all seven of these strings.

Smooth is not fast
I know, writing the above is practically heresy, but “smooth” doesn’t equal “fast”. Smooth equals smooth. Smooth can equal fast if you train right, though! Here’s what I mean. On stage 1 of the classifier, you have to draw the gun 6 times. If your draw is sloppy, it’s going to ad time to your score. A sloppily executed fast draw will be slower than a cleanly executed fast draw – that’s when “smooth is fast”. A great way to pick up time on the first stage of the IDPA classifier is to practice your draws and presentations from the holster in dry fire. Make sure the motion is fluid and clean in dry practice and then gradually speed up. Dry fire is great, because it gives you the opportunity to perfect the mechanics of a movement without worrying about the pressure of the clock or your friends that are watching. Step one for picking up time? Practice your draws in dry fire.

The second way to pick up time on stage 1 of the classifier is to work on your transitions. The last four strings of stage 1 all involve transitioning to new targets, and that slows you down. The best way to practice transitions? Shoot Steel Challenge. I know, this is about IDPA – but Steel Challenge is all about your ability to rapidly change targets, and there isn’t any better practice out there than Steel for practicing picking up new targets and hitting them quick. Plus, Steel Challenge will help you adopt an aggressive attitude towards attacking the classifier, getting you that Master class tag a little bit faster.

The Results
I shot the IDPA Classifier twice on Sunday, and both times shot very well. The first run was 87.41 seconds, with a total of 22 points down. The second run was 84.66 with 22 points down. That second run is a personal best on the IDPA classifier for me, and would be good enough for Master Class in Stock Service Pistol or Enhanced Service Pistol.

But it’s not good enough. I had to re-shoot a couple of stages, because the Remington 115 grain FMJ ammo I was using caused a couple of failures to feed that created quite the problem for me on Stage 3. IDPA states that when trying for 5-Gun Master, no re-shoots are allowed, so it looks like I’ve got to get back to the range with some better ammo and try that one again! This weekend, I’m going to be taking my own advice – it’s a Steel Challenge Match this weekend, followed up next weekend by the Indiana State USPSA Section match. The Ruger SR9c is going to be getting QUITE the workout in the next couple of weeks, that’s for sure!

Quest for Master Class Statistics:
Rounds Fired: 556
Fastest Time: 84.66
Club Matches Won: 1
ESP Classification: Sharpshooter
SSP Classification: Expert

Check back next week for a match report, and a drill that will help you shoot more accurately!

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.

The Classifier
The International Defensive Pistol Association classifier match is a 90 round course of fire broken down in to three 30-round stages. Stage 1, the speed stage is fired from 7 yards and includes strong hand only and weak hand only shooting. Stage 2 contains a mix of speed shoots, strong hand only shooting, and also includes the timeless drill invented by Jeff Cooper, El Presidente. These 30 rounds are fired at a distance of 10 yards. Stage 3 is a test of your skills at long range shooting, with 18 rounds fired at 20 yards from behind cover, and 12 rounds while kneeling behind a barrel at 15 yards. In IDPA, your score is simple – your time plus a half second for each “point down” on any given stage. “Points down” are accrued by firing shots that fail to hit either the center zone or the head box of the IDPA target. A standard IDPA target has three scoring regions, the head and center circle being scored as “0 points down”, the mid chest being “1 point down/ or -1”, and the outer margins of the target being “3 points down/-3”. So if your time on a stage is 6 seconds and you have 2 points down, your total score for the stage would be 7 seconds. The simplicity of IDPA’s scoring system is a great way to help attract new shooters, as they’re able to receive almost instant feedback on their performance.

Going in to the first classifier, I wanted to shoot it with as few points down as possible and focus on accuracy. Stage 1 was a solid performance. The first three strings of fire, which are three consecutive Mozambique drills of two shots to the body and one to the head box all were clean, with no points down. The rest of the stage was the same, no points down and good clean shots giving me a final time of 34.41 seconds for the first 30 shots.

Stage 2 was more of the same. The Ruger SR9c continued to run flawlessly as I fed it magazine after magazine of 115 grain ball ammo. Recoil was extremely light, lighter than I expected for a subcompact gun. Compared to other guns in its size class, the Ruger SR9c has much less felt recoil, due in part to its dual captive recoil spring system. Stage 2 went down with only 3 points down for a total time of 35.38.

Up next was my nemesis, Stage 3. I’ve always struggled with Stage 3 of the classifier – the combination of shooting at 20 yards, shooting from behind cover, and the mandatory tactical reloads have always given me fits. Not this time. Only 12 points down represents my most accurate run on this stage, with a final time of 44.91 seconds. That brings my total time for the first classifier run to 114.70 seconds. That’s good enough to make Expert in Stock Service Pistol, the first division that I’m going for Master Class.

The Gun
A lot of that is because of the shootability of the Ruger SR9c. I’ve often said and heard that a carry gun that you don’t practice shooting is only slightly better than no gun at all. In an age of microscopic 9mm pistols, .357 Magnum revolvers made out of spaceship parts, and wrist snapping magnums, the Ruger SR9c represents something unusual – a realistic carry gun that’s as easy to shoot as it is to conceal. While testing the gun with Winchester Range 147 grain JHPs, I was able to keep 10 shots in the down-zero section of an IDPA target at 15 feet…in 2.87 seconds. That’s right, the gun is so easy to shoot that the shooter can empty an entire magazine in the chest area of a threat target in under three seconds…drawing from the holster! Needless to say, I am seriously impressed with this gun.

The Ruger SR9c continued its flawless performance the following day. One of the things we’re going to be tracking is total number of rounds fired through the gun, as well as match performance. Any matches won at any level from local club matches all the way up to any championship level matches entered will be logged. This measures both my performance as a shooter and the gun’s ability to be run at a high speed in a simulated stressful environment. Both of these are critical elements to “making Master”.

The first match? The Ruger SR9c performed perfectly. The local IDPA club had their annual 4^th of July match, which attracts over 60 shooters from the Indianapols Metro area. Using the Ruger SR9c, I was able to be the overall winner of the Stock Service Pistol division, as well as the high overal score in the match. Again, the Ruger SR9c is an extremely easy to shoot gun, the light muzzle flip and excellent accuracy helped me shoot my way to first place.

Quest for Master Class Current Standings:

Stock Service Pistol Class: Expert (pending)

Enhanced Service Pistol Class: Sharpshooter

Club Match wins: 1

Keep checking Downrange.TV for more on the Quest for Master Class. Next week, we’ll break down Stage 1 of the classifier and show you how to cut 5-10 seconds off your time.

Caleb Giddings wants to achieve the rank of IDPA 5-Gun master using the Ruger SR9c

Welcome to The Quest for Master Class on Downrange.TV where we’ll be showing you how competing with your every day carry gear not only makes you a better shot, but that you can win competitions while you do it! I’m Caleb Giddings, author of Gun Nuts Media at www.gunnuts.net, and a fairly average competition shooter. As you follow the installments of the Quest for Master Class, you’re going to see me attempt something that’s never been done before – to achieve the rank of IDPA 5-Gun master using only guns and gear that’s suitable for every day concealed carry.

The Game

IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association was originally founded in the 90s to bring “practical shooting” back to its practical roots. Originally, the games of practical shooting existed to help cops, military, and average citizens hone their skills at defensive pistol-craft. After several years though, that focus began to drift towards elaborate stage design and race guns. IDPA was founded to bring that focus back to defensive shooting. With strict rules governing courses of fire and types of guns, IDPA has avoided the race gun controversy…but at the same time it is still a game, and the most common guns in IDPA are not ones that you’d often see in concealment holsters.

IDPA uses a ranking system to differentiate the skill levels of the various shooters, from Novice all the way to the highest skill level in IDPA – Master Class. IDPA further recognizes shooters that have reached the level of Master Class in all five of IDPA’s competitive divisions. The divisions are Custom Defensive Pistol (.45s only), Enhanced Service Pistol (9mm and .40 S&W 1911s), Stock Service Pistol (Glocks, Sigs, Berettas), Stock Service Revolver (.38 Special wheelguns), and finally Enhanced Service Revolver (moonclip revolvers). There are only 11 shooters classified as 5-Gun Masters in IDPA, and no one has ever tried to do it like this.

I’ll be shooting carry guns – no Glock 34s or $2400 1911s, but guns that you can buy off the shelf from your local gun store and are practical and concealable for every day carry. And you’ll be following along as I document drills, qualifiers, matches, and my progress on the Quest for Master Class.

The Guns

The Quest is going to start with IDPA’s easiest, and hardest divisions. Stock Service Pistol is considered one of the simplest to achieve Master Class in, with generous time limits on the qualifier. Guns that eligible for Stock Service Pistol are also eligible for Enhanced Service Pistol which is considered one of the hardest divisions to make Master in – the times are tighter and less forgiving in a division originally dreamed up around 1911s in 9mm. Like I said above, there aren’t any race guns here. I’m going to be using the Ruger SR9c, Ruger’s newest addition to its Hard-R series of Firearms. This is a compact, concealable firearm that holds 10 round magazines, has simple, rugged 3-dot sights, and is ready to go out of the box as an every day carry gun. With a 3.5 inch barrel and weighing less than 24 ounces and less than 7 inches long, no one is going to confuse the SR9c with a race gun.

The holsters and gear are all from Comp-Tac

The Gear

For the test, the holsters and gear are all from Comp-Tac – for every day carry, a Comp-Tac CTAC IWB holster will hold the Ruger, and for competition a Comp-Tac paddle holster. Both holsters are great for concealed carry, and even before the test I’ve been using them both on a daily basis. Sure, the paddle is red…but that just looks cool.

The Challenge

Follow along with The Quest for Master Class each week as we’ll look at matches, qualifications, and drills to improve your shooting whether it’s with a high end custom 1911, or the Ruger SR9c you just bought for concealed carry. Downrange.TV is breaking new ground and showing an inside look at the training and practice necessary to make Master, and do it with your carry guns.

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Caleb Giddings is the founder of Gun Nuts Media (www.gunnuts.net). He has been involved in competitive shooting since he was a cadet at the US Coast Guard Academy in 2000 and has attending training courses at Gunsite and the former Blackwater USA. Since shooting his first IDPA match in 2008, Caleb has started the climb through the rankings, earning the title of Master Class shooter in the Enhanced Service Revolver division in 2010.