{"id":5152,"date":"2010-07-28T03:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-07-28T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/?p=5152"},"modified":"2014-01-04T11:36:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T17:36:37","slug":"quest-for-master-class-%e2%80%93-run-and-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/quest-for-master-class-%e2%80%93-run-and-gun\/5152\/","title":{"rendered":"Quest for Master Class \u2013 Run and Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/masterclass41.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5156\" title=\"masterclass4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/masterclass41-300x177.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/masterclass41-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/masterclass41.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>This past weekend just north of Indianapolis, over 200 shooters got together to shoot the Indiana USPSA Section Championship Match.  This is the largest Section match in USPSA and attracts top flight grandmasters from surrounding states.  This year, I was among the shooters at the match running the Ruger SR9c as a part of the Quest for Master Class.  Let\u2019s take a look at some of the stages and my thoughts on the match:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.theplatform.com\/p\/6eFMJC\/RqqFgTxaLX4a\/embed\/select\/78Z12oaRPAUv&amp;autoPlay=false\" height=\"269\" width=\"478\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Now, a lot of people are probably wondering out there \u201chey, I thought this was the quest for IDPA\u2019s master class, not USPSA?\u201d  Well, you\u2019d be correct in that the end goal of all of this is to get IDPA\u2019s 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\u2019m going to do is list some names for you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dave Sevigny<\/li>\n<li>Jerry Miculek<\/li>\n<li>Bob Vogel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>IDPA has two national championships each year, the S&amp;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\u2019s 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\u2019re all USPSA GrandMasters and <em>primarily<\/em> shoot USPSA.  Now we\u2019re 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\u2019t do in IDPA, and doing those things makes you <em>better<\/em> at IDPA.  For example, in IDPA you\u2019d never have a stage with 8 steel targets and then 24 paper targets that require a single shot.  USPSA allows that, and it\u2019s precisely that sort of practice that improves you as an IDPA shooter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Show me the money<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of course, I can say that shooting USPSA makes you a better IDPA shooter until I\u2019m blue in the face, but you don\u2019t have to believe me.  In fact, I didn\u2019t believe it until I tried it.  I was very successful at my club, often winning IDPA club matches outright and generally considered \u201cgood\u201d in our IDPA circle.  So I went and shot a club level USPSA match, and I got <em>destroyed<\/em>. It wasn\u2019t even close.  I did things that don\u2019t make sense to do in the context of USPSA, because I wasn\u2019t used to the problem solving element of USPSA.  That\u2019s where a USPSA shooter has an advantage over a pure IDPA shooter \u2013 the mental game.  In a USPSA stage it\u2019s simply \u201cshoot it like you want and stay safe\u201d, there are no rules for engagement procedure, so it\u2019s up to the shooter to solve the shooting problem.  IDPA generally has very specific rules of engagement for scenarios, although that\u2019s not necessary according to the rules \u2013 it\u2019s 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\u2019re using every possible aspect to your advantage \u2013 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\u2019ll improve.  I have!  I\u2019ve started shooting USPSA with much more frequency and I\u2019ve already seen my IDPA scores improve as I look for the most efficient way to shoot IDPA\u2019s stages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Match<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the Indiana USPSA Section match, I was once again shooting the Ruger SR9c.  Because of USPSA\u2019s rules, I was automatically at a disadvantage, because the Ruger SR9c isn\u2019t 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<sup>th<\/sup> place overall in Limited- 10, which considering the handicaps imposed on me by USPSA\u2019s rules I\u2019m <em>extremely<\/em> happy with that.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019ve now fired over 1000 rounds through the Ruger in less than a month \u2013 that\u2019s more shooting that most people will put on their guns in a year and it\u2019s still ticking along.  I\u2019m 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\u2019m starting to kind of like how fast a short barreled gun handles.  Ruger definitely has a winner here.<\/p>\n<p>Check out next week when we\u2019ll be shooting Stage 1 of the IDPA classifier and looking at a drill to improve your draw speed!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quest for Master Class Statistics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rounds Fired: 1075<\/p>\n<p>Fastest Time: 84.66<\/p>\n<p>Club Matches Won: 2<\/p>\n<p>Major Match Best Finish: 12th<\/p>\n<p>ESP Classification: Sharpshooter<\/p>\n<p>SSP Classification: Expert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past weekend just north of Indianapolis, over 200 shooters got together to shoot the Indiana USPSA Section Championship Match. This is the largest Section match in USPSA and attracts top flight grandmasters from surrounding states. This year, I was among the shooters at the match running the Ruger SR9c as a part of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[750,1,749],"tags":[753,3607,842,179,178],"class_list":["post-5152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caleb-giddings-bloggers","category-featured","category-the-quest-for-master-class","tag-caleb-giddings","tag-idpa","tag-idpa-classifier","tag-ruger-sr9-compact","tag-ruger-sr9c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}