Why Compete?

IPSC stands for International Practical Shooting Confederation. As the title suggests, this is an international shooting sport which has grown over the years into a major shooting recreation. The common misconception surrounding IPSC is that it only relates to pistol shooting. In fact, there are many pistol, rifle, and shotgun matches. However, owing to the popularity of pistol shooting, this text is intended to deal with the handgun side of the sport.

There are several things which must be considered, first being that no restriction should be placed upon the competitor as to how he approaches any particular course of fire.

When a shooter has qualified through an IPSC orientation and shooting course, a wide variety of matches can be set up, each providing different challenges and inviting the competitor to solve those challenges in the best way.

In many types of traditional handgun shooting it is the practice to limit the loading of a pistol to a specific number of rounds in the magazine. In IPSC shooting, a pistol should always be loaded to its maximum capacity even though the course of fire may require less number of shots.

IPSC has the motto, D V C, that is to say, Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas, or accuracy, power and speed, and these three are indivisible in the concept of IPSC shooting. However, the ratio of accuracy, power and speed is up to the competitor. Since speed, accuracy, and power are of equal importance, a scoring system had to be devised that would take all of these factors into consideration.

To balance speed and accuracy, Comstock scoring is used. Under Comstock the competitor's total target points are divided by elapsed time in order to arrive at the final score. This scoring method shows clearly that it is useless to be very fast, and miss the target. It gives full value for all center hits, and gives the more powerful pistol a scoring edge in hits that are off center. As power is a major scoring element in IPSC shooting, light loads which factor less than Minor are are not acceptable for IPSC competition. The competitor may be required to prove the ammunition meets the power factor by testing through the use of a chronograph to ascertain that it meets the power factor.

Courses of fire should never be repetitive. There are no set exercises, and the good course designer will always ensure relevance and variety in the competition. This will guarantee matches remain interesting to the competitor, and will also sharpen their shooting and safe gun handling skills.

 

 

 

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Acknowledgments

We hope you enjoyed this course, and that it will bring you many hours of enjoyable safe shooting. If there is any way we can be of assistance, just let us know by contacting IPSC.

We would like to thank Bob MacIntosh, Mike Hargreaves, George Hausner, Murray Gardner, Nick Alexakos, Cal Martin, Ken Bell, Dave Anderson, Des Lilly, Morten Elstad, and Dimitrios Tzimas for their invaluable contributions to this program.