First Shooting Match

DW and I recently attended our first-ever competitive match. We saw all the cool targets and stages being shot by the US Practical Shooting Association guys and figured it looked awesome. So, we showed up and jumped right in shooting "limited" with the M&Ps.

We were bottom in the final results but not at the bottom in each individual stage. I edged our DW in the four match stages, but she edged me out in the qualifier. However, we got a lot out of it. We just finished reviewing the videos.

• Safety. I was impressed with how safe it was to run around with guns on a hot range. It sounds insane but it really is a good set of protocols. Both of us did fine all day on this front. Zero "finger on trigger" issues. My muzzle got a little high during a reload once but nothing unsafe.
• Accuracy. I had two misses on paper targets all day (both in the qualifier at the end of the day; I still landed one hit, but the double-tap missed). Most of my hits were "A" and sometimes "B/C." I had very few outer "D" ring hits. Heather had zero misses on paper all day.
  
  We were actually pretty good on total points scored (based on pure accuracy), even in the middle of the pack a fair amount of the time--we're just slow. Heck, on one stage I scored as well as the winner; he just did it in 1/5th the time. :)
  
  I'll take accuracy over speed to start with; speed will come with practice.
  
• Polishing Fundamentals-Me. I struggled with the reactive steel targets. I realized that this was because I was focusing on the steel, not on my front sight. I think I was watching to see if it would fall down. I occasionally had some trigger squeeze issues -- I caught myself flinching once or twice in the video -- but nothing too egregious.
• Equipment. I struggled with some reloads in large part due to magazines getting stuck in the mag pouch. I need better gear. That is a free second or two on each reload that can be fixed with a $30 mag pouch.
  
• Polishing Fundamentals-DW. Heather is working on managing recoil. She's not leaning forward into the gun quite enough, and her arms are angling up some. Both of those contribute to a lot of muzzle flip which slow down getting back on target. She's not flinching or anything--it is just taking too long to get back on target for follow up shots.

Overall I'm going to say this was a big success. We both had a blast. It was a huge rush. We also stayed safe and learning some solid lessons that will help us "adjust fire" in our practice in the future. We got some good advice from other competitiors and saw some amazing shooters. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming to us "noobs."

I think both of us are more interested in trying IDPA in the future, as we want to shoot no-frills production guns in a manner that gives us maximum training value for our time and round count. However, USPSA was a blast and I would certainly do it again.