IDPA of Joelton

Once again, members of the elite Friday Night Group Action Shooting Team hit the road to compete in a local match.  There are many reasons for particpating in these regional activities.  We go to win or at least place in the top 90 percent.  We go to increase national awareness of the Friday Night Group.  We go to increase the positive impact of the Group on local politics in Idaho, Montana, Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia.  We go because unlike golf, our sport is loud and tends to annoy people we don't like.

The International Defensive Pistol Association (www.idpa.com) is a practical shooting organization which helps people develop useful real world shooting skills.   IDPA rules require you to make "smart" rather than "sporting" moves during a match, and this reinforces good habits which may help someone survive a threatening situation.  For example, re-loading a pistol must be done behind cover.  Magazines containing ammunition must be retained rather than dropped.  "Real" rather than tricked-up guns must be used.

I decided to use the new CZ-75B 9 mm single action pistol for this match.  The Fobus holster for the Beretta 92FS fits the CZ.  Helweg magzine holders work great for the CZ magazines.  I also brought a Surefire 6P flashlight because the February 17 match was a "low light" match, but did not get to use it.  I had one new 10 round magazine for the match, along with some regular CZ 10 round magazines.  The new "after market" magazine didn't work very well, and went back into the bag so that it wouldn't be used again by mistake.  The other magazines worked fine.  Never take untried equipment to a match...  I used Sellier & Bellot ammunition (Czech pistol; Czech ammunition; makes sense).

There were four stages at the match.  As always, there are lessons to be learned.  The first stage was very low light.  It was almost impossible to see the front sight.  Tritium sights would have helped, but later I decided to order some "glow in the dark" paint for the CZ-75B front sight.  This paint is made by several vendors.  I suspect the chemistry is about the same for all of these products.  This paint absorbs light, then glows in the dark.  Sorry for the lengthy scientific explanation, but there is no simple way to explain this.

My scores were ok on some of the stages, and awful on others.  Rather than giving points for age, medical history, and Viet Nam service, everyone was scored the same.  Had these other factors been considered, my score would have been higher.  In IDPA your score is based on how well you do in the match.  There are different classes for different guns.  There is a revolver class, for example.  I understand that one.  The other classes try to put different auto-pistols in different categories.  I need to do some research to understand the differences.  The CZ-75 may have been ranked with the 1911s since it has the same configuration.

Here are some pictures from the match.  The guy in the red shirt is Brett.  He answers e-mail sent to the club, and did not mind having his picture taken while shooting.  I managed to get two shots of his SIGPro .357 SIG pistol as it fired.  There is a huge difference between the sound of a revolver firing a .38 Special and any .357 SIG.  Ear protection is very important at indoor ranges.
 

For more information on IDPA of Joelton, check out their Web page.

To return to the Friday Night Group Web page, click here.