or any competition for that matter.
Round Gun Shooter, Gary has been trying to get me down to the Bass River Club's IDPA shoot for a long time. He's even offered to meet with me on his off time to show me the ropes. I never took him up on it. Until today. The stars were aligned and I took a vacation day from work to make it.
I have never shot in any competition. I was a bit apprehensive about going. I was regretting never meeting with Gary for that one on one he offered. Why? Well, I didn't want to dent my ego (we all have one whether you admit it or not) and being a cop, I was worried "What would people who know what I do for a living say if I shot like crap?" I bit the bullet. I showed up early and found Gary. There was about 15 other people there and everyone I passed while looking for Gary, greeted me. Once I found Gary, he took me to one of the ranges and we made my pistol safe. He went over the general range and IDPA rules/procedures with me. He then showed me a couple of stages. I was still a little nervous about this but this looked like it could be fun. As more people arrived, I found there were a few other newbies. Gary did another briefing with them and I listened in on this one to make sure I "had" it.
Once everyone was signed in, we were divided into 3 squads. I think there were 7-8 shooters per squad. Gary saw to it that I was squadded with him. We had a couple of other newbies in our squad as well. All the squads then went to a stage. There were 4 stages set up. I won't get into what the stages were but they were not difficult. You did have to think about what you were doing, safety and tactical wise. The atmosphere was laid back, no pressure but very safety conscious.
How did I do? I don't really know. I didn't have any "Failures to Neutralize" I have the yellow copy of my scoring sheet and Gary explained the scoring to me. It isn't hard to figure out but I have no idea how I did as compared to the others in my classification, which is "unclassified" right now. I believe something will be emailed to me showing where I placed. I do know that I had a freaking blast! The whole morning was just pure fun.
I met some real nice people today. I don't remember all their names but I did meet NESer CapeCodder who had good things to say about NES and it's staff I'm sure there were other NESers there, maybe they'll chime in.
For equipment, I brought my full size M&P .40, 4 mags, 100 rounds of ammo, eyes/ears. I didn't have a mag holder so Gary scared one up for me. As it turns out, I didn't use it and I kept my spare mag in my pullover pocket. Other shooters had semis in different calibers and I was surprised at all the revolvers. I think there were 3 in our squad. Can anyone guess who one of them was?
All that I can say is, if you've wondered what this is all about or have been thinking about doing but are a wee bit apprehensive, just DO IT. You will not regret it. If Gary has made the offer to you and I know he's made the offer many times here, take him up on it!
Gary, thank you and please pass on my thanks and regards to all the other range officers there today. Everyone there made me feel welcome and comfortable. I will be back!
Round Gun Shooter, Gary has been trying to get me down to the Bass River Club's IDPA shoot for a long time. He's even offered to meet with me on his off time to show me the ropes. I never took him up on it. Until today. The stars were aligned and I took a vacation day from work to make it.
I have never shot in any competition. I was a bit apprehensive about going. I was regretting never meeting with Gary for that one on one he offered. Why? Well, I didn't want to dent my ego (we all have one whether you admit it or not) and being a cop, I was worried "What would people who know what I do for a living say if I shot like crap?" I bit the bullet. I showed up early and found Gary. There was about 15 other people there and everyone I passed while looking for Gary, greeted me. Once I found Gary, he took me to one of the ranges and we made my pistol safe. He went over the general range and IDPA rules/procedures with me. He then showed me a couple of stages. I was still a little nervous about this but this looked like it could be fun. As more people arrived, I found there were a few other newbies. Gary did another briefing with them and I listened in on this one to make sure I "had" it.
Once everyone was signed in, we were divided into 3 squads. I think there were 7-8 shooters per squad. Gary saw to it that I was squadded with him. We had a couple of other newbies in our squad as well. All the squads then went to a stage. There were 4 stages set up. I won't get into what the stages were but they were not difficult. You did have to think about what you were doing, safety and tactical wise. The atmosphere was laid back, no pressure but very safety conscious.
How did I do? I don't really know. I didn't have any "Failures to Neutralize" I have the yellow copy of my scoring sheet and Gary explained the scoring to me. It isn't hard to figure out but I have no idea how I did as compared to the others in my classification, which is "unclassified" right now. I believe something will be emailed to me showing where I placed. I do know that I had a freaking blast! The whole morning was just pure fun.
I met some real nice people today. I don't remember all their names but I did meet NESer CapeCodder who had good things to say about NES and it's staff I'm sure there were other NESers there, maybe they'll chime in.
For equipment, I brought my full size M&P .40, 4 mags, 100 rounds of ammo, eyes/ears. I didn't have a mag holder so Gary scared one up for me. As it turns out, I didn't use it and I kept my spare mag in my pullover pocket. Other shooters had semis in different calibers and I was surprised at all the revolvers. I think there were 3 in our squad. Can anyone guess who one of them was?
All that I can say is, if you've wondered what this is all about or have been thinking about doing but are a wee bit apprehensive, just DO IT. You will not regret it. If Gary has made the offer to you and I know he's made the offer many times here, take him up on it!
Gary, thank you and please pass on my thanks and regards to all the other range officers there today. Everyone there made me feel welcome and comfortable. I will be back!
Last edited: