“Little things can make a big difference in your final score.”
Action shooting is among the most popular handgun games, and the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) is one of the fastest growing organizations in that arena. Although similar in appearance to USPSA/IPSC, it is oriented more towards tactical self-defense, with slightly different rules, and a decidedly different scoring system.
The IDPA Vickers Scoring System (developed by retired US Army Spec Ops trooper, Larry Vickers) is brilliant in its simplicity, but brutal to those who forget what the front sight is for. Speed counts (and strings are electronically timed down to .01 second) but accuracy counts just as much. Once the Course Of Fire (COF) is completed, the time is noted. When the targets are then scored, down points are totaled and add time to the final score.
The 0 Zone (no points down) is an eight-inch circle in the upper portion of the chest, with a second 6×6-inch 0 Zone in the target head. A 1 Zone (.5 seconds down) surrounds the chest 0 Zone with a 3 Zone (1.5 seconds down) on the outer fringes of the target. A complete miss is 2.5 seconds down.
You can’t miss fast enough to win in IDPA. It requires a blend of both speed and accuracy. Here are some ways the Master class shooters combine both to shave seconds from their scores.
Reverse The “Normal” Shooting Strategy
IDPA targets may range from arm length to 35 yards. Many shooters feel that close targets can be blazed away at as quickly as possible, while long targets require great care and precision. In terms of overall score, however, the reverse is often true.
Consider the following: five targets at 20 yards that require two rounds each. Shooter A takes an average of 1.75 seconds per shot to precisely align his sights and make a perfect trigger press for an 0 Zone hit, and nails ten 0 Zones. His final score (raw time + 0 down points) is 17.5 seconds. Shooter B picks up the pace at one second per shot and uses a “Loose 0 Zone” sight picture (some refer to it as a “1 Zone” sight picture) and shoots ten 1s. His score (raw time + 10 down points) is 15 seconds. He wins.
A “1 Zone” sight picture is getting the sights to the upper portion of the target where the 0 Zone is and not spending a lot of time to refine the sight picture. When you see it, break the shot. It should be no worse than a 1, and a certain percentage will be 0s. Those who spend a lot of time to shoot 0s take a lot of time, and some hits still won’t be 0s. A 1 that’s just outside the 0 Zone counts the same as one that is just inside the 3 Zone. On distant targets, a fast 1 normally beats a slow 0.
On closer targets, down points become a bigger scoring factor than pure speed. Assume three targets at seven yards, with two rounds required per target. Shooter A blazes away in 3.5 seconds and shoots three 0s, two 1s, and a 3. Score; 6 seconds. Shooter B slows down a beat and shoots six 0s in 4.75 seconds. He wins by 1.25 seconds. You can’t miss fast enough to win, and the time difference between “burning the targets” and shooting 0s, on close range targets is small enough that the down points will kill you if you shoot them.
Reduce Your Split Times
The “split” is the time between the first and second shot on a double tap. Reducing that, even fractionally, can save precious seconds over the course of a match. Practicing double taps is one way. Equipment modification is another. The S&W M&P .45 this writer shoots came with a seven-pound trigger pull. To maintain accuracy, splits on 25 yard targets ran .85-.90 seconds, while seven-yard splits were .43 – .47. An $80 trigger job dropped the pull weight to 3.5-pounds and reduced the split times by an average of .15 seconds. That may not sound like much but in a 75 round IDPA match you can expect a minimum of 60 of those rounds to be fired as double taps. That’s 30 splits – .15×30 = 4.5 seconds in shaved time. National Championships have been won, and lost, with smaller margins. The lighter trigger also improved accuracy and turned some distant target 1s into 0s. It was worth the $80.
Practice Weak & Strong Hand Shooting
As a defensive-oriented sport, IDPA will require some shooting with both the weak and strong hand only. Weak hand targets must be no more than seven yards, while strong hand targets may be as far as ten yards.
This is a “score killer” for a lot of shooters because not many practice weak & strong hand techniques. Although the targets are not very far, every match sees shooters throwing 3s and misses, which piles up the down points and adds time. Regular practice with the weak and strong hand will turn a lot of those misses and 3s into (at least) 1s. It’s very difficult to do something well that you’ve never done before. Weak and strong hand practice will shave a lot of seconds from the score.
Improving shooting skills is one way to save time. Improving gun-handling skills can be equally important.
Master The Reload With Retention
A Reload With Retention (RWR) is an IDPA-approved reloading technique that allows a shooter to remove unexpended rounds from the gun (a partially filled magazine from a semi-auto, or unfired rounds from a revolver cylinder), stow them in a pocket, and re-charge the gun with a full magazine or speedloader to a fully load status. It’s another technique that many shooters don’t practice, and it costs them.
Sometimes it’s a mandatory requirement in a COF, and if it takes a couple seconds longer to perform the unfamiliar drill those seconds go onto the score sheet.
At other times, it’s a tactically sound move that will reduce a shooters COF time. One common example is a shooter who has to engage targets at one end of a wall and then move to the other end and engage a second target array. If the shooter arrives at the second firing position without enough rounds in the gun to handle all the targets, the shooter is going to have to bring the gun off target, step back behind cover, reload, and then re-acquire and re-engage the remaining targets. That’s time lost, and it could have been prevented had the shooter smoothly made a RWR as they moved behind cover from one firing position to the other to arrive with a fully loaded gun.
Little things add up in an IDPA match. At the 2008 National Championship; after two days of shooting 17 individual COFs, with a minimum of 197 rounds, the difference between the top shooter and second place was a mere 5.63 seconds!
Shaving .25 seconds per stage is good. Shaving .5 seconds is great. Shaving a full second is priceless!
