Competition – Alternate POV
Greg Ellifritz recently made a post about Andy Stanford’s book Gunfighter U https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/gunfighter-u that a few of us were fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of at TacCon 2026.
Andy and Greg make some good points. I’ve been deficient in my reading, so let me present an alternate Point Of View based solely on what Greg posted.
Greg’s comment was:
“After seeing more than a few shooters obsessively chasing performance at Tac Con (with what Col. Cooper described as ‘Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments’), I wanted to share some of Andy’s advice from the book:
‘Shoot at least twelve matches total, not more than one a week, no fewer than one a month. If you wish, shoot until you reach a “B” classification in USPSA, or Expert in IDPA. Then throttle back to one or two matches a year at most. At this point, spend your spare time learning tactical medicine or applied combatives. Or conversing with your significant other. Or playing with your kids.
To get a Grandmaster card or win a major match requires many esoteric skills that have nothing to do with gunfighting.”
As with most things in life, competition yields what you put into it. This includes not only effort but philosophy. After taking a 10 year mostly hiatus from competition, I’ve started competing regularly again but with a much different attitude and personal philosophy. I’ve unlocked my Patreon post about my change in attitude. https://www.patreon.com/posts/discipline-for-138437533
Something I try to be very cautious about as a trainer and educator is assuming that all gunowners have access to the same resources and opportunities that I do. One of the most important of these is availability of a gun club where I can draw from a holster and practice most of what I’d like to. Since I’m a numbers nerd, years ago I calculated how many gunowners in the Atlanta Metro area had that resource. The number I came up with was 1 in 1,000. Hardly any indoor range in the Metro area allows shooters to draw from a holster or do any moving. Outdoor gun clubs are private and require a membership. What I gather from talking to shooters in other parts of the US is that we are exceptionally fortunate here in Atlanta. Some areas in the Northeast, the number is an order or two of magnitude higher.
What that means is that the other 999 shooters have only two venues where they can draw from a holster; at a match or at a training event. The match I go to costs $20 to enter and has an ammunition cost of about $25. It takes about 5 hours, starting at 11AM, and is a 45 minute drive from the city. The resource requirements for a training event obviously exceed that by a large margin. And such events are only occasionally available.
Another aspect of competition that I think is useful could be described as legally and morally defensible performance standards. In a competition, the bare minimum standard is to hit the silhouette with every shot. Experienced shooters will rarely miss the entire silhouette. Even Novice competitors will hit the entire silhouette somewhere in the 80-90% range because they know that misses dramatically hurt their score. This far exceeds the most common Qualification standard of 70% and the general ~50% average seen at indoor ranges. We all agree that the only safe place for bullets to land is in the body of a criminal attacker so I think getting that hit average up is a good thing.
Although there are numerous other positives to competition, the one I will finish this post with relates to Empty Chamber Carry. We all roll our eyes at people who think ECC is a good idea. Empty Chamber Carry is rooted in the fear of having a Negligent Discharge, period. People who do this are either afraid they’ll shoot themselves or shoot someone else they shouldn’t. Why? Because they are inexperienced gunhandlers. They haven’t yet developed confidence that they have an adequate level of skill to carry a loaded gun. In the 25 years and hundreds of matches I’ve shot, the only competitors I’ve seen who believe in Empty Chamber Carry are Cowboy Action Shooters and bullseye shooters. That doesn’t just mean Single Action revolvers, either. Competitors who are used to carrying a 20th Century gun in a holster and drawing it to shoot don’t carry empty chamber.
I’m back to shooting one local match a month now and I probably won’t shoot another Major Match. My Classification is down to Sharpshooter and I don’t care. The attitude I approach competition with is very different from the past when I was a Four Gun Master with 36 Major Match wins. Where I place in the scores is completely unimportant to me. What is important to me is to test myself and my equipment, have some fun, and see folks I haven’t seen in a while. I learn something about shooting in every match. Oddly enough, because I shoot Compact Carry Pistol, I still usually win my Division because almost everyone else is shooting Optics now.
There are a lot more benefits that I’ll share on my Patreon page but this post is food for thought for the community.
Tactical Conference 2026 – I
The 2026 Rangemaster Tactical Conference, aka TacCon https://taccon.info/, wrapped up last Sunday evening. It was three full days of training focused on personal development for self-defense and personal protection. A wide variety of subjects were presented in a buffet format. The classes ranged from live fire with pistols and shotguns to hands-on encounters without firearms to theoretical and philosophical seminars. Friday’s schedule gives a glimpse of the classes that are available.
I gave my presentation A Deep Dive into Boyd’s Process aka the O-O-D-A Loop twice. It seemed to be fairly well received. My object was to dispel some myths and give a more detailed analysis of what Colonel John Boyd actually said.
In Memory of Chuck Norris concluded my presentation.
Good Guys Wear Black Airport fight
Although I spent much of the Conference in discussions with my colleagues, I attended two classes; Concealment Workshop by Jon and Sarah Hauptman and Target, Bullets, and Body Parts by Chuck Haggard. With a lineup of dozens of classes, it’s not possible to take them all in. I also observed or sat in for a bit on several others. What You Should Know About Defensive Shooting by John Farnam, Hardest State Carry Quals by Karl Rehn, Low Round Count Evaluations by Lee Weems, and Defensive Knife for Concealed Carriers by Greg Ellifritz were worthwhile additions to my schedule.
An important part of the Conference to me is the Pistol Match because it is a rare opportunity to shoot at turning targets. Visual cues are rather different than an audio cue such as a shot timer. The staff graciously consented to allow me to shoot it twice, once for record with my Glock 19 and a second time the next day with my LCP II .380 for comparison. The results will be in my next post.
Armed Citizen Scenarios
#scenariosunday
I was nostalgic today for older style IDPA Scenarios like we used to shoot in the sport’s early days. Twenty-five years ago, there wasn’t much reloading on the clock and stages often consisted of multiple strings having six shots or less. It’s a different sport now.
My nostalgia caused me to write a new stage and redesign an older one. One is based on an Armed Citizen incident and the other on an actual car burglary and murder. The stages are called the Chicargo Practical Event and Muffler Thieves.
I finished up with the Old West Shootist’s Challenge. My Little Crappy Pistol (LCP) did just fine.
It was a fun afternoon. I’m going to do it every month, as if it was my own private match.
If you are interested in more in-depth commentary about shooting and Personal Protection incident analysis, please consider subscribing to my Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/c/TacticalProfessor
The Demi-Practical Event
#wheelgunwednesday
Caleb Giddings of Taurus inspired me to design a Course of Fire derived from the Bianchi Cup Practical Event. I wanted something that wouldn’t demoralize newer shooters by making them shoot a demanding par time course at a long distance though.
The Bianchi Cup https://thecmp.org/competitions/cmp-pistol-program/cmp-bianchi-cup/ is being shot now at the Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club in Missouri. The Cup goes back to 1979 and it is one of the most prestigious and lucrative shooting contests in the world. There are four Events at Bianchi, The Practical being one of them. It consists of 48 shots. There are 4 stages, fired at 10, 15, 25, and 50 yards, with 3 series of 2, 4 and 6 shots in each stage. Two targets are set up 1 yard apart, each having a four inch X Ring and a 10 point scoring ring 8 inches in diameter. The target is much larger overall but a competitor who sends more than one or two hits of the 48 outside the 10 ring doesn’t have a chance. The X Ring is to break ties.
Three series are shot at each distance. One shot on each of the targets, two shot on each target, and three shots on each target. At 10 yards, the three shot series is fired with the Support hand after drawing and transferring the pistol from the Primary hand to the Support hand. A nice thing about Bianchi is that it is six shot revolver neutral and there is no reloading on the clock.
Since shooting a pistol at 50 yards would be soul crushing to most shooters, the Event I created is called the Demi-Practical, demi- meaning half https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demi-. The 50 yard stage is eliminated and the other distances are halved. This gives us a 36 round Event shot at 5 yards, 7 yards, and 12 yards. The Support hand shooting is changed to Primary hand only shooting with a time change to 6 seconds since there is no hand transfer. All shooting is done from the Standing position.
Since the AP1 is not a common target commercially, I substituted the IDPA target. Points down scoring works fine as a practical marksmanship metric. Par timing makes it easier to administer and score.
Today was a beautiful day so I took the opportunity to go shooting. My Taurus 856 snub was one of the test subjects.
At 5 yards, I was 2 points down on the right target. At 7 yards, I was able to shoot both clean. At 12 yards, I was 1 point down on each target.
I had a good time shooting it. You might enjoy shooting it, too.
tacticalprofessor 
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