What pistol disciplines do you shoot

[James]

and how many can you shoot at once?
My coach tells me that you can only shoot two pistols well.

[Fred Mannis]

and how many can you shoot at once?
My coach tells me that you can only shoot two pistols well.

I think you are limited only by your skill and the amount of time you can devote. I know someone who shoots NRA Bullseye as a high master who decided to try his hand at International. After three months he was shooting AP in the 550's and FP 540 in national matches.

[RobStubbs]

I tend to agree but you can train in one and shoot the others as follow up events or just do them for fun and a bit of a change. I actually think a bit of a mix help keeps the interest up and prevent stagnation. You can also apply the learnings to your main event and improve that as a result.

I shoot air precision, FP, RF, Std and CF in a variety of calibres - depending on whether I'm shooting at home (only AP and FP legal) or training abroad in which case I can use 'real' guns. All that said I train 95% of the time just air precision.

Rob.

[Sparks]

and how many can you shoot at once?
My coach tells me that you can only shoot two pistols well.

That's probably because you only have the two hands, you see.

:p

[Nicole Hamilton]

My coach tells me that you can only shoot two pistols well.

So what? Think how boring life would be if you were only allowed to shoot two pistols!

Personally, I compete in NRA BE, SP, FP and AP. And in rifle, I compete in smallbore and HP. And that's just what I compete in. I have another couple dozen guns, including some 1911s, .357 and .44mag revolvers and even a Desert Eagle in .50A that I shoot just for fun.

So many guns, so little time! But more guns is always better, that's what I say!

[Mike McDaniel]

Shoot fairly well, or really well?

My experience is that it varies from shooter to shooter - but if I want to shoot my best, I need to work one gun. Two at most.

[cdf]

Time and finances factor in as well , it's a bit like frequency of sex . It's a matter of desire and capacity .

Chris

[Steve Swartz]

How many?

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish, and how "dissimilar" the disciplines are.

Air Pistol and Free Pistol, for example, in combination count as "1.5." Rapid fire pistol counts as "3."

Also- your skill level and dedication will count for something as well. A "duffer" without dedication may never be able to win local matches focusing on only one gun.

That having been said, the most important thing is what your required performance level is:

Not shoot myself or others accidentally: as many as you can afford
Compete, and win in my category/class: 10-15
Compete, and become at least state champion: 7-10
Compete at national level and hold your own in open class: 3-5
Compete at national level and be ranked highly: 2-3
Compete internationally and be ranked moderately: 1-2

Of course, all of this entirely arbitrary B.S.

Butthe underlying point is, "IT DEPENDS."

On:

- Your skill level
- Your dedication to training
- How similar/dissimilar the required skills are for each discipline
- What level of performance you are trying to achieve

If you are just starting out, "dabbling" is fine- it gives you experience in a wide variety of disciplines. Shoot them all somewhat seriously- (best with borrowed, high quality equipment!) then figure out what you want to focus on IF you want to take your dkills to the next level.

You may find you just like plinking around with a variety of stuff. Nothing at all wrong with that!

Steve Swartz

[BULLSEYEGUY]

...ALSO.....

During the "off" season, it is not a bad idea to "cross train" with other disciplines, being concious about the goal to attain as the time gets closer to attaining that goal.
It seems to me that it is difficult to get the wheels out of a rut sometimes when shooting only the same guns day to day.
Note that a National level shooter will work on a schedule that is based around "peak" times to be at the optimal level of performance regarding both physical, mental, and technical ability. As you close in on this time in your schedule, you would want to concentrate on a limited number of disciplines, depending on your personal goals.

Brad

[sparky]

I shoot Air Pistol, Rapid Fire, Bullseye, IPSC, skeet and trap.
Lately, I've been shooting IPSC the most, followed by trap. I don't know how many disciplines a person can shoot well. It probably depends on the person and depends on what you mean by "well."
For example, in the following disciplines, here's a guesstimate of my current averages:
Air Pistol: low 540's
Rapid Fire: mid 550's
Bullseye: mid 550's (I only shoot the .22 matches)
IPSC: B class, at around 68%
Skeet: high teens - low 20's
Trap: low 20's

I guess I'm not really stellar at any of them, but I don't think I totally suck either. I tend to get bored if I only shoot one discipline exclusively for a long period. In a wierd way, I think shooting the different pistol disciplines has helped me improve in each in different ways.

[Josh Reiter]

I shoot NRA Bullseye indoor/outdoor, Air Pistol, and Service Pistol for the Navy team. I also shoot high power rifle (under duress...) for the Navy at times.

While many subscribe to the popular theory that participating in too many disciplines will make it more difficult to master any of them, I have a slightly different perspective....I believe that although all require the same fundamentals, each discipline has a focus area slightly different from the others. Each one will focus your efforts in that slightly different way and improve that portion of your skill set, and consequently your overall ability. Some examples:

I started as a rifle shooter. I submit that rifle shooters don't know "jack" about trigger control as compared to pistol shooters. After August of 2004 I put away the rifle until May of 2005 and shot nothing but pistol. After nine months with absolutely no rifle shooting, my scores went from 470s in 2004 to 480s in 2005 on a NMC. It's not as easy to focus on trigger control in rifle. It's harder to differentiate between good trigger control and great trigger control when you've got two hands, a shoulder, a sling and the side of your face holding the gun in place. I could shoot rifle all day trying to improve my trigger control and wouldn't get nearly the value out of the training as I do shooting pistol.

Another example: Several months ago I took a "tactical pistol" class. The instructor goes over the same fundamentals as every other class or coaching session I've ever had, and then tells us that "grip" is the most important of the fundamentals. What blasphemy is this?! Grip?! Are you kidding me?! What about sight alignment?! What about trigger control?! What about follow-through?! Grip?!?! Well, we're out on the range putting three rounds per second on a 8-12 inch target. Yep, grip was the limiting factor in THAT situation. No doubt about it. If your sight alignment/sight picture is good on the first shot, and your grip is good, the gun comes back to it. (Duh. Natural point of aim...) So why is this important...? Maybe it's not, but after this completely unrelated pistol training with a stock-issue sidearm, I noticed that the frequency of my "cleaning" timed fire targets in bullseye matches increased three-fold, and my rapid fire targets in bullseye are up 2-3 points each. Coincidence? Hmm.....gotta wonder.

Shooting air pistol has given me better "shot discipline" across the board, and improved my slow fire bullseye shooting from high-80s to mid-90s. Let's forget about how relatively unforgiving the air pistol is compared to say the .22; you're shooting 100% of your shots slow fire. You're putting greater emphasis on what is, for most bullseye shooters, a weaker area. Going from "the dot" I use for bullseye to the standard sights on the air pistol was challenging, but paid additional dividends in my service pistol shooting. After five years shooting service pistol without getting a "leg," I won one bronze, two silvers and a gold and went distinguished in 13 months...and the first "leg" was the first spring match immediately after my first winter season of air pistol. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce what happened there....

In the other direction, shooting .45 bullseye/service has given me better trigger control in slow fire disciplines and better recoil management in rapid fire disciplines. If you can maintain proper slight alignment while actuating a 4+ pound trigger, your average int'l/air pistol seems thought-controlled by comparison, and becomes much more pleasurable to shoot.

I've found that shooting in a weekly .22 league has been generally helpful across-the-board. I'll respectfully submit that shooting *anything* often under match conditions is still better than discipline-specific dry firing in the basement...I've had serious improvements in all disciplines in the last few years. I'll be the first to admit don't practice nearly as much as I should, but I shoot in every match I can get to in whatever discipline, year round. I fully believe that the different disciplines have provided constructive, rather than destructive, interference with each other.

I do agree with Steve, that as you get higher in level, focusing on your primary discipline(s) will become more important, but as Brad said, a certain amount of cross-training in the off season isn't a bad thing. Personally, I don't think it's EVER a bad thing, off season or not.

Of course, this is just my opinion....everyone has to find their own way.

- Josh R.

[Sparks]

Very interesting post Josh, but one question - where do/did you find the time for all that shooting? :D

[Josh Reiter]

I'm still single....so I have more time to shoot. Or I'm still single because of all the time I spend shooting. I'm sure it's one of those....

[VladB]

I shoot 10M pistol and Free Pistol as well as 10M rifle and Free Rifle. I think there is a trend there :-)

and how many can you shoot at once?
My coach tells me that you can only shoot two pistols well.