The Benefits of Shooting Competitions

Years ago, I was part of a shooting club that held bi-weekly competitions for pretty much anyone who wanted to come out. The rifle course was the same week after week, but the pistol courses varied a great deal. We generally didn’t know what we were going to do from week to week, and I enjoyed the variety.

My favorite involved a plate rack with six steel plates. The course had us sprint to the line, draw our weapons, knock down three plates, reload, then knock down the last three, then scan for anything we missed.

I didn’t do too badly in that one, which might have been why I enjoyed it so much. Still, it was always fun. 

That’s kind of what I thought about as I read this piece from America’s 1st Freedom editor-in-chief Frank Miniter earlier today.

At a shooting competition at my club last June, I saw again surprise on a few men’s faces as they learned they are not action heroes.

I don’t mean this like the anti-gun elite sometimes frames armed citizens, as men with Jungian wish fantasies about using a gun to stop a bad guy.

I mean this plainly, as in men who have some experience with firearms, say as hunters or competitive shooters, who simply assume they’ll be good at a shooting sport or skill they’ve never tried.

I have been guilty of this, most notably when I first competed in my club’s biannual four-day competition. It combines rifle, handgun and shotgun competitions with fishing (casting distance and accuracy), canoeing (timed) and campcraft skills (timed events that include fire starting). Everyone who first does this competition comments that it is humbling to learn that each skill requires the right gear, expert guidance and dedicated practice. I remember walking away surprised, humbled and hungry to learn and develop these new skills—and I still feel that way.

First, I have to admit that the competition described above sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. I can do most of those things to some degree or another as, well, I’ve done them all throughout the years. I’ve never done them competitively, and it would be nice to see just how well I’d stack up.

Regardless, the overall point here is that competition helps you expand your horizons as a shooter. It helps expose weaknesses to consider working on. It gets you used to shooting under pressure. Varied types of competition help you become more adaptable to unusual situations. There are a lot of great reasons to engage in competition.

And, honestly, all the ones I’ve taken part in were fun. That’s enough reason to do it all on its own, but there’s also a certain amount of camaraderie with the competitors that is great, too.

Competition, though, also encourages training. It gets people to the range so they can hit faster and more accurately. It gets people dry firing at home and using technology there to train when they can’t get to the range. It gets people serious about their shooting, all so they can do better in the competition and impress their peers.

The result, though, is that should they end up having to use a gun in self-defense, they’re going to be just that much more equipped to do so effectively.

That’s a win no matter how you cut it.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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