Are You Ready: Tips for Your First Action Shooting Match

In the last post, I discussed the most common types of action shooting matches. I’ve already covered some tips for shooting matches in general, so this week we’ll focus on some tips specific to action shooting matches, i.e. USPSA, PCSL, 3 gun, etc. 

I know I covered this already in the general tips article, but the most important thing is to ask questions at the match if you don’t know something. No one will look down on a new competitor for asking questions - it’s one of the best ways to learn! 

Packing and Pregame

Few things in life are more demoralizing than arriving to a shooting match and realizing that you forgot an important piece of gear. You wouldn’t think that it’s possible to arrive at a shooting match and forget something so basic as your gun, but I assure you that such things have occurred (in my defense, I thought my range bag felt a little light when I picked it up). 

Many competitors are so generous that they will lend you everything you need to complete the match if you forget something (don’t ask how I know), but in the interest of sparing you potential embarrassment, here’s a packing list. 

Mandatory: 

• Gun (in a case or bag)

• Ammo (for each gun)

• Magazines (for each gun)

• belt/mag pouches/holster

• Ear and eye protection

• Water

• Snacks

• Bag or cart to carry everything

Optional (but great to have)

• Mag loader

• Small folding chair

• Work gloves (for resetting steel and helping clean-up at the end of the match)

• Service tools/spare batteries for firearm(s)

• Timer 

• sunscreen/bug spray

• progrip /chalk (or you can rub your hands in the dirt like Russell Crow in Gladiator) 

• “paster gun” (label placer for pasting targets faster)

The next step is to drive to the match. I like to show up to matches early so I have plenty of time to walk the stages. If the match is a midweek local evening match, I like to show up at least 30 minutes early, work permitting. If it’s a weekend match, there will be more stages, so I try to show-up about an hour early. This makes sure I have plenty of time to examine the stages and come up with a plan for each one before the match starts. When you arrive, remember that almost all action matches are a cold range, so have the firearms unloaded and bagged/cased. Only handle them in the designated safety area. 

When I’m walking a stage, the first thing I do is count the targets to make sure I know where they all are. Once I’ve found them all and the count matches the number on the stage briefing (usually a piece of paper left in the bag), I find my positions - the places where I want to shoot the targets from. I try to build my plan in a way that a. limits the number of positions I have to stop at and b. gives me the easiest possible presentation of the targets. It may sound obvious, but if I have two places I could shoot a target from, I’ll pick the one that is closer to the target. 

Some stages are super easy to plan with really only one way to shoot them. If your match director is talented, at least a few stages will have a few options on how to shoot them. When you’re starting out, pick a stage plan that makes sense to you that you can remember and worry about total efficiency down the road. 

Match Tips

1. Know your place in the shooting order. 

Once the match starts, you’ll join a squad of shooters at a stage and head to your first stage. When you get there, someone will read off the shooting order. Pay attention to the order! You will want to be ready to go as soon as it’s your turn to shoot. 

As each shooter goes up, you’ll also hear the range officer (RO) call our who’s “on deck” and “in the hole.” The “on deck” shooter is next up, while the “in the hole” shooter is after the “on deck.” 

2. Start getting ready when you’re in the hole so you’re ready to roll when it’s your turn to shoot. 

When you’re in the hole, you should be getting ready for you turn to be the shooter. Everyone has a different ritual for when they’re in the hole. When I’m in the hole, I double-check all my gear, making sure that I have enough magazines on my belt and that all my magazines are loaded to capacity. Then I close my eyes and run through the stage mentally a few final times to make sure I know what I’m doing.

3. After you’ve shot your stage, reset your gear and your focus. 

After I’ve shot the stage, I return to my bag (or cart) and reload my magazines before I do anything else. If I had a good stage, I mentally acknowledge that. If I had a bad stage, I take note of what mistake I made. Then I take a quick sip of water and a bite of a snack to reset myself. It’s important not to get too emotionally high or low about how the stage you just shot went, because you don’t want to take it with you into the next stage. I try to view every stage as it’s own match, once a stage is done, it’s important that you spent your energy focusing on the next one, not worrying about how you’re doing in the standings or beating yourself up for missing an easy shot. 

4. If you’re not on deck, in the hole, or just shot, you should be helping reset stages. 

Action shooting is a volunteer sport and part of our responsibility as a member of a squad is to make sure that the stage gets reset after each shooter as quickly as possible. If you’re not getting ready to shoot or reseting your gear from just having shot, then you should be helping out. Grab some pasters and repair targets after they’ve been scored, or put your gloves on and reset any steel that got knocked down. 

Look at it this way, if it takes an extra minute to reset a stage because you weren’t helping, over the course of a 50-shooter match, that is almost an hour of time that you wasted for everyone else at the match. One of the most important things you can do as a new shooter is find ways to help the squad with making things go smoothly. Do not be that guy who sits in his chair and watches everyone else reset stages - that guy will make no friends and is a dishonor to his family. 

Postgame 

Once the match is over, take out your work gloves and help tear the stages down. There’s an understanding at most matches that whatever stage a squad ends on, that’s the stage they’re responsible packing back into the storage container. There are exceptions to this rule though, so ask if you aren’t sure. This won’t take as long as you think. If everyone helps, matches can get torn down in 15 minutes or less. 

That’s all there is to it! One other point that I want to reiterate from the beginning is that it’s important to approach your match with a humble attitude with a starting goal to learn rather than dominate the field. You’ll have a much more productive time and a better experience if you can keep your ego out of the equation.