Are You Ready: Types of action shooting matches (USPSA, IDPA, 3 Gun, PCSL)

Action shooting pits you and your firearm against the kryptonite of marksmanship - the dreaded timer! In action shooting, you’re in a race to see how fast you can engage all the targets in a given course, forcing you to strike a balance of speed and accuracy.  

There are many different types of action shooting, each with its own challenge, ruleset, and scoring methodology. Depending on your goals and interests, you’ll probably find that you prefer one style over another so if you go to an IDPA match and hate it, don’t assume that you’ll have the same experience at a 3-gun match (or vice versa). 

When you sign-up for a match you’ll also select a division. Divisions determine what kind of other guns you’re shooting against. In racing, a rally car isn’t going to be very competitive against an F1 car on a paced course.  Divisions help ensure you only are shooting against similar style guns to your own. Each sport has different types of divisions, and I’ve included a recommendation for where to start for each league we’ll talk about below. 

USPSA/IPSC

BLUF: Shoot this if you want a highly competitive handgun speed marksmanship race against some of the best in the world. 

Pros: 

• Big organization with lots of matches and opportunities to compete against a tough field across the entire country

• Classifier system means you can measure yourself against people of similar skill

• Hit factor scoring that encourages aggression and experimentation in stage planning

• Standardized rules provide (generally) consistent experience across the entire country

Cons: 

• Dense rulebook with some “gotcha” rules that can be very confusing at first (or even down the road)

• Big organization with a fairly high level of drama

Recommended division for beginners: 

• Carry optics (if your handgun has a slide-mounted red dot)

• Production (if your handgun has iron sites)

USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association) is the US version of IPSC (International Pistol Shooting Association). Nearly fifty years old, USPSA has thirty thousand active members and hundreds of matches across the country each month. USPSA/IPSC is a behemoth of a shooting sport, with all the pros and cons that come with such a large and established organization. 

USPSA is for handguns and pistol-caliber carbines only and has you engage paper and steel targets while being timed in individual stages. When you finish a stage, your total points from your hits, minus penalty deductions, will be divided by your time to give you a number called your “hit factor.” Hit factor can be confusing at first, but at the most basic level, it represents your points per second. The shooter with the best hit factor on a given stage is the winner of that stage. I personally prefer hit factor scoring for action shooting matches (though not necessarily in other types of shooting matches) because it encourages risk-taking in certain stages. 

USPSA has a massive rulebook several hundred pages long that outlines it’s divisions, rules, and guidelines. While this provides an extremely standardized experience across the entire nation, it is not a particularly easy read and can be intimidating for most new shooters. In general, it’s a good idea to start in production or carry optics division and shoot a local (level 1) match. One of the best places to start is the midweek matches - local matches that take place after work in various clubs around the state. 

Of all the leagues mentioned below, USPSA and IDPA have the most ways to get disqualified (DQ’ed) and sent home for safety infractions. Make sure you show up with an unloaded firearm in a case and ask for help your first time. The vast majority of competitors are welcoming to new shooters and will be willing to walk you through the basics. 

If you decide to pursue USPSA, the large competitor pool, classification system (a ranking system based on how well you shoot standardized classifier stages), and massive amount of national and international matches gives you a lot of room to grow. 

IDPA

BLUF: Shoot this if you want a slower pace and higher focus on accuracy with your carry gear

Pros: 

• Ruleset that is accessible to new shooters

• Designed to be shot with carry gear (including appendix holsters)

• Intended to be more “tactical”

• Easy-to-understand scoring method

Cons: 

• Attempts to mandate “tactics” limit creative options 

• Time plus scoring with steep penalties for misses and edge hits which disincentivizes risk-taking

Recommended division for beginners: 

• Carry optics 

IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) was founded in 1996 by a committee that included Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, and Bill Wilson. The goal was to provide a more realistic training experience than USPSA, by mandating the use of cover and drawing from concealment, and forbidding dropping magazines with live rounds still in them or “air gunning” a stage during walk-through. 

Errant rounds are an incredible liability in the real world, and the IDPA scoring system was designed to reflect this. Your score is your time plus any additional penalties (a scoring method known as “time plus”), which is easy for new shooters to understand. The penalties for misses, edge hits, and hits on “no-shoot” targets are extremely punishing. Consequently, IDPA tends to be a little slower-paced. 

The IDPA rulebook is simpler than the USPSA one, but there are still some things that could trip up newer shooters. Unlike USPSA, IDPA often mandates the order you have to engage targets and it’s a penalty to drop a partially full magazine on the ground during the stage. 

Much like with USPSA, when in doubt, the best approach is to tell the match director and volunteers that you’re a new competitor and to ask for help. 

3 Gun

BLUF: Shoot this if you want to shoot a handgun, carbine, and shotgun with generous scoring

Pros:

• More guns

• Generous, easy to understand scoring

• Usually a fun atmosphere that is more laid back than USPSA or IDPA

• Sometimes a 2 gun option for those who don’t want to manage shotgun

Cons: 

• Gear management and large stages can pose a serious challenge for beginners

• No centralized governing body to set rules means that rules and divisions can swing wildly from match to match in different areas

Recommended division for beginners: tac-ops (or 2 gun if available)

If one gun is fun, three guns are funner! Thus is the theory behind the sport of 3 Gun and in many ways it’s accurate. 3 Gun became popular in the early 2010s and doesn’t have one single governing body like IDPA or USPSA. This is both good and bad, as it allows individual match directors the freedom to choose the rulebook and match format that fits their preference, meaning that your experience at one club could be quite a bit different from your experience at another club. 

3 gun scoring is incredibly simple. Much like IDPA, it’s time plus penalties, but in most 3 Gun matches, as long as you knock down all the steel targets and have 2 hits anywhere on the paper (or 1 hit in the A zone), you avoid any penalties. This dramatically increases the speed at which stages are scored (a logistical necessity due to 3 Gun’s long stages). It also encourages raw speed by giving a much larger scoring area. This scoring style is much less punishing to little mistakes of positioning, footwork, and bobbled reloads, which is good because 3 Gun stages tend to be longer with a higher number of targets to work through. The downside is that shooters who only shoot 3 Gun can sometimes become a bit lax about shot placement due to the generally forgiving nature of the scoring. 

Unlike IDPA, 3 Gun generally allows shooters to engage targets in whatever order they feel is best. Most targets will be designated to be engaged with a specific gun (carbine, handgun, or shotgun), but many targets at some matches will give you a choice as to which gun to use for engaging them (pistol or shotgun, rifle or pistol, etc). This allows for an incrediblle level of creativity, but it also can put a lot of cognitive load on a new shooter. Consider sticking with the simplest stage plan rather than the most efficient for your first few matches. 

The equipment barrier to entry in 3 Gun is by default higher than a pistol match because of the need to manage two more guns and all the ammo and support gear that goes along with them. This is somewhat mitigated by the rise of “2 Gun” divisions at many 3 Gun matches, allowing shooters to just run a pistol and a carbine to the exclusion of a shotgun. If you don’t have a reliable semi-automatic shotgun with a 10 round magazine, getting your feet wet in the 2 Gun division is a great place to start. 

3 Gun may sound more intimidating than a one-gun match, but 3 gunners are generally very helpful, and as long as you approach the stages methodically, the shooting challenges are very manageable. If you have the gear and are interested, don’t hesitate to give one a go! 

PCSL

BLUF: Shoot this if you want hit factor scoring with a dramatically less cumbersome ruleset than USPSA and carbine/2 gun options

Pros:

• Hit factor scoring

• Simpler ruleset and divisions than USPSA 

• Many matches are 2 gun, allowing you to shoot an AR-15 carbine and handgun

• Fun target types that present high-risk/high-reward options 

Cons: 

• Newer organization without as much nationwide adoption (yet) 

• Stages can be longer and more intimidating for new shooters

Recommended division for beginners: practical

PCSL (Practical Competition Shooting League) seeks to combine the best of USPSA and 3 Gun with a focus on 2 Gun matches. Founded by 8-time USPSA national champion Max Leograndis, PCSL has a dramatically simplified ruleset compared to USPSA/IPSC while still using hit factor scoring. Match directors have a lot of options on how to layout and run their matches under PCSL rules. While most matches are 2 gun matches (handgun and carbine) there are 1 gun (handgun or carbine) and 3 gun (handgun, carbine, and shotgun) matches as well. Much like 3 gun, the freedom allowed by the PCSL format is a double-edged sword from a match experience standpoint, meaning that two PCSL matches from two different clubs might be very different matches. 

PCSL stages usually allow the shooters a large amount of freedom in solving problems. Hitfactor scoring is used, and the targets are similar to USPSA targets with A, C, and D-zone scoring zones. PCSL targets also have a small K-zone near the top. Any round in this scoring zone counts as a full 10 points, allowing shooters to risk saving a round on a target by taking this more difficult shot. 

PCSL is working on a classifier and match level system like USPSA, but this has not yet seen widespread adoption. PCSL does not yet have the infrastructure and national adoption that USPSA currently possesses, though PCSL has seen a lot of growth the past two years. PCSL range officers tend to be very helpful and welcoming to new shooters, and the ruleset is a lot easier to grasp than USPSA. 

There are just two divisions in PCSL two gun matches, practical and competition. Most off-the-shelf handguns and rifles fall under practical division, while competition division is the home of dedicated race set-ups. 

Wrap-up

Action shooting matches are those that focus just on measuring accuracy at speed, usually without a physical or external stressor element. These matches are the most common in many areas - in MN there are multiple matches every day of the week in the summer. 

Each league has it’s own flavor. USPSA matches are for handguns or pistol caliber carbines and focus on balancing accuracy with maximum speed. IDPA matches intend to provide a place to compete with carry pistols and place a premium on accuracy. 3 gun is where you can tackle the challenge of being proficient with multiple firearms, and PCSL attempts to pull in the accessibility of 3 gun with the hit factor scoring of USPSA. Pick the match that sounds interesting to you and give it a go! 

Up next, we’ll discuss tips for attending your first action shooting match.