Brothers in arms

The International Practical Shooting
Confederation gets pistoleros blazing
away in good, clean, loud fun

SHELLS AND SHOOTER:
.45 cartridges and CRAFM member Daniel Paquette

by RAF KATIGBAK
photos by WILL LEW

The first time you watch someone discharging a .38 Super cartridge in person, the thing you’ll probably notice is how you don’t hear it so much as you feel it. Imagine making out with a jackhammer; your body jolts, your teeth rattle, you wince, and immediately after it’s all over, you check your head to see if it’s still attached to your neck. Or at least that’s what I did on a recent Saturday when I found myself in the Club de Tir Ville St-Pierre (CTVSP) watching an IPSC shooting competition.

IPSC, or Practical Shooting, officially began in 1976 when competitive shooters gathered in Columbia, Missouri, to develop a sport that tested the competitor’s ability to use a pistol for its primary intended purpose: self-defence. Named after the worldwide governing body (the International Practical Shooting Confederation), IPSC tests individual skills at long- and close-range shooting distances, reactions and problem solving capabilities. It’s practical in the sense that it develops the skills necessary to use the pistol to its full design and functional capabilities.

An IPSC competition is made up of several stages that place the shooter in different scenarios taking on obstacle-laden shooting courses requiring anywhere from six to 30 or more shots to complete. These stages can range from simple (starting in a standing position and engaging static paper targets, steel plates or falling style targets called poppers) to more elaborate theatrical scenarios (e.g. the shooter may start lying on a beach chair, then have to go to a table to retrieve their firearm, or weave through barrels, or pick up a dummy and shoot one-handed as they crawl through a tunnel while engaging mechanical targets that pop up or move etc.). The scoring system measures points scored per second, then weighs the score to compensate for the number of shots fired. If they miss a target or shoot inaccurately, points are deducted, lowering that all-important points-per-second score.

“The idea is to do it as efficiently as possible,” explains competitor Frank Nardi in one of the few moments of quiet between stages. Nardi should know. He owns and runs CRAFM, another shooting range in Lachine, and is also a long-time competitor in the sport. “If you can save 0.3 seconds here or there, it starts to add up. As a loose rule, each second can be worth 10 points. You gotta have a game plan.”

Camaraderie in competition

As part of their game plan, competitors would often do informal dry runs. Between shooters, they’d walk the course, pretend to hit targets, count their steps, re-measure, then step again, pretending to draw imaginary sidearms slowly and deliberately as if someone had put the scene on mute and played everything in slow mo. They’d debate. Share strategies. Other times, they’d pitch in to help sweep up empty shell casings, reset poppers and patch paper targets (everyone works on a volunteer basis to keep the competition running smoothly). While some competitors were police officers or people working at arms companies, others were real estate agents, doctors or retired IT managers who just liked the exhilaration and challenge of the sport—hardly the militant wingnuts many people would expect at a gun competition. The atmosphere was jovial, light-hearted and full of good-natured camaraderie, kind of like a bowling league but with high-powered handguns.

With over 92 countries that are sanctioned by the IPSC (Canada ranked fourth last year), the sport has become the fastest growing shooting discipline in the world, and claims to have rejuvenated the sport of pistol shooting. Usually there are from 40 to 100 people at a local competition like the one I attended in Ville St-Pierre, while larger competitions in the States or Europe can get up to 1,000 competitors. (Incidentally, at larger events, women make up about 35 per cent of shooters in North America and about 50 per cent in the EU.) Currently there are over 220 registered IPSC members in Quebec and, despite increased pressure for stricter gun control and what they feel is a growing stigma attached to gun ownership, the numbers are climbing every year. The previous week at his range in Lachine, Nardi explained why IPSC has become so popular among gun enthusiasts: “The one word we use to describe IPSC is ‘dynamic.’ You can’t help but be impressed when you see it first-hand, it’s unbelievable.”

Safety first, always

Indeed, there’s a lot of action that goes on at an IPSC match, but I never felt unsafe. To compete at this level, shooters must complete several safety training courses and during competition, any unsafe handling practice will immediately result in automatic disqualification. In fact, over the 33 years that this sport has been in existence, there has not been a single accident in competition. For a sport that is practised worldwide on an almost weekly basis, this is no small feat.

And while at times I questioned the wisdom of standing so close to someone who was quickly shuffling from one station to the next knocking down steel plates with lead projectiles flying at 1,300 feet per second out of a cannon that looks like something Robocop would have used, I must admit all I could do was smile. At least when my teeth weren’t rattling.

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