Comment #1: I've never seen a gun forum where the moderators engage so heavily in debates.
Comment #2: This is from Massad Ayoob:
Comment #3: Not knowing any more than I do about the posters here (except that one or two acknowledge they have never shot competitively), I'll take Jim Cirillo's opinion and Ayoob's opinion over some of the argumentative, dogmatic posts on this this thread.
p.s. If you start a new thread, feel free to move my comments there if you wish to.
Comment #2: This is from Massad Ayoob:
The Crucible Of Competition
American Handgunner, Nov, 2000 by Massad Ayoob
There is no direct correlation between qualification scores and gunfight survival results, but there is a stark and direct correlation for those officers who shoot competition with handguns. Jim Cirillo of NYPD Stakeout Team noticed it, Border Patrol noticed it, and only those with their own peculiar agendas to advance manage to blind themselves to it.
Cops who have shot a lot in competition are overwhelmingly more likely to win actual gunfights, and to have a hit ratio in the field hugely higher than their brother officers who have not been in a match. The reason is simple: handgun competition inures you to shooting under stress. When the fight-or-flight reflex hits, those without this conditioning often break under stress. For those who have this conditioning, stress with a gun in their hand has become the norm.
Right now, IDPA is probably the best. Diverse scenarios require distinguishing shoot and no-shoot targets, movers, knock-downs, bad light shooting, use of flashlights, shooting while moving and, above all, use of cover and shooting targets in tactical order. The latter means simply that instead of standing out in front of God and the undertaker to shoot at three "armed attackers," you take cover and engage each, one at a time, from a position in which you'd be protected from the fire of his companions.
Comment #3: Not knowing any more than I do about the posters here (except that one or two acknowledge they have never shot competitively), I'll take Jim Cirillo's opinion and Ayoob's opinion over some of the argumentative, dogmatic posts on this this thread.
p.s. If you start a new thread, feel free to move my comments there if you wish to.