Every IDPA gun club is required to run at least one classifier a year.

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The Nevada club has four bays just like this one. The members are split into four groups to minimize time, one bay per group.

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Shooting an IDPA match is a little like a round of golf. You show up with your equipment (clubs and balls or guns and ammo), which you use to negotiate a course. Lowest score (strokes in golf and seconds in IDPA) wins. To finish the analogy, it is important to note that a round of golf is different from a golf lesson, just as an IDPA match is different from firearms instruction. Ideally, an IDPA match is an opportunity to practice your gun-handling skills in a competitive yet friendly environment.

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IMPROVE YOUR GUN-HANDLING SKILLS

This is the bread and butter of the IDPA experience. Various gun-handling/self-defense skills are woven into the scenarios. For example: drawing from concealment, shooting on the move, reloading, weak-hand/strong-hand shooting, transition from one shooting position to another, engaging threat targets from cover, retrieving your gun from a drawer, integration of a flashlight, shooting from inside a car and more.

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At the Carson City Gun Club, new shooters go through a safety orientation before they shoot their first IDPA match. Along with the safety rules, experienced shooters also check all new competitors equipment to make sure it functions in a safe manner and go over basic IDPA rules. Members hold this class with a lot of patience, and all questions are encouraged and answered. It’s like a free lesson!

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SAFETY

Safety is the one element that permeates everything you do in IDPA. If you didn't have a concept of how to safely handle a handgun before, you will develop one pronto competing in IDPA. And that’s a good thing.

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At the end of each individual stage, the shooters tape the holes on the targets.

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LEARN ABOUT TIME

The essence of IDPA is time. Virtually everything you do is on the clock. You gradually learn how long it takes you to do various tasks, and then you try to do them faster.

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The Tueller Drill is the study of the time it takes a person at rest to cover 21 feet and deliver a fatal injury with a knife. The answer depends on the condition of the attacker.

That is why semiautos must fit into the IDPA “box.” Major manufacturers have taken this into consideration when designing new models like the Glock.
Tests have clocked a fit person accomplishing this task in less than 1.5 seconds. This is important because it starts getting you thinking about what you can do with your 1.5 seconds to counter an attack. If you cannot draw and hit a stationary target at 21 feet in less than 1.5 seconds, you’ll have to have a Plan B. These situations in IDPA also put you under a certain amount of pressure, and learning how to function under pressure is a good thing. Therefore, time is a dynamic aspect of the defensive mindset, and IDPA helps you experience it.

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There are no make-up shots in the Classifier Match. Shoot like you mean it!

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The IDPA Classifier is a "standard test" used to classify shooters based on their current skills so that they can compete with other shooters at a similar skill level. Jeff made "Marksman" this classifier.

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DEVELOP SPEED-SHOOTING SKILLS

Speed shooting is the ability to shoot fast and accurately. IDPA provides its participants with a format that enhances the development of these skills.

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If you think of defensive pistol shooting or combat shooting as a martial art, the ability to shoot fast and accurately is akin to the ability to deliver fast and accurate punches or kicks.

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The Nevada Gun Club sits in a little valley with incredible views of the Sierra foothills.

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Scenarios are the heart and soul of IDPA shooting. Scenarios are used to simulate various life-threatening encounters. Avoidance has failed; you are given the choice of either defending yourself and your family or suffering great bodily harm. A scenario stage could be built around a car jacking, home invasion or finding yourself caught in the middle of a convenience-store holdup, to name a few.

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Btw - this is a husband and wife team.

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One of El Dorado's finest here!

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