Tuesday night, I shot a competition for the first time in a few years. It was the KSTG inaugural match. I was also the match director and watched almost every competitor shoot every stage. Some random thoughts:
- Night sights work better in the dark than black sights, even if you have a flashlight. Lasers work better than both.
- If you hold your flashlight in a way that doesn’t illuminate the target, it doesn’t help much. If you hold it in a way that it primarily just glares light off your rear sight, you might as well stop pulling the trigger because you’re going to miss… a lot.
- Match stress can make smart, experienced people do stupid things. The low-light stage began with a gun on the table in condition 3 (chamber empty, magazine inserted). The competitor had set it in that condition less than a minute earlier. When the buzzer went off, about one in three shooters tried to pull the trigger at least once on a pistol they knew wasn’t loaded before racking the slide to charge the gun.
- Folks who don’t have the experience to run the gun subconsciously either (a) go much slower than they would if someone was actually trying to hurt them, or (b) go at realistic speed and miss… a lot.
- People willing to put their egos on the line and shoot competitively in front of peers and strangers tend to be pretty good folks. A lot of shooters made mistakes Tuesday night but with just one exception, all of them took it light heartedly.
- People who show up to shoot rather than worry about their gear are more fun to be around (and tend to shoot better). People who show up with their everyday CCW pistol even when it’s at a significant competitive disadvantage (like the guy who shot his j-frame with speed strips!) are just way more fun to be around. They’re more focused on learning and getting better rather than where there name is on the results list.
For more videos from the match, see:
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4 (Classifier, the F.A.S.T. three times)
Hopefully, we’ll be running another KSTG match in January. Hope to see you there.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Great observations, in today’s world, everyone stresses about speed at the expense of accuracy and having fun.
I enjoyed myself. Thanks to you and SLG for thinking this up and getting it off the ground. It showed me a few areas to work on.
Speaking as someone who shoots IDPA with his everyday carry rig (a (gasp!) CZ P07 in a Supertuck), that last point was encouraging.
I don’t compete to become another robot mutant cyborg. I compete to learn.
Was the F.A.S.T. stage one that counted if someone were to make advanced?
In the low light video, how are you getting PID on the first and last targets?
Shooting a low light competition is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t. I used to think a weapon light on a carry pistol was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of until I shot with one, and then without one using a had held flashlight (which was not in hand to start the stage). I now carry a G19 with a x300 all because of what I learned during a night competition.
MichaelH — Thanks again for all your help in setup and running the fist few squads. We couldn’t have done it without you and JV!
Tom — No. If someone earned a coin I would have given it to him because a clean run is a clean run, but the scoring in the game is a little different (you can be penalized as much as five seconds per shot for a clear miss, instead of just one or two during the “normal” FAST). It would be too hard to keep track of both the KSTG score and the “other” score to determine who earned a pin.
JoeChen — (1) It was much darker in the video than in real life. (2) Everyone had a walk through and knew what was a threat and what wasn’t. (3) The target ID is done via huge reflective red “X” on the target.
Gotta disagree with that last point. Being a sportsmanlike competitor and focusing on personal improvement has nothing to do with the cost of one’s gear. I know Open shooters that are swell guys and Production shooters that are jerks.
Noah, I believe the point is what you are FOCUSED on. I know open shooters that are only there for the gear and who get beat by production shooters. and they typically go on and on and on about the gear, all the while not knowing thing one about how to use it.
Whether you’re an open shooter or a revolver shooter, people that are interested in shooting are more fun to be around FOR OTHER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN SHOOTING than those that want to talk about what color fiber optic looks best in their front sight.
YMMV
The night shoots our club has put on have proven all of Todd’s points. Just adding one tiny extra thing (using a flashllight to see) screws just about everyone up to some degree or other.
Very few of our shooters can maintain total smoothness in low light. You either slow down or bobble.
Why did you need to reload after 10 shots?
Just re-read the KSTG rules, 10+1.
Got it.
JodyH — Right. For safety’s sake, because the gun began on a table with the trigger guard exposed as they grabbed for it, we chose to begin chamber empty.
There should be a link to your YouTube channel somewhere on the sidebar.
what camera do you use?
eric — A ContourROAM.