Arizona State Championship (IDPA/pistol)

1. The match's CDP Champion with a just-noticeable trail from the .45 bullet leaving his customized Glock 21.

i like 1 n 2 the most. what shutter speed you use for those both?

Pic 1 was 1/400 at f/8 from my 70-200/2.8 IS at 200mm, ISO 100.

Pic 2 was 1/800 at f/3.2 from the same lens at 115mm, ISO 100.

Is the range assistant holding up a noise meter or what?

Looks like a gameboy plus!

GREAT pix, btw. What make/model is that in your grip?

..and in pic number 6, shouldn't the shooter have the trigger finger outside the trigger guard like in the other pics where they are on the move?

Nice set of pics...

Nice series. What is that guy holding up?

OK:

The little blue box is a timer. It signals the beginning of action by beeping (very loud) and then it listens for gunfire. It tells you the time from the beep to the last shot fired. So if it takes you three point seven two seconds to draw and shoot all the targets, it gives you a nice "3.72" on the screen. That's how we tell how fast people are shooting.

My gun (pic #8 ) is a SIG P220R. The grips are Crimson Trace Lasergrips.

Contrary to the way it looks from this angle in pic #6, Kurt's finger is outside the trigger guard. It's just in line with the trigger and the camera, so in 2D it looks like it's curling into the guard. It's not. I have plenty of pics of Kurt running all over the ranges that day and he is a very safe and responsible shooter. I wouldn't shoot with him otherwise.

The little blue box is a timer. It signals the beginning of action by beeping (very loud) and then it listens for gunfire. It tells you the time from the beep to the last shot fired. So if it takes you three point seven two seconds to draw and shoot all the targets, it gives you a nice "3.72" on the screen. That's how we tell how fast people are shooting.

Looks somewhat risky for the runner and a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Why not use a boom mike to figure the timing and an FM transmission of the beeps into the shooter's earphones.

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. But shot timers are incredibly common and have been used for decades successfully. Every major law enforcement and military training unit uses them. And even if the shot timer wasn't needed, the range officer is still going to be right up close to the shooter to control things and ensure safety.

The Range Officer (in IPSC) or Safety Officer (IDPA) is responsible no only of keeping the score/time but also to follow close enough the shooter to ensure both safety and respect of rules. These sports have relatively simple but extremely rigid rules, and the Officer following the shooter MUST enforce them.

But to enforce a rule he must be close enough to see, actually some of the faults are very difficult to spot (see the finger on the trigger on pic #6, it was not in the trigger guard but it looked like, you cant' tell from a distance, and that's a penalty or even reason for disqualification) We have fault lines, that are lines that are not supposed to be crossed otherwise for every shoot done out of them you get a penalty (-10 points in IPSC). But you can actually shoot with a foot ON the fault line, the difference between ON the FL and out of it is very thin and you must be close to see the difference.

An issue that's typical with timers is that the actually "hear" the shots. So if you are in match and have several stages going on at the same time, despite the fact that the sensitivity threshold is usually set very high if the shooter is too far from the timer can pickup someone else's shots, thus voiding the stage because you don't know what really happened.

Another issue is the shots count. Suppose that you are the last one to shoot a stage and the folks before you left a hole open (maybe in a high score zone ). When you start a stage you know the minimum round # (let's say that is a long course of 28 rounds, just for an example). You actually shoot only 27 but when the Officer counts finds 28 holes and gives you credit for a full stage. But the timer says that you only shot 27 rounds so it just can't be. You can easily shoot 30 or 32 and get the minimum 28 holes required, but that won't work with 27 Good reason for repeating the stage.

I mean, there are a lot of reasons for the officer being so close (remember that he's always close - not enough to be in danger or create any sort of problem to the shooter - during the whole stage, so if you have to run a 30 yards, he will run behind you.

Take a look here, if you want to have a clear idea on how serious the safety issues are treated in these sports. By the way, almost the same rules apply, with minor differences in the other discipline, IDPA.

http://www.ipsc.org/ps​guide.htm

and here:

http://www.ipsc.org/pd​f/RulesHandgun.pdf

Cool thread and fantastic shots!

Jon.

I really like #2 with the casings flying up.

that really looks fun i really enjoy shooting... grew up shooting something .. i like plinking with 22 rifles as well.