Unlike “normal” pistol target shooting, where you shoot over a fixed distance from a fixed firing point at a “bullseye” target a PP competition presents you with a variety of target positions at varying distances. You won’t stand in one place to shoot - you’ll move around - and on most stages you’ll have to carry out one or more magazine changes. The stages (a dozen or so in a typical match) themselves are set up as “scenarios” and I’ll describe a couple later on to illustrate what I mean. There is no “standard” stage, so every competition and every stage within a competition is different.
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Compared to 10M “bullseye” targets PP targets are as big as the proverbial bucket but don’t be fooled - it isn’t as easy as it looks the first time you see one. Targets can be placed high, low or partially obscured by no shoot targets (penalty score if you hit one of these) and the course designer will have put a variety of obstacles in place. You may have to shoot with the “wrong” hand to engage a target, for instance. Go to the gallery section to see what the targets actually look like.
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All shooting is against the clock. An electronic “beep” is your start signal and at the end of the stage you’ll have to shoot a stop plate - metal, around 6” square. It tips backwards when hit to stop the timer.
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Scoring is a combination of points (target hits) and time. Simplistically, you could be super accurate but slow and end up with a similar score to a shooter who was less accurate but faster around the stage. Penalty scores come into the equation too - misses, hits on no shoots or failing to engage a target at all (easily done in the heat of the moment) all have a severely detrimental effect on your final stage score! So, each stage is a combination of accuracy, speed and dexterity.
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Accuracy speaks for itself, but believe me you don’t have to be Wyatt Earp (or Annie Oakley) - although it helps. Speed is not about how fast you can run - it’s how quickly you can move between the stage elements, avoiding any obstacles and carrying out magazine changes at the same time - which is where dexterity comes in.
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Now let me correct straight away any impression that a PP stage is like some sort of Wild West shoot up with pistols blasting off in all directions - it certainly isn’t. Safety is PARAMOUNT. The course designer will have carefully checked and rechecked angles of fire. Only one person shoots at a time and will be accompanied around the stage by a Range Officer. The Range Officer will be watching for any stage infringements (moving outside a safe area from which to shoot for example) and will not hesitate to stop any further shooting by anyone acting in a dangerous manner, be it towards themselves or others.
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Shooters are divided up into groups, each group shooting on a different part of the range and then rotating around. Before each stage there’ll be a detailed briefing from the range officer on what is required and this is your chance to ask any questions, walk the stage (with permission) and maybe discuss with other shooters how to tackle it. You’ll need to think about the order in which you’re going to engage the targets (if the briefing says there’s an element of choice) and, most importantly, where on the stage you’re going to do your magazine changes. Typically 2 rounds are required on each target (you can fire more if you wish, but only 2 will count) so be prepared to change your reload points mid stage if you use more rounds than originally thought - it happens! My classic was arriving at the end of a stage (which I had shot quite well) and then shooting 4 times at the stop plate with no effect until it dawned on me that the magazine was empty. I’d miscounted the number of shots needed for the stage when planning my reload points!
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Who goes first from within the group is a random selection. The further down the order of shooters you go the better - you can watch the others shoot and the different ways in which they tackle the stage, which may cause you to quickly modify your own plan.
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Now for a description of a couple of stages to give you a flavour of what’s involved. These are drawn from memory, so may not be truly accurate, but nevertheless serve as reasonable examples.
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