Course design

[ismram]

I run a pit at my club for our monthly IDPA matches. Last month I had a stage you shot all weak hand. It started with the gun on the ground loaded with the safe on( if it has one). The idea was that you saw the bad guy's coming, but too late. While drawing your weapon you were hit in the strong arm, and it ended up on the ground in front of you. You had too pick up the gun weak hand turn off the safe and engage two targets on the move to cover. Then engage three more using cover. Short stage but very challenging. Lots of (That was harder then it looks!) comments.

[m25operator]

If you are a course designer for defensive or tactical matches, something I was taught, to set your watch alarm to go off at odd intervals, and when it went off just look around you and say " what if it happened here and now".

Here's a drill that so far I'm the only I know that has run, very simple, it's an exposure drill.

5 - 10 shoot targets, no shoots as you think, some pepper poppers.

Shooter is behind hard cover with rifle or pistol out and loaded, set the timer for 2 seconds par time, when the buzzer go's off the shooter has 2 seconds to engage as many targets as possible and get back behind cover, run the shooter again and again until all targets are addressed, but each run should be from a different position behind the cover, high. low, middle etc... I gave the shooter 1/2 second over the 2 seconds to respond to the buzzer with no penalty, every shot over 2.5 seconds, added 5 seconds. The cumulative time is used divided into the score.

The object of course is to not get used to exposing yourself to return fire, for very long at all.

[Rob10ring]

I run a pit at my club for our monthly IDPA matches. Last month I had a stage you shot all weak hand. It started with the gun on the ground loaded with the safe on( if it has one). The idea was that you saw the bad guy's coming, but too late. While drawing your weapon you were hit in the strong arm, and it ended up on the ground in front of you. You had too pick up the gun weak hand turn off the safe and engage two targets on the move to cover. Then engage three more using cover. Short stage but very challenging. Lots of (That was harder then it looks!) comments.

I love it! We do a lot of one-hand/weak-hand. This could be rough for the single stack guys. How many shots to each target? Any failure drills in there? Most of our shooter are hampered by the 10 round limit in CA, so I would probably change the number of goblins/zombies. We could do a one-hand reload behind cover, but to stay safe with the large number of beginners we have, I'd keep it to one or 2. FBI stats show that in average attacks on civilians, there is only one attacker. I could make adjust this so that the initial engage is 2 to the body - go to cover - failure to stop drill. What do you think? I keep in mind that the folks that come out to the matches want to shoot a lot of bullets, so I would probably add a couple of goblins.

[ismram]

I love it! We do a lot of one-hand/weak-hand. This could be rough for the single stack guys. How many shots to each target? Any failure drills in there? Most of our shooter are hampered by the 10 round limit in CA, so I would probably change the number of goblins/zombies. We could do a one-hand reload behind cover, but to stay safe with the large number of beginners we have, I'd keep it to one or 2. FBI stats show that in average attacks on civilians, there is only one attacker. I could make adjust this so that the initial engage is 2 to the body - go to cover - failure to stop drill. What do you think? I keep in mind that the folks that come out to the matches want to shoot a lot of bullets, so I would probably add a couple of goblins.

Fuzdaddy, I made the stage just neutralize the target In IDPA that means at least one shot in the down 0 or down 1 zone. You could finish the stage with only five rounds if you shot in those zones. The only thing is, I covered the targets with T-Shirts. You didn't know for sure until the targets were scored. Needless to say, there were some sad faces when the shirts were pulled up and some FTN's were handed out.

[CZShooter]

Fuzdaddy, I made the stage just neutralize the target In IDPA that means at least one shot in the down 0 or down 1 zone. You could finish the stage with only five rounds if you shot in those zones. The only thing is, I covered the targets with T-Shirts. You didn't know for sure until the targets were scored. Needless to say, there were some sad faces when the shirts were pulled up and some FTN's were handed out.

Dude...you're an evil genius. 

[Sponsor]

[Rob10ring]

Awesome!

Hey CZ, Do you know how to adjust a CZ 75B, so that magazines drop free?

[m25operator]

There is a leaf spring just in front of the hammer spring, remove it and they will drop free.

[JohnJacobH]

Surprising what a person that knows his handgun can do with it.  When we got a new batch of recruits, we would show of what a 2 1/2" Model 19 could do.  Could constantly hit a man size target at 75 to 100 yards.  Our course of fire included man size target at 50 yards with same gun.  Not hard to put all rounds in center of mass.  This is when the revolver was the handgun used by just about everybody.  Sure most good autos can do the same now.  We shot PPC style courses.

YES! A Model 19 with 2 1/2 barrel and factory ammo! My weapon of choice at the IDPA matches in my neck of the woods. And almost ALWAYS the only one!

I am sorry I missed this thread as I have been preoccupied with Forest Fires and Deadly Force in other Forums. After a few years I finally backed off on IDPA in exasperation because it had become 90 percent malarky and 10 percent IDPA.

I have always been a fan of Keep It Simple Sailor course design because that is what happens in the real world more often than not.

Nowadays I practice on the back forty with some simple designs of my own.

You can make excellent cheap reactive targets from an ordinary paper grocery bag, castaway shirts and balloons attached to a string.

Put a shirt on an upside down bag (with the bottom facing the sky), put a partially  inflated balloon inside the bag with the string threaded through the shirt neck and attached to a clothesline. 

Your hit zone will be the size of the inflated balloon inside the bag.  When you break the balloon the bag and shirt will drop.

Anything else is a miss. Since the balloon is center of mass any hit sufficient to break it from any distance of your choice is a true shot. If it does not drop, reload and keep shooting.

Great El Presidente stage with three or more targets.

[m25operator]

Man, JohnJacobH, does that bring back memories, I ran a stage where we put balloons on the back side of the target, with string and zip ties to keep the balloons in place, vertically centered but guess where they are, tactically you should just stitch it up the front from bottom to top and you will get it, some competitors ran out of ammo. I was not very popular that day.

[ismram]

Dude...you're an evil genius. 

Thank's CZShooter! I've been called alot worse! I like to keep my stages intersesting. Not the same old two shots and then move on. I had a stage where you started out with your gun with only five rounds in it. There were six shoots and three no shoots. After you shot the five rounds in your gun, you set your gun down (simulated a major gun malfuction) you had to retreve a wheel gun from a desk drawer with loose ammo rolling around. Load it and finish the stage with it. "You know some people have ten thumbs when the clock is running!" Lots of fun!!!