Top shooters hit the mark
From the Winter 2006 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Shooters were on target for the NSW State IPSC Handgun Titles at the Coffs Harbour Pistol Club range in Orara East State Forest.
More than 110 of the top handgun shooters from around the country were in Orara East State Forest near Coffs Harbour in March for the 2006 NSW State International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) Handgun Titles.
IPSC competitions are held world-wide and use a variety of target types including paper and steel, stationary and moving, scoring targets and penalty targets.
“There is no set way these targets are arranged, nor even how many targets are used in a single match,” match organiser, Sam Hui, of Coffs Harbour Pistol Club said.
A competition organiser creates a number of stages conforming to a set of IPSC design rules, each using different numbers and arrangements of targets, to create a shooting challenge that the competitors have to solve as accurately and as rapidly as possible.
Stages usually require competitors to move away from a starting position to enable them to see and engage with all the targets in the stage.
“This adds an athletic component to the test, as well as an intellectual one in that the competitor is required to work out the most efficient manner and order of engaging the targets, taking into account his/her own shooting skills and athleticism,” Sam said.
“Also, unlike other shooting disciplines, all participants – male, female, junior – compete together over exactly the same stages, with the same rules and the same scoring procedures.”
Only one competitor at a time shoots a stage. At all times this competitor is under the direct observation and control of a trained range officer whose primary task is to enforce the match safety rules.
In Australia, practical competitions are for centre-fire pistols and revolvers of calibres from 9 to .38mm.
Public Affairs & Media, Coffs Harbour
