I promise I’m not one to stir the pot just for kicks. Pinky swear.

Some writers like to tackle controversial topics like a rodeo bull gearing up to take out a flock of clowns. Which brings up another important question. What do you call a group of clowns? Congress! (Just kidding. Actually, no, I’m not at all kidding.) I don’t think you call them a school or a murder (that’s crows), so we’ll go with “flock” until someone writes in with the correct answer.

Anyway, half the time, the pot stirrer may not even care one way or the other about the topic they’re either defending or hyping. I get the strategy, but it’s just not me. And trust me, I’m not trying to do that here, although I will admit the title is somewhat provocative. On purpose …

I’m addressing the topic of shooting competitions because I have a genuine love/hate relationship with them.

The Thrill of Shooting

The love part is easy. Conceptually, and in theory, there’s a pile of benefits supporting the idea. Shooting competition courses of fire is fun. It’s great practice for general gun safety and handling. Your shooting skills will improve the more you compete, assuming you want to move up in the standings. It’s a great way to run your equipment through the paces and find out how reliable it really is.

Competitions are, in theory (I know, I keep saying that), especially fun when they take place outdoors on a nice day. Who wouldn’t want to get outside and turn a bunch of money into a bunch of noise?

And it gets better. How the day improves (again, in theory) depends on your preferred shooting discipline. The Cowboys and Cowgirls get to draw and empty six-shooters while making lots of smoke. And if that’s not enough, who doesn’t get a thrill out of operating a lever action as fast as you can hit and following that up with shotgun blasts on steel targets?

Action shooter? Your adrenaline will spike not just from the shooting against the clock and pressure of your peers watching, but also from the physical exertion of moving, running and magazine changes. While not exactly hockey or basketball in the cardio department, it still gets you moving.

Even the stand, shoot or move-slowly-and-deliberately sports like Steel Challenge and IDPA are exciting, just in different ways.

So, as I describe these things, who wouldn’t want to do any and probably all? Sign me up!

The Agony of Standing Around

So you sign up for the next event scheduled for Saturday morning, and reality hits you in the face like a flying fish with poor piloting skills.

You arrive. You sign in. You start organizing your gear. You head to your first assigned stage. You watch someone shoot. Then you repair targets and watch someone else shoot. Then their friend shoots. Then their third cousin twice removed, followed by the guy visiting from out of town, all shoot. Before long, it’s been, well, a long wait.

You finally get to shoot, and in 15 seconds, it’s over.

Then you watch some more people shoot and paste some more targets. Six hours later, you move to the next stage and start the process over again. OK, maybe not six hours, but it sure seems like it.

I’ve never measured the ratio of shooting versus standing around waiting over a whole match, but I’d suspect it’s shocking. What might you guess? Five minutes of actual shooting over several hours? Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but matches I used to enter would run for a solid half day, and sometimes more. And during all that time, I’d fire 100 or 200 rounds as fast as I safely could. That’s not very many minutes if you do the math.

If you’re reading between the lines, you might have already guessed I don’t do shooting competitions anymore. Maybe it’s just a “me” problem. I just am not willing to spend that many hours for that little shooting when I can go to a range myself anytime and do far more in far less time.

The Challenge of the Sport

I think the nature of the sport itself makes this hard. Looking at other individual competitive activities, the percentage of participation time is much, much higher because the number of “others not currently engaged” is far lower.

In tennis, your “compete” time is 100%. Both players (or all four) are “on the line” through the whole match. In golf, your worst-case scenario is waiting for three other people to do something before it’s your turn. Similar with bowling. Fishing? Everyone is engaged at the same time. Biking, running, and other individual sports all maintain a ratio of active time to waiting time of nearly one.

The Rifle Folks Are Winning

I figure it’s pretty obvious my comments here are about handgun competitions, because in many rifle competitions, the shooting-to-standing-around ratio is usually well above 0.01 to 1. With the right range (meaning lots of shooting lanes), you might find yourself actually shooting after every target score and change iteration. Even if there are two or even three times as many shooters as lanes, the amount of shooting during a complete match is still respectable.

I know part of it is the nature of rifle shooting, but I think the rifle folks have figured this out, maybe even by accident. While it’s not action-oriented, at least you’re on the shooting line a lot more.

Does it Matter?

Is it just me? I don’t think so. If you consider the percentage of people who own guns or go to the range on a regular basis, how many of them also engage in competitive shooting? I believe very few.

As a loose analogy, if you consider the number of golfers who go to driving ranges, I bet a decent percentage of them also play on a real course periodically.

Does this spell opportunity for some shooting creative genius to develop a new game? Obviously, you can’t have a bunch of people running around willy-nilly shooting guns. But I have to think there is some way to reduce the amount of standing around and increase the percentage of actually shooting.

Got any ideas?

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