13 minute read
PRACTICAL SHOOTING
PRACTICAL MAGIC
IN THE FIRST PART OF YET ANOTHER NEW SERIES, JON “POSH” MILLS HAS STARTED HIS JOURNEY INTO ALL THINGS “PRACTICAL” AS HE DOCUMENTS HIS FIRST STEPS INTO A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF AIRSOFT AND, ALONG WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE AA CREW, TAKES A STEP BACK TO “PROJECT PRECISION” AND SEES HOW TRUE “AIRSOFT MULTIGUN” IS BEING LOOKED AT WITH FRESH EYES!
Idon’t know about you, but after several years of skirmishes and MilSim games, I feel kinda “meh” about it all. Having run sites you get to see the underbelly and sometimes it’s not as nice as you would like. I have met some amazing people and forged some lasting friendships that I’m truly grateful for; I just need something more from Airsoft…
I was always aware of IPSC and Action Air and I’d loosely kept an eye on the situation but I’d never really moved forward with it in any productive way. That was until late 2019, when I purchased myself a budget setup with the view to giving it a go. Then Covid happened. In the real world, I work in Health and Social Care so, as I’m sure you can imagine, I was a touch busy and my focus has been elsewhere. Now though, as we were due to be released from the clutches of restrictions in the UK, I decided to start looking at it again.
I’m not the first to express an interest in practical or competitive shooting here at Airsoft Action. Bill likes a bit of “Airsoft 3 Gun” and keeps going on and on about it. Nige is, of course, intimately involved (and very good friends) with the master Airsoft Surgeon, Clarence Lai and the Airsoft Surgeon Championships, plus we have our AA Legionnaire, “Stewbacca”, who writes regularly about his escapades in the practical shooting world. As a result, I have access to a wealth of knowledge, individuals and experience from those who are in the know.
That, though, is not a resource that I am going to tap into! I want to try and explore the interesting world of IPSC and Action Air under my own steam. I want to do my own research. I want to discover and experience all the wonderful and woeful elements for myself, without being pre-warned or being given a leg up. I want to buy the wrong kit, fail and fumble miserably and learn what’s needed. I want to put in the training and learn from my mistakes. I want to enter a competition only to come last. That’s where the fun is.
And so, I invite you to join me on a journey. A journey that demonstrates just how terrible a shooter I
am. A journey that demonstrates the pros and cons of the IPSC and Action Air World. A journey that you can walk – and, if you wish, shoot - with me. A journey from the start.
I guess that the first question I should answer is, what is Practical Shooting?
The UK Practical Shooting Association states: “The dynamic marksmanship discipline of Practical Shooting requires a blend of accuracy, power, and speed so that you acquire a winning combination. The discipline includes multiple targets, moving targets, targets that react when hit, penalty targets, or even partially covered targets, obstacles, and movement. These all play a part in the challenging sport of practical shooting” …and “The idea is simple. The shooter tackles competitive ‘stages’ requiring varying numbers of rounds and using different shooting positions, against the clock. The appeal of the sport lies in the diversity of the courses of fire available to the shooter – they are different for every match. Targets vary in size, shape, position and material – metal, paper or frangible – from a variety of distances (from 3 to 300 metres)”.
It’s worth pointing out that frangible targets and 300 meters are only for real steel shooting. Action Air is using close range targets. In layman’s terms, shooting at targets along a course, with the most accuracy in the shortest time. Seems simple enough to me. This is gonna be easy! (I’m predicting a “famous last words” moment here).
Those of you not residing in the UK may not be aware that we have some fairly strict rules relating to firearms (especially pistols) and, as such, Airsoft Replicas replace their real steel counterparts in the IPSC recognised Action Air discipline. That’s what I’ll be doing or, at least, trying to.
Finding out where to start is actually a bit more difficult than you’d think. The UKPSA website has a lot of information about the disciplines (most of which are real steel) but it does mention Action Air and has a link to the fairly weighty rulebook and oh boy, what a rulebook that is! What it doesn’t immediately show you, although I’m sure it’s on there somewhere, is where you can go to do it. Back to Google I go. A good search term is “Action Air UK” as this pinged up a Facebook Group in the UK run by UKPSA and
it has links to several related articles and one name pops up again and again, “XSite Practical Shooting Club”. They are the home of the UK’s ranked Action Air afficionados, “the Wyborns”. Father Tim and two sons Matt and Paul are very well known in the Action Air circles with plenty of number one spots under their belts.
BOOTS (OR TRAINERS!) ON THE GROUND
XSite is a two-hour drive away from us but it’s the nearest club to me so I had to pay them a visit. I took Red Cell Jimmy along as he’s a super competitive fella. Upon arrival we were greeted by Tim and the team. Tim ran Jimmy and I through some history of IPSC, Practical Shooting and Action Air.
Turns out it came from military and law enforcement as there was a lot of friendly fire within the various departments/units. This spurred a drive for a more positive attitude toward safety and training. Shooting at targets under a strict rule-set became the norm and common practice. For example, your pistol must always point down range, failure to do so will result in disqualification from any competition. Another rule that at first glance seems unnecessarily harsh is that you must take your finger off the trigger when you move more than a single step. When you think about it, if you were to trip, fall or stumble you could discharge the weapon and cause injury or worse (remember, everywhere else in the world this sport is done with real firearms). We were also shown the basic targets and had the scoring system explained to us. I’ll be honest, I’m writing this TWELVE hours later and I’m still none the wiser.
So, after being bombarded with a huge amount of information and safety we were called to the “Course of Fire”.
A Course of Fire is a series of targets laid out in a manner that requires you to move in a dynamic way to hit them. Each target needs TWO shots and you move through the course as accurately and fast as possible. You’re given the opportunity to walk the course a few times before starting. A range officer asks you to “make ready” which is to load, charge and holster your pistol. After that they call out and a timer will beep within FOUR seconds. As soon as it beeps you complete the course and hit a closing target to end the timer.
I flew through my first run and was super proud of myself. Turns out however I’d only hit the targets once, not the required twice. That meant that with penalties I scored a solid zero. It didn’t get much better from there on. In fact, it took a complete nosedive! We ran a couple more technical courses over the rest of the session and I fumbled and failed my way through. With that, the evening is over and done with. Our scores were given. I came in at an awesome last place. Jimmy came mid-table, beating some of the regulars! That aside we had a great evening and it was an awesome experience. I am super-excited about this journey and next time will talk about what kit you’d need to start, what class that’d put you in and try to provide you with some clubs that are UK based.
P-AMG THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS
After my first (pretty abysmal if I’m honest!) foray into things practical, I got to thinking again. Fact is we all love Airsoft. There’s nothing quite like running around the woods with your mates on a weekend shooting at each other. The laughs, the tales of kills, misses, epic moves and friendly banter. It’s something quite special. You might be interested in Speedsoft for that all out adrenaline rush and attend a few competitions or events. Then from there you might take the decision to participate in something a little more immersive, a BattleSim or a MilSim. It’s different, it’s tactical, it’s cool.
For many, that’s more than enough but for some of us, as I said earlier, something is missing. Some of us crave the competitive environment but want a tactical feel thrown in for good measure. So, where do you go from there? IPSC Action Air is definitely an option and one I will continue with and report back. It requires training, it requires practice, it requires dedication and its great fun. There is one drawback, however, it doesn’t account for rifles and shotguns and longerrange rifles. These are the staples of airsoft. They’re the fun factor in our beloved sport and many will look away from this awesome discipline because it, for them, lacks something.
A good while back now, Bill wrote a column called “Project Precision” and as usual he was well ahead of the curve. Most of us are familiar with the John Wick movie franchise, how it encompasses how most of us like to see ourselves when we’re on the field. It’s fastpaced, there’s some incredible Gun-Fu and of course, Mr Wick is a total badass! But how did Mr Reeves get there and gain those skills that he has or displays in the movies? Well, he learned, amongst other things, to become a competition level 3 Gun shooter and this was the basis for “Project Precision” but using airsoft and with a twist!
For those who don’t know, 3 Gun is a hugely popular discipline of completing a course, again with the most accuracy in the fastest time but this
IMAGE FROM PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE
time using 3 Guns: Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun. A quick Google search will show you just how popular a sport this is around the world and there are some superb YouTube channels dedicated to it. It looks awesome. The only problem can be, again, those pesky firearm laws. The pistol law for us in the UK specifically prohibits us from being able to even participate in it and, as such, is a very niche area of shooting sports. Yes, there are some places offering it but it’s super rare and really unachievable for many of us.
That’s where a new discipline that is now my beloved brainchild (Bill helped a bit to be fair!) comes in. For years Bill and I have chatted about wanting to create an airsoft version of 3 Gun. Ideas were batted around, many were canned but this idea eventually grew and morphed into a 4 gun, or multi gun idea, more specifically, Practical Airsoft Multi Gun (or P-AMG).
So, what is P-AMG? Essentially, it’s an airsoft version of 3 Gun plus a bit more. Competitors will navigate courses of fire using a Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun, with an optional Long Gun section added to the end. You’ll be scored on accuracy and speed, with penalties for misses and rule infringements. Safety is also a huge part of P-AMG and competitors can be disqualified from matches for relatively minor infringements. The most positive and encouraging thing about P-AMG is that you don’t need to run out and buy specific or new equipment (you can if you want too though!). Most of us have three out of the four platforms already. This opens the sport up to pretty much everyone that skirmishes and that’s the great thing. It, alongside disciplines such as IPSC Action Air, will help shine a better light on our much-loved airsoft, which often gets a bit of unfair negative publicity (due to the fact we actually shoot each other!). This, in my, and our, opinion, is only ever going to be a good thing.
At the moment, rules are being written and courses are being designed, so you won’t be able to compete just yet but keep your eyes on forthcoming issues of Airsoft Action Magazine and the website for more information and potential event dates. In the meantime, for more information about IPSC Action Air, our man Stewbacca regularly writes about his experiences in Taiwan and I’ll continue to chart my personal journey, reporting from a newbie’s perspective as I progress, so keep “eyes on” as we start to explore yet another aspect of the joyous thing we call “AIRSOFT!” AA
