Shooting PPC, Again...

[Adam Helmer]

Now that Spring is coming on, a local gun club has started a PPC League that shoots on Tuesday mornings. A retired Federal Marshal, Tony, is running the event. Tony is also my neighbor and he asked me to sign on, which I did. It is a two gun event; a revolver and a semi-auto pistol.

I spent the day getting my S&W M686 4-inch .357 and M1911 ready for next Tuesday. The course of fire is 48 rounds out to 25 yards. I will fire my cast 148 grain Wadcutters out of the 686 and my cast 200 SWCs out of the 1911.

Adam

[buckhunter]

Adam, what's PPC?

[Adam Helmer]

buckhunter,

As I recall, it is Police Practical Combat, or maybe Practical Police Combat. It is a 50-round course fired on a Decimal Silhouette target. Essentially, it is a bullseye target superimposed on the old Colt Silhouette target.

Adam

[Dan Morris]

Dang, that brings back 40 year old memories! I shot with a couple of THP troops.....had a lot of fun with em!
Dan

[powell&hyde]

Over here it means practical pistol course. Handguns only, semi auto or revolvers, single or double action.

[Rapier]

Adam,
Did your local club decide to allow the use of the silhouette target? I thought they were dead set against that?

Oh the days of the Cougar and Smolt come back to me. For the youngsters, it was the rage for a few years to screw a Python barrel into a Smith (Smolt) or a Ruger (Cougar). It was also the time of the slab sided M-10s converted to a DA only gun. That was years ago, in a Galaxy far away.

Here is the brand new NRA rule book http://www.nrahq.org/law/competitions/ppc/rulebook.pdf

[Adam Helmer]

Rapier,

The PPC club is 8 miles away and NOT my local club 1.5 miles away. They are very different clubs. The closest club is against "anything tactical using handguns" because it has evolved into a sporting clays club, EXCLUSIVELY!

Adam

[Rapier]

Adam,
I am glad for you, to have two ranges, besides your private range, so close. That setup is not very common today.

The Sporting guys did not learn much from being put upon for years by the Skeet and Trap guys who thought Sporting was dangerous and should be banned. That is sad when one discipline will not tolerate another. I fought this for over 25 years and I never understood the people in the shooting sports who have no understanding of something so simple as shooting another target in a different way.

Perhaps this new range will give your students a plave to shoot and a discipline they can join and enjoy.
Ed

[Adam Helmer]

Rapier,

Yesterday, we had 8 retired lawmen on the line shooting at B-27 silhouette targets. The first time over the course, this Century, I did a 432 X 480 or 90% with a 4-inch M686 S&W. The next run I did 460 X480, or 95+%.

Today, I reloaded .45 ACP SWC rounds and .38 Special wadcutters for next Tuesday. It all came back real fast.

Adam

[Rapier]

Adam,
Glad for you, to find a sport you still can compete in and have fun doing. Seems like the older we get the less fun we still have doing what we once loved to do.
Best,
Ed