This new and exciting style of advanced combat shooting had its origins in California, USA in the early '50s and quickly spread over the years to many other continents including Europe, Australia, Central and South America, and Africa. The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) was officially founded at the International Combat Pistol Conference held in Columbia, Missouri, in May 1976.Forty people from around the world were invited to attend this Conference to determine the nature and the future of practical marksmanship.Colonel Jeff Cooper was acting Chairman and was acclaimed as the first IPSC World President.
This new shooting sport was formulated to determine the ability to use a pistol in it's primary intended purpose of self defense. The promotion of accuracy, power, and speed as three equal elements was the prime objective of the Conference along with procedures and rules for safe gun handling. Constitution was established and the Confederation was born. The eight Principles of Practical Shooting were also developed and the motto DVC Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas (Accuracy, Power, Speed) was introduced to reflect this balanced objective.
Colonel Cooper said, & quot;Let's find outwhat equipment and what techniques work bestfor self defense through organized competition", and today, the International Practical Shooting Confederation is promoted in fifty-eight countries (called IPSC Regions) from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
In practical shooting, the competitor must try to blend accuracy, power, and speed, into a winning combination. "A zone" orbullseye. Most shooting takes place at close range, with rare shots out to 45 meters. Hitting a 15 centimeter A zone at 45 meters or less might seem easy to an experienced pistol shooter, but in IPSC only full power pistols are allowed (9mm or larger). This power minimum reflects the practical heritage of this modern sport, and mastering a full power handgun is considerably more difficult than shooting a light recoiling target pistol especially when the competitor is trying to go as fast as possible. Time, also plays a factor. In fixed time stages, very short times are allowed for shooting a prescribed number of rounds or, as in Comstock scored stages, the scores are divided by the time, adding to the challenge.
In this photograph taken at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown your old webmaster shoots from within a box marked with 2x4s and white tape. The timer is placed close to the shooter to capture the sound. In the background the poly covered structure is a mockup of a hijacked airliner, entry to which is made by crawling on hands and knees through the entry point under the cockpit.
Multiple targets, moving targets, targets that react when hit, penalty carrying no-shoot targets mixed-in or even partially covering shoot targets, obstacles, movement, competitive tactics, and, in general, any other relevant difficulty the course designer can dream up all combine to keep the com- petitors enthusiastic and the spectators entertained. While the rules of IPSC state that the course of fire should be realistic and practical, they also state that diversity is to be encouraged, to keep the sport from becoming too formalized or standardized. In fact, some matches even contain surprise stages where no one knows in advance what to expect.
Although the roots are martial in origin, the sport matured from these practical or martial beginnings, just as karate, fencing, or archery developed from their origins. Now, practical shooting is an international sport, emphasizing safety and safe gun handling, accuracy, power, and speed, in major competitions around the globe. The crowning glory for practical shooting is to become the IPSC World Champion.
