Why so little interst (seemingly) in IDPA?

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NINEROUND

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I just joined and shot two classifiers today and it seems like there is little interest in IDPA as opposed to USPSA. I have shot IDPA and USPSA before several times and the MOST I have ever seen at an IDPA match is probably eight shooters. Is it because of the rules? Are they that much more restrictive than USPSA? I live in SW OK and understand that our range is kinda out of the way, but good grief, some of ya'll that do shoot IDPA come out once in a while. Make a weekend of it and take the wife to the lodge at Quartz Mt. But seriously, why does it seem that IDPA is the red headed step child of the shooting sports?

...and I apologize for the thread title, should read "interest." Just thinking faster than I type. :o
 
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loudshirt

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I have shot IDPA plenty. In Tulsa at either USSA or Oil Capital there are plenty of shooters. This time of year they are thinning out a bit due to the holidays but usually there are about 20 at any given event. Now before I shot IDPA I looked into both IDPA and USPSA. For me I saw IDPA as a more fun and economic event. With IDPA you can go buy a pistol w/3 mags, holster, mag holder and 150 rounds (you can use any old shirt for a cover garment) and compete very well. Some of the rules are kind of lets just say interesting. Some of the rules are good the novice shooter. All in all I highly suggest any newer shooter that is looking at IDPA/USPSA to at least shoot one IDPA match.
 

NINEROUND

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TWmaster: what kind of pistol do you have? With the five different categories surely it would fit into one, the exception being cowboy style guns or the single shot specialty jobs.

Losudhsirt: yes it would seem to be more economical for the entry level shooter to get started with IDPA. I would think that would swell the ranks, so to speak, since the economy is the way it is. Maybe it is just the area I live in that makes it slow, but for the whole SW part of the state, I think we are the only sanctioned IDPA club. Surely that should draw some more folks.....

Maybe we just need to promote it more and get a facebook page just for it. Seems like that is the only way anybody learns or communicates any more...
 

vvvvvvv

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I think we are the only sanctioned IDPA club. Surely that should draw some more folks.....

I believe Tin Star in Weatherford does IDPA, also.



But to be honest, I haven't come across a gun store, event, or organization that really does a good job promoting themselves online. (shameless plug - if they want help, all they gotta do is give me a call)
 

NINEROUND

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No offense to Tin Star, but the range at Duke is much better simply for the area it has. I didn't know that they were sanctioned too, so maybe that is why no one travels to Altus. Right on I-40 and closer to the city, so I guess that would win for metro participants. Just frustrating I guess.
 

Glocktogo

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IDPA currently has around 17,000 members in over 40 countries. Yet IDPA is somewhat localized in attendance. USSA has had as many as 60 at a match and I believe Oil Capital has come close to that. Regular attendance is in the 30-40 range. But we can't even get an IDPA club up and running in the OKC area. San Antonio has an IDPA match every weekend and has 40-60 attending each one.

If you want more shooters at a particular event, you may have to go out of your way to promote it.
 

vvvvvvv

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No offense to Tin Star, but the range at Duke is much better simply for the area it has. I didn't know that they were sanctioned too, so maybe that is why no one travels to Altus. Right on I-40 and closer to the city, so I guess that would win for metro participants. Just frustrating I guess.

For what it's worth, I had no idea that Tin Star did IDPA until about a month ago when I just happened to see a photo from one of my friends' albums on Facebook (you know, the things that Facebook does to get you to interact with people that you haven't in a long time). It looked like he was doing a competition, and so I looked through and noticed that he seemed to do IDPA all the time at Tin Star.

But I've never seen anything online, heard anything on the radio, or seen anything in the store about it. If I had, I might have considered gearing up to do competitions. But I think they're on Sundays, and that's bad for me (I'm the volunteer sound engineer at my church). I don't know for certain what day they're on though... the website only says "November at 2:00pm", and I have to turn off the background through Chrome's Web Developer extension to be able to read it....
 

No.343

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Many USPSA shooters have heard the story of the USPSA shooter who went to the IDPA match and was treated poorly. It might be an urban legend. I tried an IDPA match and had multiple failures to do right. That was my own fault since I didn't take the time to understand IDPA rules, but it really did not motivate me to return. It didn't really matter, since shortly after that the IDPA club shooting at H&H closed.
 

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