Written by FieldStaff Member, Caitlin Gaub

I spent years as a gun owner going to the range a couple times a week, shooting in my lane at a static paper target and then heading home thinking to myself, “wow, shooting is fun” … Until I was introduced to competition shooting.

In March of 2019 I was visiting a new range in my area and was told by one of the patrons that I should join them in their USPSA competitive match the next day. I was still fairly new to the area, I didn’t know anyone, I had never even heard of this “USPSA” thing and I certainly wasn’t good enough to be “competitive” in a group of shooters that call themselves competition shooters. So, of course I agreed to come watch, meet some people, and feel out the environment to see if I could hack it with the best of them. That was just over two years ago and I haven’t looked back since! I shoot competitively almost every week and I’ve tried out a couple different divisions to see which one I enjoy the most. And to answer the question that I’m sure you all have, no, I was not good enough to “hack it with the best of them”. But the group didn’t care that I wasn’t a Grandmaster level shooter (That’s the highest classification in USPSA), they embraced me as the new shooter I was, helped me when I needed it, supported me when I improved and have become some of my best friends since that point. I still go to the range for static training and some drills from time to time but I feel like I have gained more skill and confidence with my guns from competitive shooting than I did in all the years I spent plinking at my local range, so whenever possible I opt for a “running and gunning” training session.