3 Differences Between Competitive Shooting And Combat Shooting

The ability to protect yourself and others around you is a great service and we all must have at least basic self-defense training. When it comes to shooting training, we generally come across two styles- competitive shooting and combat shooting. Both these training styles are quite different from each other in various aspects.

Although this topic can go forever and ever, I will try to put both the shooting styles in front of you in the most simple and uncomplicated manner. Both competitive and combat training have been gaining momentum among the masses as both these shooting styles are fun, useful, empowering and all the more reason to buy rifles from San Diego gun stores

When you search competitive shooting vs combat shooting you generally get the top search in google to be the 5 differences between the two but instead you read all the reasons to hate competitive shooting. In this article, I will try to decipher both the shooting styles and put forward their pros and cons so that you can understand them fully and decide which one you are more inclined to get.

Shooting experts and gun owners mostly find combat shooting more useful in the real world but that’s not completely true, competitive training also enables us with great qualities that can turn around a life or death situation for us. So let’s get into these two shooting styles in more depth.

Competitive shooting VS Combat Shooting

First learn about the basics of both the shooting styles so that when I go into the nitty gritty, it’s easier for you to understand.  Competitive shooting what the name suggests, it’s a competition. In this competition the shooters have to shoot moving or still targets and are assessed on their accuracy and reaction time.

This style of shooting is a great way to learn technique and handling. On the other hand, combat shooting is firing with California legal rifles or other firearms in a self-defense scenario. There are no dummy targets or chances of failing, the stakes are high and could be a life or death situation.

The circumstances for both the shooting styles are pretty contrasting where one is done in an enclosed or real-time firing range and the other can happen anywhere. Now let’s put these two styles in comparison with each other to further understand them.

1.  Mostly Targets are Single Shot

Although this isn’t entirely true in USPSA or IDPA, where the vast majority of targets do require more than one shot, yes, in the more advanced levels of training you do get only one chance of hitting the target. The steel targets are generally one shot which means that the shooter has only one chance of hitting the target. This practice on one hand can be great as you can hit the bull’s eye in more attempts and kill your assaulter in real combat but most of the time, this mentality of one shot one chance is detrimental in real life.

The real person or thread might need several targeted shots to incapacitate him whether you’re having California legal rifles or other firearms from San Diego gun stores. In the real combat situation, the target is also fully loaded with weapons and the bullets are most certainly coming from the other end as well.  This makes the situation much more serious, complicated and unstable. 

2.  Swiftness or Precision?

Competitive shooting is all about speed, swiftness and pace whereas combat shooting is all about accuracy, precision and meticulousness. In competitive shooting you need to be vigilant enough to see the target, align your eyes, hands and mind to the goal and then effectively bring it down in one quick go.

When you do all this your main worry is not saving your life but it’s to do all this more the time ticks out.  The posture, the stature and the grip and handling to the gun is all set to give you maximum speed rather than maximum accuracy which can cause huge problems in the real world. Combat shooting demands accuracy while being constantly hurled with other forms of targets from which you have to navigate through and eliminate the target.

3.  Configuration are not Practical

In competitive shooting, the configurations are just too easy, preset and predictable. The shooter doesn’t have to use their reflexes much, doesn’t have to communicate with others to chalk out a plan, all their time is set towards shooting the target. Combat shooting makes you more vigilant, quick and more dangerous in terms of real world dangers. Although competition shooting does have many benefits it isn’t that practical in the real world.

Conclusion

In this article, I have barely touched the topic but given you some insight about the two shooting styles. If you want to nail your target killing with extreme swiftness then competitive shooting is your thing but if you like to become a life-saving killing machine in the real-world then combat shooting is calling your name.