Shoot like a Grandmaster: El Presidente

Last month I asked the question about whether or not your USPSA classification, or classification in any of the shooting sports matters. Obviously the answer to that is it matters if you think it matters, which I get is a bit of a tautology but is also true. You can read all my thoughts on that at the linked post.

But what matters to me even more than a letter on a screen is my ability to perform, and that’s where classification and USPSA classifiers come in very handy. After writing that post I thought “well, how well can I shoot,” and “can I shoot at the same level as a Grandmaster, the highest level of USPSA shooter?”

I do want to be very clear about one thing: I am not a USPSA Grandmaster. I am A-class in Limited-10, but haven’t competed in USPSA with any kind of frequency in the last 10 years. In fact, if you look at my Practiscore history which goes back to 2018, of the 54 matches in there, only 12 of them are USPSA, which is an average of 1.33 USPSA matches per year over the last 9 years. So it’s safe to say that I don’t really shoot USPSA.

I am however a Master class shooter in IDPA, which is a broad bucket of shooter skills, and a Master class shooter in ICORE, which is a tighter bucket of shooter skills, and I’ve been training hard over the past few years for IDPA revolver. So I said to myself, “self, hey let’s pick a classifier that’s easy to set up and see if we can’t get a GM level run in USPSA revolver using my Taurus 608 Competition.”

The Taurus 608 Competition isn’t one of the better known guns in the catalog and it’s not one of the best sellers, because it’s an extremely niche product. I’m proud of of it though, because I had direct design input on the gun. It’s an 8-shot 357 Magnum/38 Special that’s cut for moon clips, has good iron sights, and an adjustable trigger so you can make it heavier or lighter depending on what you want to do with the gun. I have my trigger set to just about 8.5 lbs in double action, and can run the gun down to 0.21 splits when I’m really on the trigger. The 608 Competition is accurate, and has minimal recoil even with 357 Magnum loads, not that I’ve fired a lot of those. I mostly feed it the excellent Federal 130gr FMJ, which is also the round I used for this challenge.

El Presidente is a 12 shot course of fire. Start 10 yards from the targets, facing away. On the beep turn and draw, shoot each target 2x, reload, then shoot each target 2x again. The targets are placed at equal height and 1 yard apart shoulder to shoulder. I used PCSL targets instead of USPSA targets, which actually makes the test even harder, as the PCSL target has a smaller A-zone than a USPSA target.

I absolutely ate shit on my first run. I had done a couple of warmups drills, then did my first run at El Pres and it was awful. Got my head together, taped up the targets, reset and went again, and that was the run I turned in on video. 7.75, which gives me a 7.483 hit factor, which is about 102% of the high hit factor.

Now, this is all well and good, but you’re probably asking what the point is, and that’s a fair question. Did this motivate me to go start shooting USPSA matches again? No. I don’t really have the time, given the demands of everything that I already have going on my life. For me, the point was to answer a question: do I have this level of skill applied to this specific drill? I sure do. It doesn’t mean I’m as good as a GM, or even could classify as a GM, all it means is that on that day, I was able to shoot to a GM standard, and that made me feel good. That was the point.

I suppose I could say something about how the “real point” is to use USPSA classifiers as ways to check your skill and validate your training and that would be an excellent point and something you should totally do. In fact, I encourage people, even those who aren’t USPSA shooters to go to the USPSA website and get classifiers off the website and set them up and shoot them. It’s a great way to practice.

For me, it was nice to validate that all the practice and training I’ve put in for sports that aren’t USPSA does in fact transfer over. And plus, I got a pretty cool video out of it.