So in a recent post, ToddG brought up the ghey targets that IPSC shooters use instead of the normal ones used by USPSA (which is the US branch of IPSC.)
They're kind of blobby and I guess they comply with the laws of some of the more enlightened nations where the ruling class get nervous when people practice shooting at anything even slightly bureaucrat-shaped.
So in an effort to be PC, courses of fire are set up where you are running around through doorways and dodging around barriers shooting at... what, some kind of hovering torso-bots from Disney's The Black Hole? Everybody knows what the targets in a course like that are supposed to represent: Movie extras. The ones that play bad guys that the hero mows down in implausible hordes armed with naught but a pistol that only needs reloading for reasons of cinematic tension. Duh.
Using abstract targets to pretend you're shooting anything other than imaginary bad guys makes you look like dorky hypocrites with corporate sponsorship jerseys.
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The one international event I attended used these targets. There was a decided lack of running through doorways and dodging around barriers. It was much like the Steel Challenge - without the steel. Lots of little stages. Shooting at amoebas from one or two boxes was it. No 30+ round field courses like we are used to in the good old US(PS) of A.
*That's* why the action heroes never need to reload - they must be using open guns.
Steve,
But... but... those cool Laetitia Daguenel videos!
If memory serves me, the whole reason the Classic, aka amoeba/turtle target was introduced was because IPSC was trying to get sanctioned as an Olympic exhibition sport, and the IOC had a stick up their ass about "humanoid targets." Of course as it turns out, the IOC is somehow more anti-gun than the average European, and wouldn't even allow IPSC as an exhibition event in the Olympics.
Also, for what it's worth, I like the Classic target. The A-zone is smaller, so it's a tougher shot on a wide open target.
Well, OBVIOUSLY one would eliminate the "shoulders" from a target. As we all know from just about every action movie ever made, a shoulder hit is only slightly more debilitating than a swat across the knuckles with a ruler. After all, there are no major bones, blood vessels, or nerves there, right?
Caleb is correct. I seem to remember that Vince Pinto out of Hong Kong was pushing hard for the Olympics exhibition.
We use some of them in USPSA. One location is on multi-gun courses to separate and designate which targets are slug targets and which are pistol, for example.
I don't care too much what shape the targets are. I has gun and is shooting, is all good!
I cannot condone IPSC's clear preference of violence towards stop signs.
Won't someone think of the stop signs?
Ugh. My gun range bans humanoid targets. Its something I working on changing.
Many bonus geek points to you for the VINCENT reference!
Just put the blob target in a red shirt and beam them down to the planet's shoot house. With the red shirt, you KNOW you're shooting somethings who ain't supposed to make it anyhow.
When you said "fruity targets," I got this immediate mental image of human-torso-sized apples, bunches of grapes, etc.
You ask me, I blame sleep deprivation.
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