Balancing Competition Gun Practice With Duty Gun Practice

[A Cat And A Gat]

After shooting every local USPSA match this year with my duty Glock 19 in a USPSA rig I decided to make the switch to a Glock 34 for USPSA. The Glock 19 has a 12 lb trigger in it while the Glock 34 has the stock ~5 lb trigger. Next year I would like to get into some larger matches including an Area match or two. I’m trying to decide how to balance the dry fire practice and range practice between the 2 guns mainly because of the difference in the triggers. But I honestly think that if I focus on USPSA and dry fire daily with the 34 and occasionally with the 19 that it will all carry over and if I can shoot one well, I can shoot the other well. I have considered putting the 12 lb trigger in the 34 but I don’t really think the trigger weight is that big of a deal as long as I’m doing everything correctly.

Does anybody else find themselves in a similar boat? Part of me thinks I am over thinking this but any input or sharing your experience will be appreciated.

 

[BJ Norris]

There's a couple of things at play here we can discuss.

#1 Overall shooting skill is overall shooting skill. Becoming a better shooter overall translates to performance with every gun. Perhaps not the BEST performance with a particular gun, but better nonetheless.

What is the primary goal you're trying to achieve? To be the best USPSA shooter you can be? Or to improve your shooting skills to be better prepared in the event you need to use your duty weapon? The answer to that question sets the path for your training program. In any case, I wouldn't recommend making the trigger on your 34 worse.

From my experience, if you spend 5 minutes of dry-fire out of your duty/carry rig and 10-15 minutes with your competition rig, that's all the dry-fire you need to maintain and develop your skills. If you spend the time to develop the proper base skillset of trigger control, you'll be able to keep a fairly high skill level no matter what gun you pick up. Here's an article on how I break down trigger control, and we've also done a Modcast on the subject as well.

 

[A Cat And A Gat]

Quick update in case anybody else was wondering. After making the switch to a dedicated USPSA rig and focusing on USPSA and dry fire practice mainly with my USPSA rig, I have found that shooting is shooting and I was over thinking this for no reason whatsoever. I occasionally practice with my AIWB and duty rig but 99% of the time I am training with my USPSA set up. If anybody else was wondering about this stuff, don’t over think it. Shooting is shooting. Trigger pull weight really doesn’t matter as much as I thought.

 

[TCB]

This is true, too many people get all wrapped around the axle over this. I compete with a full house custom 1911 and am issued a P2000 with heavy LEM, you couldn’t get two more different ignition systems. I’ve never had issues switching between with either.