Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports in which the competitors try to unite the three principles of precision, power, and speed, by using a firearm of a certain minimum power factor to score as many points as possible during the shortest time. While scoring systems vary between organizations, each measures the time in which the course is completed, with penalties for inaccurate shooting. The courses are called "stages", and are shot individually by the shooters. Usually the shooter must move and shoot from several positions, fire under or over obstacles and in other unfamiliar positions. There are no standard exercises or set arrangement of the targets, and the courses are often designed so that the shooter must be inventive, and therefore the solutions of exercises sometimes vary between shooters.
The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world's largest shooting sport association, and the largest and oldest within practical shooting. Founded in 1976, the IPSC nowadays affiliates over 100 regions from Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. Competitions are held with pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns, and the competitors are divided into different divisions based on firearm and equipment features. While everyone in a division competes in the Overall category, there are also separate awards for the categories Lady, Super Junior, Junior, Senior, and Super Senior.
The United States Practical Shooting Association(USPSA) is the national governing body of practical shooting in the United States under the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Its over 35,000 active members and over 500 affiliated clubs make USPSA the largest practical shooting organization in the United States and the second largest region within IPSC after the Russian Federation of Practical Shooting. USPSA publishes a monthly member magazine called Front Sight.
Michael Christopher Tilley is a professional shooter and USPSA Grand Master. He is also known for competing in the second season of History Channel's marksmen competition Top Shot.
Athena Lee is a competition shooter and USPSA Master. She is also known for competing in the second season of History Channel's marksmen competition Top Shot.
Multigun, Multi Gun or Multi-Gun, often also called 2-Gun or 3-Gun depending on the types of firearms used, are practical shooting events where each of the stages require the competitor to use a combination of handguns, rifles, and/or shotguns Multigun has a lot in common with ordinary IPSC/ USPSA single gun matches, and matches generally have courses of fire where the shooter must move through different stages and engage targets in a variety of different positions.
The USPSA Handgun Championships are yearly championships held by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) run under USPSA-rules. Sometimes, all of the pistol nationals are held at the same time, other years, they have been broken up between different ranges. In order to attend one of the pistol nationals, a competitor usually has to win a "slot", usually by placing well enough at various regional and Area Championship matches held throughout the year.
The USPSA Multigun Championship, formerly called the 3-Gun Nationals, are yearly multigun championships held by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA). The Multigun Championship is always held at a separate range and date from the pistol nationals USPSA Handgun Championship and IPSC US Handgun Championship. Currently, anyone can participate in the Multigun Championship on a first-come, first-served basis.
The IPSC US Handgun Championship are yearly IPSC level 3 matches held by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) run under IPSC-rules. Sometimes, all of the pistol IPSC nationals are held at the same time, other years, they have been broken up between different ranges. In order to attend the nationals a competitor usually has to win a "slot" by placing well enough at various regional and Area Championship matches held throughout the year.
The IPSC European Shotgun Championship is an IPSC level 4 championship hosted every third year in Europe.
The 1976 IPSC Handgun World Shoot II held in Berndorf, Salzburg, Austria was the second IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and was won by Jan Foss of Norway in front of Ray Chapman of United States by a small margin. Foss had been unknown before the championship and did not participate internationally afterwards.
The 1977 IPSC Handgun World Shoot III was held in Salisbury, Rhodesia at the end of August, and was the third IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and was won by Dave Westerhout in front of his Rhodesian teammate and second-place winner Peter Maunder by 116.403 points and third-place winner Raul Walters of United States with further 41.741 points.
The 1981 IPSC Handgun World Shoot V held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was the fifth IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and was won by Ross Seyfried of United States, using a relatively stock firearm compared to the highly tuned firearms of many other shooters. Well known in the U.S., Ross had previously won the 1978 U.S. National Championship, and was member of the US National Team who placed second in the previous 1979 World Shoot. The 1981 championship showed the Americans return with a vengeance when both Ross Seyfried took the individual World Title and the US National Team took gold in the team classification.
The 1988 IPSC Handgun World Shoot VIII held in Caracas, Venezuela was the eighth IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and was won by Ross Seyfried of the United States.
The 1991 Individual World Championship was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was won by John Dixon of USA. The championship was boycotted by several shooters and not widely publicized. There were no team awards, and the championship was called an Individual Championship in distinction to the regular IPSC World Shoot title.
The 1993 IPSC Handgun World Shoot X held in Bisley, England was the 10th IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and consisted of 5 days with 34 stages, teams from over 27 countries and much rain. The competition had been divided into the Open, Standard and Modified divisions. The Standard division was won by Ted Bonnet of United States, the Modified division by Robert Buntschu of Switzerland and the Open division by Matthew McLearn of United States. Born in Nova Scotia, Mclearn had moved to the U.S. five years prior the world championship to pursue gunsmithing training and advance in the competitive arena. Right before winning the World Shoot he also placed first in the U.S. IPSC Handgun Nationals.
The 1996 IPSC Handgun World Shoot XI held in Brazilian Army Barracks, Brasília, Brazil was the 11th IPSC Handgun World Shoot. The event had 609 competitors, teams from 31 nations and consisted of 35 stages. The Open division was won by Todd Jarrett, while the Standard division once again was won by Ted Bonnet of USA. Todd Jarret from Virginia had established himself as a major player before the event, having placed in the top four of the US Nationals every year since 1990 except one. According to himself he had trained well before the World Shoot in Brazil, and was quoted saying "It's really amazing, the harder I work, the luckier I get."
The 1999 IPSC Handgun World Shoot XII held in Cebu, Philippines was the 12th IPSC Handgun World Shoot. Eric Grauffel of France became Open World Champion, Pavel Jasansky of the Czech Republic became Modified World Champion and Michael Voigt of the United States took the Standard World Champion title.
The 2002 IPSC Handgun World Shoot XIII held in Pietersburg, South Africa was the 13th IPSC Handgun World Shoot.
The 2014 IPSC Handgun World Shoot XVII held at the Universal Shooting Academy in Frostproof, Florida, United States, was the 17th IPSC Handgun World Shoot.
Ben Stoeger 
Eric Grauffel (9 times)
2022 IPSC Handgun World Shoot 
