Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports where 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 amount of time. While scoring systems vary between organizations, each measures the time of 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 varies between shooters.
Robert Jennings Leatham is a professional shooter who is a 24-time USPSA National champion and 7-time International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) World Champion.
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.
Simon "J.J." Racaza is a Filipino-American sport shooter who took silver in the Open division at the 2011 IPSC Handgun World Shoot and silver in the Production division at the 2014 Handgun World Shoot. He was also the number one qualifier of the US Gold Team for the 2010 ISSF World Shooting Championships. In 2010, Racaza competed in season one of History Channel's Top Shot marksmanship competition, finishing in third place.
Tori M. Nonaka is an American sport shooter with two IPSC Handgun World Shoot silver medals in the Standard division Lady category. She was one of three members of Team GLOCK. She grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia, where she began shooting at age 3. At age 12, Tori attended the US Shooting Academy, which sparked her interest in becoming a professional shooter and led her to begin shooting competitively. On March 2, 2011, GLOCK, Inc announced that 15-year-old Tori would be a member of Team GLOCK Shooting Squad. In March 2017 Tori went independent and left Team Glock. She was replaced by Ashley Rheuark.
Éric Grauffel is a French sport pistol shooter in IPSC and firearms instructor with eight overall IPSC Handgun World Champion titles and one Junior World Champion title. Eric Grauffel is also the co-initiator of the EG-CZ Academy which is a training facility based in Quimper. He is known for having an unprecedented winning streak, and has won several hundreds IPSC President Medals. Additionally he has won the IPSC European Handgun Championships nine times. He is the son of the French national team trainer Gérard Grauffel.
Julie Goloski Golob is an American professional sport shooter with one gold (2017 Lady Classic and two silver medals, one bronze medal and seven Ladies Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship gold medals. She also has 2 US IPSC Nationals Lady titles and 13 USPSA Handgun Nationals Lady titles, and is one of two seven Division USPSA National Champion in history.
Robert "Bob" Gordon Vogel is a professional marksman, competition shooter, and National/World champion. He is the only Law Enforcement Officer ever to win World and National Championships in the Practical Pistol Disciplines of IPSC and USPSA.
Jessie Harrison, formerly known as Jessie Duff, is an American sport shooter from McDonough, Georgia who took silver in the Open division Lady category at the 2017 IPSC Handgun World Shoot in Châteauroux, France and bronze at the 2011 IPSC Handgun World Shoot at Rhodes, Greece. In the IPSC US Handgun Championship she took gold in the Open division Lady category in 2015 and silver in 2013. She also has 16 USPSA Handgun Championship Lady category gold medals.
The IPSC Handgun World Shoot is the highest level handgun match within the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) which consists of several days and at least 30 separate courses of fire. The Handgun World Shoots are held triennially on a rotational cycle with the other two main IPSC disciplines Rifle and Shotgun.
Maxient John Jr. Michel is an action shooting competitor from the US. He became IPSC Handgun World Champion in the Open division in 2014. He is also the only seven-time winner of the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships and the only competitor to win it 4 times in a row. Max began shooting when he was just 5 years old, and has served in the U.S. Army for 10 years as a shooter and trainer. He is also featured on the Hot Shots TV series, and is sponsored by SIG Sauer. Max uses a highly modified Sig Sauer P320 tuned specifically for him by The Sig Armorer.
BJ Norris is an American sport shooter who in the 2005 IPSC Handgun World Shoot took silver in the Open division Junior category. He started shooting competitively in USPSA late in 2000 at age 11, and became really serious about shooting in the 2005 season. Besides being known as an IPSC/ USPSA shooter, he is also well known for his Steel Challenge participation where he became World Champion in 2011.
Benjamin Thomas Stoeger is an American competition shooter and firearms instructor who started competing actively in 2005. He placed first in the 2017 IPSC Handgun World Shoot, second behind Bob Vogel in the 2011 IPSC Handgun World Shoot, and placed third in the 2014 IPSC Handgun World Shoot behind Eric Grauffel and Simon "JJ" Racaza. He is also three time IPSC US Handgun Production Champion, eight time USPSA Handgun Production Champion.
Daniel Horner is an American sport shooter and firearms instructor who placed fourth in the Production division at the 2008 IPSC Handgun World Shoot. He shoots varied action shooting competitions with an emphasis on multigun, and is a 10-time USPSA Multigun Champion in the Tactical division. Horner competed for the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit from 2005 to 2018, when he joined Team SIG Sauer.
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 Brasilia, Brazil was the 11th IPSC Handgun World Shoot. The match 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."
Shane Coley is an American practical sport shooter who took overall silver at the 2014 IPSC Handgun World Shoot in the Handgun Open division. Shane started shooting in 2005 at the age of 14, and in 2009 he became a part of the United States Army Marksmanship Unit. In 2012 he became the overall USPSA Handgun Nationals Open division champion, making him the youngest USPSA National Champion after KC Eusebio.
Ronald E. Avery was an American sport shooter and firearms instructor who took bronze in the Standard division at the 2002 IPSC Handgun World Shoot and bronze in the Standard division Senior category at the 2014 IPSC Handgun World Shoot. He also took the Standard division title in the 2013 IPSC US Handgun Championship and the Limited-10 division title at the 2000 USPSA Handgun Nationals.
Tim Yackley is an American sport shooter who won the 2018 NRA World Shooting Championship, becoming the youngest person to ever win the event. He took bronze in the Standard division Junior category at the 2015 IPSC Shotgun World Shoot in Italy. At the 2017 IPSC Rifle World Shoot he placed 10th overall in the Open division. In June 2018, Yackley competed at the 2018 IPSC Shotgun World Shoot in France, finishing seventh overall in standard and helping Team USA win a team silver medal. Tim was also the Bianchi Cup Junior National Champion for 4 years in a row (2015-2018) and the NRA Action Pistol Junior World Champion in 2018.
Shooting competitions for factory and service firearms refer to a set of shooting disciplines, usually called service rifle, service pistol, production, factory, or stock; where the types of permitted firearms are subject to type approval with few aftermarket modifications permitted. The terms often refer to the restrictions on permitted equipment and modifications rather than the type of match format. The names Service Rifle and Service Pistol stem from that the equipment permitted for these types of competitions traditionally were based on standard issue firearms used by one or several armed forces and civilian versions of these, while the terms production, factory and stock often are applied to more modern disciplines with similar restrictions on equipment classes.
