International Practical Shooting Confederation
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.
Five of the most famous shooters from the beginning of practical shooting in California during the late 1950s. Left to right: Ray Chapman, Elden Carl, Thell Reed, Jeff Cooper and Jack Weaver. (The sixth "Combat Master", John Plahn, is missing from this photograph.)
A squad of shooters get their stage brief by an IROA Range Officer on stage 11 of the 2017 IPSC Rifle World Shoot in Russia.
A high-speed photography of a .38 Special bullet fired out of a Smith & Wesson Model 686 revolver.
An Open division competitor during a stage in USA.
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.
An Open division competitor during a stage.
These men are five of the "Combat Masters", the most successful shooters during the competitions held at the South Western Combat Pistol League ("SWCPL") at Big Bear Lake, California, during the late 1950s. Left to right: Ray Chapman, Elden Carl, Thell Reed, Jeff Cooper, Jack Weaver. (The sixth "Combat Master", John Plahn, is missing from this photograph.)