[CDRODA396]

I use the weak hand/support hand over the top for several reasons, most already stated here...
-works regardless of gun, hand size, right/left handed.
-can clear very difficult jams by pushing forward with the strong hand, opposite the rearward pull of the weak/support hand.
-gross motor skill, easy to do under stress.
-once your weak hand releases the slide, your strong hand is moving towards presentation if needed to continue engagement.
-when releasing from the slide release, you lose with some guns up to a quarter of an inch of rearward travel fo the slide, therefore you are not maximizing the spring weight that the gun was designed to reliably chamber rounds under.

Before I say this, yes, you can do this for years and not have a problem, but it doesnt change the fact that releasing the slide with the slide stop places huge shear forces on the slide stop which wears on it, and can break it...no, doesnt happen alot, but it does happen.

I started shooting USPSA (the IPSC sanctioned governing body in the US) about a year ago after I retired and Uncle Sam wasnt funding my shooting anymore. It does NOT replace tactical training/shooting, but it can be a useful tool. The stress comes from the clock and competition, but YOU DO NOT have to leave your tactics at the gate and play solely by their techniques. In fact out on Range 14, you will see many duty guns, thigh holsters and blackhawk nylon three mag, mag pouches, the very ones you'll see at Bagram or Bagdad.

IDPA was founded to eliminate some of the gamesmanship, and enforces the use of cover, save reloads, etc. Stages are by rulebook mandate designed to replicate "real life" scenarios as much as possible...no "Hoser Stages." It also rewards accuracy over speed, vice USPSA which is inverse. However, you still have to hit the "vital zone" of either target to get any points.

Both are still competitive shooting. And both can be used to augment your training. Both are not far from the Stress Test of the old SOT, and not having gone to SFARTEC, I dont know, but would bet that stress test is similar.

The one thing serious competitive shooters have over most SOF types that I knew on AD or now (I still work at Group as a Civilian), is they establish a practice ethic that I simply didnt see in anyone not shooting weekend matches. I dont know anyone that dry fires daily, does 250 draws a day, etc. Some Team Sergeants would draw pistols one a week, or as "hip pocket training, " but not on the scale the average competitive shooter does. My company had the M9 pellet pistols, and occassionally you would here the tink, tink of pellets hitting the bullet trap. Dave Savigny (or however you spell it...) the Glock Factory USPSA Shooter, does 1000 draws and dry fires a day before he ever fires a shot, and his ammo is free. You simply dont see (or I dont) that kind of dedication to the craft in the Team Rooms.

Finally, most serious USPSA shooters will disable their slide lock to prevent the slide from locking back on an empty magazine. If you are shooting a wide body 1911 (ie. SVI/STI), the mag well is of course monsterous and the magazine is not quite twice as wide as a single stack mag, but close...at the bottom. But at the mouth end, it is the same size as a single stack mag. If you jam a mag into a SVI/STI with the slide locked back during a speed reload, you can easily over-insert the mag, lodging it to far in to allow the slide to go forward and too far to easily remove the mag, and you can break or damage the extractor...and with a lttle practice, you can get very fast without thinking about it, at racking the slide with the weak hand (no, not as fast as with the slide release, but fast). This IS based strickly on gamesmanship, but addresses some comments earlier in the thread.

My nickle and a half, all blasters fire away!