My problem isn't with competition, it's with competitors.
Not like that.
I mean the attitude some of them have. I enjoy the shooting and being around others who like to shoot. Last time I went to a "competition" it was in the Army. Made the mistake of trying to talk to the guys on either side of me on the firing line - not while firing, but after the cease fire on a stage when we were standing there with the 1911A1's on a table by us waiting for the next stage. One of them just ignored me and the other one got pissed off at me and told me to shut up because he needed silence in order to concentrate. Not sure how you get silence on a firing line of a shooting range. Not sure how you'll find a place/spot when you need to put shooting skills to use where it's calm/quiet/no distractions. I spent an afternoon thinking how odd people can be.
Usually you show some targets. Was this the gun you pulled out of the safe after several years or a new build/caliber?
The mental game is extremely important to those of us who strive to be competitive as far as our abilities will take us. Visualization is an extremely important part of the mental game (or mental management as Steve Anderson describes his system). Visualization can't be done when someone is trying to talk to the person doing the visualization.
That's what you ran into. The guy who ignored you was probably trying to give you the hint that he didn't want to be bothered at that particular moment with the least amount of distraction to himself (by talking to you). The guy who was rude was rude, but who knows how many times had he been interrupted before.......
If you had approached them after their task/relay/string was done you probably would have gotten a much different reception.
People attend shooting matches with all kinds of motivations. There are those who go to just burn some rounds and be social with zero interest in improving their performance. And there are those who go with the full intention of being as competitive as possible, but also know that they need a little downtime during their stage/relay.
In my sport of choice (practical pistol shooting), I'll periodically get away from everyone in the squad and spend a minute or so visualizing my stage plan, then rejoin the group to talk, paste targets, etc. When I'm "in the hole" (down two spots away from shooting) I'll stop resetting/retaping targets, I'll stop interacting with anyone, and will be alone with my thoughts and visualization. When I'm done shooting, I'll immediately go to my range bag to manage my ammo and take care of any gear issues (cleaning mags/optic/glasses/etc). Then I'll go back to being social and helping reset the range.
