Competition vs. Training
IPSC has evolved to a very exciting and competitive shooting sport. It has also become almost totally worthless as a means of testing your survival skills.
Static training is easily done, at a range or in a sand pit. If you can't afford the time or the small expense of doing this, don't buy a gun in the first place! Dynamic training is done at very low cost with movers, drop-turn targets, and so on. Even lower in cost is to cover decision targets with an old towel, and have a partner pull the towel down at the right moment with an attached string. Or make a hood, have your partner walk you into a decision scenario and remove the hood. But the best dynamic training, by far, is live-fire training with a simulator. These do cost money, though. We are fond of the CAPS system because it's both live-fire and because it costs about what a car does - not about what an airplane does. This is something that a club or agency can easily afford. Finally, interactive training is easily done with airsoft guns. You don't need any special place to train, and the pistols are about $125, properly set-up.
If you are serious about survival training - if that's the reason you are interested in firearms - then move out and up from the range to the next level of training.
