Iron Plate Action Shooting

Iron plate action shooting or I.P.A.S, is the action shooting discipline, designed specifically for the multi shot Co2 and Air cartridge pistols and is a different form of “speed shooting”.  

IPAS is good for clubs wanting to shoot rapid fire pistol within limited space and with range equipment that’s easy to construct, set up and clear away/store, it also is appealing to the phyiscaly disabled as there is no movement required other than to draw the pistol.

IPAS was started in 2000 as an alternative to the ‘Steel Challenge’ after the legislative loss of 'real' guns'. Competitions involve the shooting of several stages where five steel plates either 10" or 12" or 12”x18” and set out at varying ranges and different but challenging layouts need to be hit and each sequence is timed. Each stage is shot 5 times and the slowest of the times is discarded, the remaining four being your score. It's fast, it's furious and most of all, it's fun.

 The discipline relies on two basic principles: accuracy and speed.

Pistols and Ammunition

For IPAS competitions the following pistols are allowed:

• Cloned Co2 – these are replicas of centre fire pistols that are powered by a CO2 cartridge. CO2 guns use a disposable cylinder, a ‘powerlet’, that is purchased pre-filled with 12 grams of liquefied carbon dioxide.
• T.A.C - these are multi-shot air guns based on the Brocock Air Cartridge System, which uses a pre-charged, single shot air cartridge (similar in size to a .38 Special cartridge).
• The following pistols are not allowed: Target pistols, Single shot air pistols, Airsoft pistols and BB firing pistols.
• The ammunition allowed is standard lead-based air pellets; no steel based pellets or BB’s are permitted. This is to ensure that the pellet is destroyed on impact with the steel plate.

Ranges and Targets

Ranges comprise various distances and layouts. There are currently 70+ official IPAS stages that can be used.

The targets comprise metal plates, the following sizes and quantities are used for IPAS:

a) 10” x 10” Squares,

b) 12” x 12” Squares, and

c) 12” x 18” Rectangles.  

Each plate is mounted on a 2-inch square long post, held upright in a suitable base, the posts being of various heights: from 18” to 66” in 6” increments allowing for a vast number of stages.

All plates are painted white Apart from the ‘Stop’ plate which is blue or red and mounted on its respective post via a metal threaded stud affixed to the rear surface of the plate, alternately a bolt through the centre of the plate (offset on the rectangular plates)

Equipment

The main equipment is Holsters. All holsters must be mounted in the vicinity of the strong side hip, at waist level. All holsters must retain the pistol. Triggers may not be fully exposed with any holster.

No camouflage or paramilitary style clothing or clothing with offensive slogans to be worn.

Competitions

Each course of fire will consist of between two and five plates, (one of which will be a "stop plate"), competitors are started by a shot timer’s “beep” and it will record the last shot fired by the competitor.

The plate distances will vary between a minimum of 5m and a maximum of 25m from the designated shooting box. Plate angles will also vary depending on the course of fire and range space limitations.  

Unless specified in the course briefing all primary plates may be engaged in any order (the stop plate is always engaged last). The competitor may fire as many rounds as they deem necessary to complete the course of fire.