The art of shooting can be traced back as far as the middle ages but it wasn't until the 19th century that shooting really developed into a sport.

In the 200 years since, shooters have come together in a variety of organizations, at the local, national, and world levels, to practice, perfect, and perpetuate the shooting sports.

Competitive IPSC-style shooting developed in southern California in the late 1950's and quickly spread throughout the shooting world to Australia, Central and South America, Europe, and Southern Africa.

As the sport attracted greater interest, the participants sought a more structured competition environment. As a result, in May of 1976, the International Pistol Conference was held in Colombia, Missouri where sportsmen from around the world participated in determining the structure, organization, and future of IPSC marksmanship. A constitution was established and the Confederation was born.

Accuracy, power, and speed were recognized as the quintessential elements and have become the foundation of IPSC shooting. The Latin motto Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas (DVC) meaning accuracy, power, and speed was introduced to reflect these balanced elements. Range procedures and rules for competitions, as well as safe gun handling standards, were also adopted.

At the conclusion of the Columbia conference, the International Practical Shooting Confederation was officially formed. Colonel Jeff Cooper, who acted as chairman of the conference, was elected the first IPSC world president.

IPSC shooting represents a new, exciting form of sport shooting and was established to promote, maintain, and advance practical marksmanship.

Under the direction of five presidents, the organization has established no fewer than eighty-five active Regions (countries) around the world from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Since 1975, fifteen (Level V) World Championships have been held and a much greater number of (Level IV) Continental Championships.

IPSC shooters must blend accuracy, power, and speed into a winning combination. Handgun targets are 57 centimeters by 45 centimeters with a 15 centimeter center representing the "A zone" or bullseye.

Most shooting takes place at relatively close distances, with rare shots out to 50 meters. Hitting a 15 centimeter zone might seem easy to an experienced pistol shooter, but in IPSC only full power handguns are used (9mm or larger).

Mastering a full power handgun is considerably more difficult than shooting a light recoiling target pistol, especially when the competitor is trying to go as fast as possible. Time is a key factor. Scores are divided by the time taken to achieve them, adding to the challenge.

IPSC shooters may enter any one of five Divisions depending on the style of firearm they use. The IPSC Divisions are: Open, Standard, Production Modified and Revolver.

Unlike bullseye and all other traditional forms of target shooting, the stages shot in practical shooting matches are different each time - different ranges, numbers of targets and target arrays. This requires competitors to be diverse in their training so that they can handle any shooting challenge presented by the match designers. At any given match a shooter may be required to shoot targets 2 meters away in one stage of the event, and 50 meters away in the next. Sometimes the targets are paper, sometimes they are steel. Often penalty targets are placed near "shoot" targets to increase the degree of difficulty. Points are subtracted from a shooter's score for hitting these "no-shoot" targets.

IPSC Shooting may be done from freestyle, strong hand, weak hand, prone, or from any other imaginable position, depending on the course of fire. Since your score is the total points on the targets divided by the elapsed time for each stage, the shooters strive to find the best combination of accuracy, speed, and power to win. In addition to shooting while stationary, proficient IPSC shooters will shoot while moving through stages in order to save time.