USPSA Carry Optics and PCC Division Equipment Trends

USPSA just released their 2019 Annual of USPSA Magazine (formerly FRONT SITE magazine).  The issue usually is structured as a promotional tool for new shooters, but it also contains an interesting equipment survey results from data gathered at the various USPSA Nationals events.  As I typically shoot both Carry Optics and PCC in USPSA, I focused on these divisions within the survey data, particularly when compared to the survey data from the January 2018 issue of the USPSA annual.

Let’s start by looking at the gun manufacturers and models most represented at the 2018 Nationals:

From this data, we see that SIG Sauer manufactured firearms make up a full 30% of all Carry Optics Firearms that were used at the 2018 USPSA Optics Nationals.  Most of those (26%) were either a P320 of some variety or the competition specific P320 X Five.  The SIG X-Five itself made up 16% of all Carry Optics firearms used at the 2018 USPSA Optics Nationals, making it the single most popular choice among Carry Optics shooters.  For reference, there were a total of 415 competitors at the 2018 USPSA Optics Nationals.

As someone who shoots an X-Five in Carry Optics, I found this data to be interesting for several reasons.  Firstly, I didn’t think the X-Five was quite this popular.  Locally, I’ve only recall one other competitor in the last year using an X-Five.  Secondly, if you would have asked me, I would have guessed that about any other gun out there would be more popular.  I probably would have guessed the Walther Q5 Match, M&P CORE, or Glock MOS would have all been more popular.

Want an even bigger shock?  Check out the same survey data collected just one year prior at the 2017 Optics Nationals :

In 2017, there were 338 competitors at the Carry Optics Nationals.  Smith & Wesson manufactured firearms made up 27% of the division, with various flavors of the M&P making up 20%.  Firearms manufactured by SIG, on the other hand, made up just 12% of manufacturers represented in the division, with the SIG P320 making up 17% of competitors guns.

That’s quite a seismic shift in represented manufactures between 2017 and 2018, in favor of SIG.  CZ and Glock also had better showings year over year, with Walther holding steady at 10%.  Springfield Armory also lost ground in 2018 (not surprising since they don’t make an optics ready model).  But SIG Sauer made a huge increase from 2017 to 2018, seemingly at the expense of S&W.  The question is, why?

One possible explanation might be the fact that Carry Optics is a fairly new division for USPSA, and only recently has transitioned from being “provisional” in status. The division has brought substantial growth to USPSA – fully 39% of Carry Optics shooters at the 2018 match indicated it was their first Nationals match in the survey.  The X-Five is a relatively new model (new in 2017) so there may be some correlation there.  Though why so many shooters (new and otherwise) gravitated toward the X-Five, and all but ignored other firearms that also comes from the factory ready for Carry Optics (like the Walter Q5 Match for example) is a bit of a mystery.  Walther well marketed the Q5 Match (arguably better than SIG with the X-Five) -, particularly within the competitive shooting community.  Even the overblown (IMHO) Drop Safe Debacle in the latter half of 2017 apparently didn’t deter competitive shooters from choosing the X-Five other other options.

SIG also did reasonably well in PCC representation at the 2018 USPSA PCC Nationals.  JP Enterprises and the GMR-13/15 lead the way in both 2017 and 2018 among PCC shooters.  But year over year, JP did slightly worse with 33% of the factory carbines in 2017, vs. 36% in 2018.  SIG, on the other hand, gained ground year over year with 21% of the factory carbines in 2018, up from 16% in 2017.  I also find this a bit surprising given the proliferation of PCC manufactures during 2017 and 2018, and the fact that as of this writing, SIG has only offered a competition dedicated PCC model for a couple of months (well after Nationals 2018).

One should be cautious about arriving at any specific conclusions from this survey data.  The sample size is a very small relative to the overall USPSA population, and may not well represent the “average” USPSA shooter you meet at your local Level I club match.  Still, the survey data is interesting – if for no other reason than it is difficult to fully explain the trends.  As both a SIG X-Five and MPX shooter, the results certainly don’t hurt my feelings.

All images used in this article are the intellectual property of USPSA and republished under educational fair use.