Range Day Fun

So, yesterday was Basic Pistol 1 and Defensive Pistol Skills 2. Basic Pistol went well, introduced a dozen new shooters to the fun that is shooting. If anything was reinforced it was trigger control trigger control trigger control, After classroom lecture we retired to the range and the plethora of guns for people to try out. Every student that I worked with was able to shoot right on the center of the target when they paid attention to the trigger and a smooth trigger pull. They would make the standard rookie path of the first shot being on target and then pulling shots as they anticipate recoil. Stopping the student, getting them to breath and relax and concentrate on a slow smooth trigger press and they shot the center of the target again. The nearest target we were letting them shoot was 10 yards and there were 8" steel plates at 25 yards and many of them were able to hit the long plates after just 5 rounds or so of getting used to the trigger and recoil. Overall, this was an outstanding class and just goes to show that it really isn't as hard as people like to make it. Pay attention to the important details and you can shoot pretty well right out of the box. This isn't to say anyone can compete at a national level competition but anyone can have the potential to be a great shooter.

DPS2, well, it was HOT HOT HOT! We tried to keep after students to hydrate every time the reloaded mags. Seems to have worked. Got to meet Jay and work with a pretty good group of shooters. We ran a variety of drills and split off shooters for a man on man shoot-off. Jay has a good description of the shoot-off. Overall, lots of good shooting and I have to say excellnt finger discipline. We did a number of advanced drills and there was a number of oportunities for muzzles to be pointed in bad directions and fingers to be on triggers at times that could have caused major safety issues. However, with the class of really good students we never had any issues and everyone did well. Good shooting to go with it as well.

At the end of the day, as we were talking guns as guys tend to do at the range, Jay commented that he had tried an M&P and has a Glock but had never tried a Springfield XD. So, we walked back out to the range and he ran a mag through mine. Besides, I had a mag full of range ammo that needed to be fired before I went home. I think it is Federal Law that you can't leave the range with unfired ammo. Although I can't cite the exact US Code but I'm sure it's in there somewhere.