Our flight home was uneventful, although delayed by 30 minutes. Now I have to deal with the backlog of work emails, laundry, putting away the luggage, etc.
I’ll bet no one covered much for you while you were gone.
You got that right! When someone tried to schedule a meeting without looking at my calendar, it got rejected. Instead of finding someone else, they just postponed it a week or two.
Teh Happy Couple are having a mini-moon in the mountains outside of Asheville, NC. They’re flying home on Wednesday. They’ll take a second mini-moon after the West Coast wedding.
I found myself extra tired last night, so I just stayed asleep until about now. According to my fitbit, I haven’t slept all that long. It feels like I’ve been asleep for all that long. It really feels like long though.
So my firearms class. Day 1 was remote -- a 4-hour thing extolling the virtues of the training institute, safety regulations, what to expect, and a host of other topics that could have been summed up in half that amount of time. Even Mrs Sven was nodding off and making snide comments and she rarely does that. It didn’t set the right tone for Sunday.
So this was a basic handgun course at a private part of an outdoor range. Twenty people in the class that included five women. We were the oldest ones there -- the youngest was 25. A couple of first time shooters. Motivation for attending: at least half were there because they had either been crime victims or were worried about becoming that. Another handful were prepping for CCW and the rest were taking it as a prerequisite for more advanced courses. They were running two other classes that day, they have four large ranges all to themselves and it was fairly crowded.
The instructor, a good guy that ran it well, lectured for about an hour covering the basics. Then on to the range for about an hour of holster-draw practice and live shooting at paper targets at 7 yards. In addition to the lead instructor, there were 3-5 assistants. Really good instructors, not just knowing what they were talking about, but patient, friendly, encouraging, and willing to spend as much time as a student needed. Questions were welcomed and answered. Did I f*ck up? More than once. Nothing on the safety side, but I wasn’t as familiar as I should have been with my pistol and the holstering-draw steps were unfamiliar.
After lunch, it was steel targets at a variety of ranges including 50 yards. They worked with each student and kept them on the line until they were able to hit at that distance at least once. Back to paper targets -- speed drills and reloads at 4 and 7 yards.
I picked up more than a few tips and corrections on my grip -- my biggest problems are with followthrough and shot anticipation. That’s on me with lack of practice. I think I’ve got a decent stance now and a grip that I can rely on.
So Day 2 exceeded my expectations and I’m glad I went. I need to put in some range time and work on my basics and make dry fire practice a regular thing.
Thank you for sharing this. I assume you are using a semiauto?
Something I found useful for dry fire practice both for myself and teaching Elena was Lasergrip lasers. They help show where the gun is moving as you pull the trigger through and help train your muscles to bring the gun on target. I found after much work it was surprising how quickly you could swing on target and have the hammer fall just as the laser dot came on target. This was not aiming with the laser but using it to indicate point of aim and movement during trigger pull. This was mostly with double action revolvers so it took a good grip with a lot of practice and a proper trigger pull, straight back. Any pulling to the side or jerking the trigger showed as the dot danced. Swinging the gun up (or down as in recovering from recoil) and having it click just as the dot came on target was confidence inspiring. I had developed a very strong grip so while the gun rose in recoil it did not move in my hand so I could just swing it down and the gun went off as it came on target. One caution you probably already know, never load it right after a practice session. I have read of people shooting wall plates or appliances this way as the reflexes kicked in.
You training sounds extensive. I don’t think I ever worked past 25 yards with a handgun and I have not given much practice to reloading drills. I am not a big fan of the “tactical” reload but I probably should do a bit more than I have. I use revolvers, SA/DA autos, SA autos, and DAO autos, but I mostly carry revolvers (S&W J or K frames) or DAO autos (Kahr CW40 normally), so the trigger action is similar. I used to prefer SA autos but I find as I get older I am less comfortable with cocked and locked, and DA actions have improved. My Sig 239 has such a good DA pull I would be OK with it as DAO and it is not a precock. My Beretta 92 is also good but my hands are a bit small for best control of DA on a double stack magazine pistol.
Happy Monday morning oopsies!, Gerbil Nation!
Our flight home was uneventful, although delayed by 30 minutes. Now I have to deal with the backlog of work emails, laundry, putting away the luggage, etc.
I am glad to see you are home safely.
Thanks, Mac! It’s good to be home!
glad you made it back safe and sound.
No free lunch, eh Paddy? I’ll bet no one covered much for you while you were gone. Where are the happy couple honeymooning?
You got that right! When someone tried to schedule a meeting without looking at my calendar, it got rejected. Instead of finding someone else, they just postponed it a week or two.
Teh Happy Couple are having a mini-moon in the mountains outside of Asheville, NC. They’re flying home on Wednesday. They’ll take a second mini-moon after the West Coast wedding.
I found myself extra tired last night, so I just stayed asleep until about now. According to my fitbit, I haven’t slept all that long. It feels like I’ve been asleep for all that long. It really feels like long though.
It’s weird.
Hopefully it was at least a good sleep, Dv8.
Greetings, GN. A lot of grunt work for me today.
I love this band still.
So my firearms class. Day 1 was remote -- a 4-hour thing extolling the virtues of the training institute, safety regulations, what to expect, and a host of other topics that could have been summed up in half that amount of time. Even Mrs Sven was nodding off and making snide comments and she rarely does that. It didn’t set the right tone for Sunday.
So this was a basic handgun course at a private part of an outdoor range. Twenty people in the class that included five women. We were the oldest ones there -- the youngest was 25. A couple of first time shooters. Motivation for attending: at least half were there because they had either been crime victims or were worried about becoming that. Another handful were prepping for CCW and the rest were taking it as a prerequisite for more advanced courses. They were running two other classes that day, they have four large ranges all to themselves and it was fairly crowded.
The instructor, a good guy that ran it well, lectured for about an hour covering the basics. Then on to the range for about an hour of holster-draw practice and live shooting at paper targets at 7 yards. In addition to the lead instructor, there were 3-5 assistants. Really good instructors, not just knowing what they were talking about, but patient, friendly, encouraging, and willing to spend as much time as a student needed. Questions were welcomed and answered. Did I f*ck up? More than once. Nothing on the safety side, but I wasn’t as familiar as I should have been with my pistol and the holstering-draw steps were unfamiliar.
After lunch, it was steel targets at a variety of ranges including 50 yards. They worked with each student and kept them on the line until they were able to hit at that distance at least once. Back to paper targets -- speed drills and reloads at 4 and 7 yards.
I picked up more than a few tips and corrections on my grip -- my biggest problems are with followthrough and shot anticipation. That’s on me with lack of practice. I think I’ve got a decent stance now and a grip that I can rely on.
So Day 2 exceeded my expectations and I’m glad I went. I need to put in some range time and work on my basics and make dry fire practice a regular thing.
Thank you for sharing this. I assume you are using a semiauto?
Something I found useful for dry fire practice both for myself and teaching Elena was Lasergrip lasers. They help show where the gun is moving as you pull the trigger through and help train your muscles to bring the gun on target. I found after much work it was surprising how quickly you could swing on target and have the hammer fall just as the laser dot came on target. This was not aiming with the laser but using it to indicate point of aim and movement during trigger pull. This was mostly with double action revolvers so it took a good grip with a lot of practice and a proper trigger pull, straight back. Any pulling to the side or jerking the trigger showed as the dot danced. Swinging the gun up (or down as in recovering from recoil) and having it click just as the dot came on target was confidence inspiring. I had developed a very strong grip so while the gun rose in recoil it did not move in my hand so I could just swing it down and the gun went off as it came on target. One caution you probably already know, never load it right after a practice session. I have read of people shooting wall plates or appliances this way as the reflexes kicked in.
You training sounds extensive. I don’t think I ever worked past 25 yards with a handgun and I have not given much practice to reloading drills. I am not a big fan of the “tactical” reload but I probably should do a bit more than I have. I use revolvers, SA/DA autos, SA autos, and DAO autos, but I mostly carry revolvers (S&W J or K frames) or DAO autos (Kahr CW40 normally), so the trigger action is similar. I used to prefer SA autos but I find as I get older I am less comfortable with cocked and locked, and DA actions have improved. My Sig 239 has such a good DA pull I would be OK with it as DAO and it is not a precock. My Beretta 92 is also good but my hands are a bit small for best control of DA on a double stack magazine pistol.