Training – NRA Basic Pistol 11/11/2012

 

I originally planned for a full weekend of Defensive Pistol I & II this weekend – no takers.  Yet, enough interest in a NRA Basic Pistol course to spend the day at the range.  Honestly, the weather turned to crap – heavy rain, windy and cold – 30s at our outdoor range.  Winter must be coming.  Kinda glad we did just the Basic Pistol!

Still, Michael, Tim, Jennifer, Ashley, Beth, Fred and Lisa braved the weather and spent the day with me learning a new skill set.  What great folks, kept their head in the game all day and did a great job on the range.  For a couple, it was their first experience.

Lessons Learned:

• Dress for the weather.  While I had rain gear, warm clothing underneath - a couple had light hoodies, no rain gear.  A person starts to “rattle” pretty damn quick in the kind of weather we had today.
• Weather means squat – the bad guys will come at you any time.  Keep your focus, do it right, stick to the basics – and all will be well.  Regardless of their dress, every shooter did this and were successful on their 25 round course of fire.
• Bring a boo-boo kit.  Jennifer caught a thumb in the slide of the Ruger 22/45.  Bled nicely!  Still, another opportunity for a lesson.  Weather, rain, cold and injury can throw a shooter off their game.  Slow down.  Re-focus.  Stick to your business – in this case, clean the wound and apply a band-aid.
• Try new things.  One young lady called and was concerned about shooting in front of folks she didn’t now.  She was afraid the would look foolish and do poorly – she needn’t have worried, she did great! 

It was a good day.  Nice and warm inside during the classroom portion – wet, windy and colder than crap on the range.  “If it ain’t rainin’, we ain’t trainin’” as they say.  A fine time was had by all!

Congrats to Tim, Lisa, Fred, Beth, Michael, Ashley and Jennifer!  Great job!!!

Update 11/14/12:  I completed the “class video” the other day and posted it under “Photos” on the company website.  I thought I would put a link here as well.  It’s LONG – sorry, but how do you tell a person “sorry, your time on the range didn’t count"!”, so I included everything.  There are a couple of things to notice.

Weather:  Yes, that sound that sounds like heavy rain on a tin roof is . . . well . . . . actually heavy rain on a tin roof!  And yes, that is our breath you see – it was in the upper 30s, low 40s, nice training day. 

Boo-boo kit:  Bring them!  You will see a “range repair” at about the 14 min. mark if you want to fast forward. 

Gun Cleaning:  At the 17 min mark you will see my walk-through of how to clean a DA revolver and a Glock 17.  Nothing tricky, just FYI.

NRA BP 11/11/2012