Shooting School

Although I enjoy going to the shooting range, I typically last no more than an hour or so before I'm either bored or my arms get sore from holding the weight of the gun. So, I was a bit apprehensive before we went to shooting school. I didn't really know what to expect from spending four long days shooting.

After working late on Wednesday I got home and had done almost nothing to prepare for the trip. Needless to say, it was a pretty late night. Although we originally had about 8 or 9 people who wanted to go with us, by the time it came time to register, all but one had dropped off. Terry, a friend of 'Chung's did come with us though.

We left fairly early on Thursday morning and spent the whole day driving to Nevada. The shooting school was about an hour away from Las Vegas.

By far, the highlight of the drive there was a little stop we made at the Alien Fresh Jerky in Baker, CA where there actually were clean restrooms (as advertised), delicious jerky and dried fruit, and tons of silly alien paraphernalia.

We got into Pahrump, NV around 10pm and were all pretty exhausted. Thank goodness for late-night buffets. The hotel/casino had great food which we took advantage of all week. The next morning, class started at 7 am, but we didn't actually get out to the range until around 9.




The program consisted of a variety of lectures as well as various shooting drills. It was amazing to see people's gun-handling skills improve even over the course of a few hours. Day one, we learned the safety basics...always assume the weapon is loaded, finger off the trigger, don't cover anything with the muzzle that you don't want to destroy, and know your target and what's behind it. We then learned how to properly draw from the holster, check the weapon's condition, load and unload, and how to shoot accurately using sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control. We also did a lot of dry practicing that day and only shot about 50 rounds.





There were several interesting lectures that day. One focused on how to avoid being in a situation where you'd have to use a gun, primarily through your level of awareness. Another discussed legal issues surrounding defending oneself with a gun. Another was given by a former police officer from Kern County who had several personal stories to tell regarding people's general paranoia about guns. This one was particularly good, because it really highlighted the fact that we're often given the impression by politicians and others that a gun can jump up and shoot itself. This officer was taking a community college class and people were uncomfortable with the fact that he was carrying a weapon. A gun in the holster won't shoot...it won't hurt anyone unless the person carrying it decides to. That said, it was surprising to me on the first day to see some of the poor habits of many people. There were people in our class who were ex-military or police and should have gun-handling training. Yet many times they were the ones being careless.

By the end of day two, I was exhausted. Probably a combination of long days in the sun and not a lot of rest combined with the fairly fast pace of the class (though the whole time the instructors were great about helping each person to work at his own pace). As a resident of California, one of the only disappointments about this class was the constant assumption by the instructors that you'd always have a weapon handy. In many states it is very easy to obtain a permit to carry a handgun. Not California, and especially not the Bay area. Even though the class was geared towards beginners, we were overloaded with material to absorb with each new skill set building on the previous. Keeping up was hard work. As the class progressed, the instructors corrected problems and ramped up the speed of the shooting exercises.





Day three was probably the most fun as we were given an introduction to "tactical movement". We watched a demonstration about how to move with a gun around corners, in hallways, and through doors, and then it was our turn to try. They had set up several tactical scenarios for us to deal with. Essentially, they had us "defend" a house from some bad guys (paper targets) and we had to go through the rooms, clear each room and shoot only bad guys (no innocents or hostages). This gave us a chance to put all of our lessons into practice. This was also the longest day with over 9 hours spent on the range including a night shoot where we learned to shoot in the dark with a flashlight.

By the last day I was completely drained and sore from head to toe, but there was a sense of accomplishment that went along with it and it was worthwhile.

The last drill of the class was to "save a hostage". We each took three shots at the right and three at the left. My target is pictured on the left.

We spent the last night in Las Vegas before driving home on Tuesday. I hate Vegas.

I wish everyone would and could take a class like this if not only to learn safe gun-handling procedures.