Relative Beginner's Training

[Spats McGee]

I'm one of those guys that has always advocated getting: (1) as much training as you can afford; (2) as much training as you can squeeze into your schedule; but would not make training mandatory for firearms ownership or concealed carry licenses. Over the last few years, I've done my CHCL course, been to a couple of matches, and visited the range. In reality, all of that is less training than I should have had, though. Neither my finances nor my schedule have permitted me to get much honest-to-goodness, bought-and-paid-for training. However, as a district court prosecutor, municipal attorney, and one of the guys who defends our police officers from federal lawsuits, there are some perks that go with the job. One of those perks is access to the police department range and, equally important, access to our SWAT training personnel.

To make a long story short, last week, I am scheduled for a couple of hours on the local police range tomorrow and anticipate working with one of our SWAT trainers for that time. My tentative plan is to 'splain to the trainer just to begin at the beginning, as it were. In addition to shootin', I'm planning on asking him about clearing malfunctions and reloading under stress. In the future, I plan to make more time to take advantage of our trainers' expertise & that range, but can y'all think of any other critical items that I should be asking in a relative beginner's training session?

[jrothWA]

Nice to have 'perks" like that.

As a average joe shooter, I found that bowling pin shoots are great training aids, as you get immediate reaction: aka pin slide back away and drops off table or flops down and SPINS around from bad placement. Also for loading for next table, I keep eyes on the table and feel the speedloader / mag into the sidearm in use.

If a pistol malfunction occurs keep eyes on table and do the Jeff Cooper slap the mag into frame and rack slide back and continue firing, if not cleared then you are DONE!

If you need a sixth (J- frame)/seventh shot form your revolver, you're DONE!

[Spats McGee]

Yeah, it is lucky. I should probably be embarrassed that I haven't taken better advantage of free training, but better late than never, I suppose. I'll post a follow-up as to what I got to work on & how that went later, maybe over the weekend.

[I'vebeenduped]

ENVY!!!!!!!!

^^Notice the color!

[Spats McGee]

I have had my day, and am now completely zenned out about the world. There's nothing like a little "worship at the Church of Flying Brass" to put things in perspective.

I didn't get to shoot the tactical range, because some officers were there, preparing for qualifiers, I think. So it was straight down, lane-type shooting at 25, 15, 11 and 7 yards. I wound up going through ~130 rounds.

Things I learned:
1) My pistol does not like cheap mags. They'll work, but they're definitely more prone to malfunctions. In defense of my cheap mags, I had some trouble getting them seated, so I consider that to be user error, and I did have one stoppage with my good mags, but only one.

2) After 100 rounds or so, I got tired, and it showed.

3) I asked the trainer about my form, which he said was fine.

4) We faced with the sun at about 2:00 (if straight in front of me was 12), and semi-late afternoon. After a while, that and my fatigue made it hard to focus on the front sight, and that showed, too.

All in all, my shooting was satisfactory, but not spectacular. It's definitely worth it to go back, though. The trainer was one heck of a nice guy, and patient with me.

[Buzzcook]

The more the better. Have fun.

[KO3422]

Sounds like you had a good time. Thank you for sharing.

It's always interesting how fatigued one gets in a class type environment. The combination of environment, weather, mental pressure, and physicality definitely can wear on a person. At the end of the day, the classes I have been in, you can tell our brains were soaked up with knowledge and body language just showed how exhausted we all were. The ironic thing is that is when accidents happen and we had to stay as sharp as possible.

[Spats McGee]

I have deleted a couple of posts that amounted to little more than bickering, and added little to the thread.

[jrz_dad]

Thank you for the insight...been looking to attend one of these myself

[Newton24b]

how is a lawyer who defends police from lawsuits, getting special training from the local swat team to be considered free? free for him yes, not for the tax payers who are funding the range and paying the public employees on the police department to teach him how to shoot.
and the fact that its not what us mere civvies get without going to gunsite is another issue that may get brought up fast.

[Spats McGee]

Yes, free for me. The range was there, and whatever fixed costs are attached to it will be incurred whether I'm there or not. I am only allowed to go during hours when the trainer is already there, expected to finish by the time his shift is over, and not permitted to disrupt other police training. I shot my own ammo, too, btw. IOW, I incur no additional costs by going.

[redhologram]

I think it's great you have the opportunity to do that and are finally able to get the time to take advantage of the valuable resource.
Definitely make use of it, you have worked hard for what you do, and the fact that you probably make a few enemies along the way in your position, it makes sense that you get all the training you can.
Enjoy!
~