The first part of the class was book information and discussion. We had to show that we had Basic Pistol knowledge, but Jon Marhoefer was the instructor, and he vouched for our abilities. Ken and I have done a lot of shooting at the Club, and while we never actually took the Basic Pistol Class, Jon said it was obvious to him that we had "skills."
I was actually worried about taking this class. I haven't been shooting other than a little here and there, and with my hand issues, I was really nervous about being able to be proficient on the range.
As it turns out, I really didn't have too much to be worried about. I know that shooting is a lot like language skills - it's perishable. If you don't use it, you lose it. However, with the course being slower to start, I remembered a lot of the ideas and training, and I was able to do very well even from concealment. I also made the decision to use the Sig Sauer P239 which I don't often carry. I thought about using my Kahr since I carry it all the time, but for this course, the Kahr seemed like a bad choice.
By Saturday night, I was completely sore and miserable. My hands were numb, and my arms ached. By this morning, I was still in pain, and I felt like I would vomit from the pain. I was really surprised when I got out there this evening, and I was able to shoot at all!
The first day was considered the Basic class and the second day was the Advanced. The second day consisted of not only going over what we learned yesterday, but also making everything more fluid and quicker. We also got into low-level light and night shooting. Now, I was really glad that I had the Sig - NIGHT SIGHTS!
Jon went over the various types of flashlights and the different ways to hold them. I instinctively went to the Harry's method. Ken played with different methods, but Harry's was definitely best for me. The FBI method outright sucks - you're completely off balance, and there's no support for your shooting hand. Yuck.
Ken was amazing the entire time. He gets out and shoots far more than I do, but he's just naturally awesome. I was happy with myself by the end of the class. I didn't do anything stupid, I had a couple moments where I missed the expressed target, but I made them up, and I didn't have to be corrected on the range. Ken said that he was really proud of me, and Jon stated that I had "handled the Sig 239 like a pro." Yay!
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