\marksmanship
2010.10.17Better results while standing, but I won't use the Ruger again

Today I shot the Ruger .22 pistol, while my shooting buddy took the Buck Mark. The Ruger jammed twice — I was advised it's prone to jamming with ten cartridges in the clip. Apparently it's happiest with five cartridges in its clip that can hold 15 or so. The good news is my groups were all tight — and I shot better in the standing position — but were still low and left. Easing up on the trigger helped to correct that.

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2010.10.16Going shooting tomorrow

I think it's kinda nice that bonds appear to have formed among certain members of the firearm safety class. A bunch of us from the course are going to meet tomorrow where we took the class to spend a little quality time with some targets.

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2010.10.10NRA Basic Pistol Course Completion

I decided to take a pistol course at a local facility. I did it because it had been years since I'd handled a firearm — I do not own one — and thought it would be a good thing to get knowledgeable about and comfortable with them (I've a dear friend who shoots and I've never felt comfortable going out to the range with him); and because, quite frankly, I wanted to do something constructive that would get me out of the house for a while. That is, someplace that is not a restaurant, and without the Kindle.

I felt the course was very worthwhile. The staff was outstanding; we were trained and tested on nearly all aspects of basic pistol selection, safety, maintenance, aiming and firing. For the first two days we received presentation after presentation about just about everything, and held, dry-fired, and cleaned the pistols. We didn't actually step into the range until our final day (this morning).

I would wholeheartedly recommend this class to anyone who doesn't feel comfortable with handling a pistol. Advanced training courses are available, and I'm considering attending their concealed pistol license (CPL) training at the end of the month — encouragement comes in the form of my new refrigerator art: two official targets punctured in a very tight groupings (a photo of one of them may currently appear in the margin at left). Considering I hadn't shot in 20 years, I'm pretty satisfied.

In the class, we practiced on 9mm Glock pistols, but on the range, we shot .22 cal Browning Buck Marks. Shooting the Buck Mark was fun, but I think I'd like to shoot a Glock 19 like the one I favored as we practiced. We also practiced with Glock 26's, but I felt the pistol was too short for me — the 26 uses the clip to extend the grip (the manufacturer's promotional material refers to this model as the "Baby Glock").

I met some good people in class, and we exchanged contact information for getting together to shoot. I think this is something I'd like to do every now and again to practice what I've learned.

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