Had a pretty good first day of training at Tactical Response’s Fighting Pistol Class. Its been a while since Ive done any serious shooting, but I think I shot more rounds today than I have in my whole life. Most of it seems to focus on muscle memory, making the correct motions, over and over and over without thinking about it, but at the same time being safe about it. I wish I was able to get more pictures, but for one, my instructor asked that I not take any pictures of him for security reasons (understandable) and for two, there is so much going on, that if you are not paying attention (like being busy taking pictures), you are going to miss something important. I had to grab these two real quick between exercises. Hopefully the instructor will let me have some of the ones he took of me.

Cool things I learned:

– The correct way to draw your weapon, what to do, how to move, before firing
– What to do with my non-drawing hand (if you are not careful you can shoot yourself in the hand)
– Where and when to move my finger
– What trigger reset is, and how to take advantage of it
– Shooting One Handed with either hand
– Correcting Weapon Malfunctions
– Fighting from my back, kneeling, sitting
– Picking up a weapon from the ground and firing
– Proper technique of reloading, when and how
– Correct way to aim. There were a few times I felt the “zone” come in with the aiming, but it only lasted a few seconds each time.

Things I need to work on:

1. Definitely the way I am holding the Glock. Its hard to explain, but I definitely am not nailing it. My fingers are in slightly different positions each time and I am putting this down as something I need to correct asap. Ill be practicing tonight.
2. Muscle Memory- Even though I know what to do, can see the instructor doing it, I still am managing to screw things up.
3. Slowing down- Without question, I unload faster than the other 16 students in the class, and even when I am thinking to slow down, I am not slowing down. Its driving me crazy. Especially with shooting, its so important to get your technique down before going “fast”

Things I did well:
– Overcame the “blinking” problem. I’m pretty comfortable shooting now without blinking at all. (Its a reflex to blink on every shot if you are not aware of it).
– I bought a “Lulu” reloader. Wow…if you have ever loaded a few magazines bare handed…you are going to LOVE this. (They run about $30) but essentially allow you to push the next round down before inserting another. It will save your hands big time.

I can feel blisters forming on my thumb and index finger. It was a very interesting class and I can see I have a lot to practice and work on.