class today...
 

I had C&C class today. It ended up being almost 10 hours long. It was great. My Instructor was really good..We went over different styles of guns , how bullets are made and different ammo types. We learned the laws. That was OK except for some awful video the state of NC put out that most Instructors show their classes and we had to watch... I scored a 95 on the written test..Then we hit the range. I did really well with my little 38 special...The gloves helped a lot We shot both right and left handed and shot 50 rounds. Then I got a chance to shoot another students really neat old gun.. It was a 45. I think it was a browning. Im not sure exactly but it shot like a dream.. The only problem I had today was it was the first time I shot with other people next to me and the noise did unnerve me but I worked around it.

Here is my score from the range.. My Instructor friend was really proud of how well I did considering I started training with him with no experience and downright terrified of guns only two months ago..
Now I want a bigger gun.. :banana:

Re: C&C class today...
 

Now you're hooked! Congrats.

Re: C&C class today...
 

Good job! Congrats! :ok:

Re: C&C class today...
 

avalon, do you think your gun is too light? The weight might help.

Re: C&C class today...
 

Nice shootin'...bancha

Re: C&C class today...
 

My gun is very light. I bought it because its a great carry gun that I was comfortable with. It is not a fun gun to shoot and never will be. The new grips and gloves helped though.. The other gun I shot today was a fun gun.. The browning 45?? It was very heavy, had very little recoil and felt like a Royals Royce compared to my 38.. I want one.. but I think it was a very expensive gun so unless gold go ballistic i wont be getting one..

I think this might be the gun I liked so much
http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/M1911A1.htm

Re: C&C class today...
 

Good job, Avalon!

Here are some links I've connected, largely dealing with the 642. I left the other stuff in this list as well. I particularly enjoyed the thread marked "642 club" as there are tons of posts with tons of information.

For example, I think it was this thread that told me about how you can "stage" the 642 before shooting it. That is where you learn to pull the trigger back most of the way, but not all of the way such that it is pretty much as if you cocked it (like a revolver with a hammer). Once you have staged it, you can fire it as accurately as if it was double action cocked. Be sure to practice with an empty gun, lol...

http://www.snubnose.info/docs/m642.htm

http://consumermaven.wordpress.com/2...n-trace-grips/

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/w...-1&isFirearm=Y
***
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...0/ai_112646113
14-ounce revolver launches a 158-grain +P .38 Special lead hollowpoint
PocketHolster:
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...d.php?t=247939

642 Club thread:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...=138658&page=4

Making the J-frame snub work:
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/M...ame%20Work.htm

j-frame grips
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/G...J%20Frames.htm
---
Page 25 of the club:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...138658&page=25

DOG BROTHERS: hoot hoot!!
http://dogbrothers.com/store/product...16c511cb0f6271

DLO 1 & 2: hooty hoot!!
http://dogbrothers.com/store/product...16c511cb0f6271

GRIP I ORDERED:
https://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/...nt_category_rn=

Jeff Cooper's PistolCraft Series: COOL!
http://www.paladin-press.com/product/94/24

Re: C&C class today...
 

Great!!!!

Congrats...

Liked the .45? thats good!

Next we will hear you stepping up....?

Again congrats !

Re: C&C class today...
 

Nice target. I bet that rascal wished he stayed home today. Congrats!

Re: C&C class today...
 

Awesome Avalon! Once you're bitten there's no turning back. :)

Re: C&C class today...
 

Ill bet he did wish he had stayed home. One of shots missed would have been a direct groin shot.. :shine:

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For a 1911 type pistol just keep your eyes peeled when you go to the gunshops, sometimes good deals just pop up. I have lucked into two used 1911s over the last couple years for $200 each. BTW good shooting!

Re: C&C class today...
 

good job Avalon!

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Not bad Avalon! All those would just about be kill shotz on your average person, and ALL of them would hurt like hell.

Now, make sure you find a good holster for that .38 there (i dont recomend purse carry). If its too uncomfortable, youll fall into the trap most CCW people get into, they simply just stop wearing it as much once the "cool I can carry a gun" phase wears off.

Re: C&C class today...
 

Congratulations Avalon. LOL, fun isn't it? That sounds like a browning Hi Power. Are you sure it wasn't a 9mm?

John Browning developed the 1911 .45 too, maybe that was it, but they don't call it a Browning usually. You're doing well. :23_28_100s:

Re: C&C class today...
 

Hey Avalon,

I've done quite a bit of range of shooting, and people shooting near me does throw off my concentration when making shots. Mainly because you don't know when they're going to shoot. The other day I had a couple of them just blasting away wildly and that is quite annoying, you just have to get used to it over time.

Your horizontal sight alignment is quite good there. What distance was the target?

The vertical issue is either vertical sight alignment or pulling the muzzle down with the trigger.

Re: C&C class today...
 

Aahhh, another soul has been taken over by John Browning's masterpiece.

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yep... it was sweet... :36_3_13:

Re: C&C class today...
 

Good job. I wonder what other gun was that you were shooting.
Browning makes fine firearms but I don't believe they make a .45 cal. The Browining Hi Power is a fine gun that comes in 9mm or .40 cal. 9mm would probably be best for a beginner. They are very expensive and I've heard that they only make them every couple of years as the demand is not that high for this firearm. There's nothing wrong with the gun but it's more of a niche gun at this time. It may be hard to find the model you like. Other companies make a copy of the Hi Power. I just sold a .40 cal Hi Power that I had for about 10 years. It was a good gun but I was looking for something new. Used Hi Powers are sellling for about $600 in my area and the new ones (if they have any) are around $900. One warning about the Hi Power. I will say that the recoil spring was so heavy that my wife could not rack the slide on my .40 cal Hi Power (It's easier on the 9mm version). Also the serations used for gripping the slide were very shallow and did not offer a good grip when trying to rack the slide. Overall it was a very good gun though. They come with a magazine safety that prevents you from firing the weapon without a mag. inserted. I never really cared for that feature. To each his own though.
Now if you are looking for a M1911 style .45 (often called a Colt .45 automatic) then the sky is the limit. There's probably over 20 different manufacturers that make this weapon and they are often better than Colt's version. They also make this weapon in different calibers such as 9mm and .40 cal. My wife has a Kimber Stainless Target II in 9mm. It looks just like the .45's but holds 9 rnds, has less recoil and the ammo is much cheaper. Of course the stopping power is also less but this is a good choice for her.
Good luck with your next purchase.

Re: C&C class today...
 

Hey Shades I was looking at my sheet to try and figure it out.. I was wrong. I missed 3 out of the 50 ... :favorites21:
The sheet is a little confusing. I think we did 15 ft then 25 ft and then 33 ft.. Ill double check on that. We did the one handed shooting at 15 ft.

Im surprised I did as well as I did. I have never shoot with other people before. The guy on the far left was very quick to fire on command. The young girl on my right couldn't hit the target and scared the hell out of me. Every time she shot I jumped.. The ear muffs helped a lot and so did the gloves.. That 38 ate my hands without gloves...

Re: C&C class today...
 

Your gun is plenty big. For variety, you should consider a nice auto. 9mm glock or XD will shoot perfectly as the 45 you experienced.

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Ill find out for sure..Im going back today to get help cleaning my gun for the first time.. Its a mess!!! I had no idea they got so dirty..

Ill let you know but I am pretty sure it was 45 because we were talking about what ammo each of us was using that day.. He said it was an older gun and they were used for Service revolvers for a long time....
The only thing is it did jam one time when the owner fired it. I dont like that. That's why I picked a revolver for my first gun. One of the first times I shot we had a delayed round on the semi automatic and it scared the hell out of me. The bullet took probably about 5 extra seconds to fire. I thought I was out of bullets and it went bam.. Fortunately he had trained me to keep the gun pointed in target for a while after firing. He said it was rare but happens

Re: C&C class today...
 

I shot the Instructor 9mm.. I hated it. It wasn't a glock though.. Not sure what it was.. A Luger?? It was the only gun I have shot I felt I didn't have control over. It recoiled and would bounce way up.. I only made it thought one magazine.. Ill have to try some other 9mm..

Re: C&C class today...
 

Ah. Cleaning guns, welcome to gunnery! haha!

I shoot coated lead usually, so the barrel tends to stay pretty clean and should help it's lifespan a lot.

Cleaning all the powder gets tedious, there is not much that can be done there, just clean clean clean... :)

It does help the accuracy if you can keep it clean, as you get consistent action in the gun.

I have had one almost squib round. (note I don't load the ammo). The RO came over as he heard it make a pop noise rather than a bang, and I stopped shooting at that point as you're meant to do, but the round had exited the first time. I have shot a couple of rounds I suspect had too much powder in them also... overall, our ammo suppliers are very good.

Never had a .9mm centre-fire round fail to fire at least, so the primers they use on the reloads are awesome, I have to find out what they use, I suspect they might be CCI.

Firing a follow up round with a stuck round in the barrel can (in most cases will) cause the barrel to explode via overpressure. So that is a dangerous condition and why you must stop shooting if something strange like that happens.

A few months back a range pistol barrel exploded on range, and the shooter copped the slide in the face, and had to have some stitches, wasn't too bad, just a cut, but these things happen sometimes. The range pistols do a ridiculous number of rounds, so they need to be retired every so often..

Re: C&C class today...
 

Ill let you know how my first cleaning goes.. Ill probably just watch the first time..
Shades we used all reloads the Instructor had made yesterday.. I could not have shot 50 rounds of even the practice ammo. It beat the hell out of me the day before. The reloads were much gentler but messy..

We are going to shoot some hollow points so I can get a feel for them but not too many..
We talked about squib rounds a lot yesterday.. It really is very scary. It made me realize I need to count my bullets as they fire so I know where I am. The Instructor said you know when you get a squib because it makes a very weird noise.. What happened the day the round delayed was different though. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. I had time to turn and ask the Instructor if I had shoot all my rounds and then it went off.. I was OH SHIT WTF just happened.!!! :bear_w00t:

Re: C&C class today...
 

Squibs and hang fires have caused more than
one pair of shorts or panties to develop smelly
brown spots in them......!

Re: C&C class today...
 

Avalon,
Your NEXT firearm you should consider would be the Rossi M92 carbine (lever action) rifle in .38/357 mag. Get the 16" barrel. You WON'T be disappointed. But in the long run you will probably be swapping that .38 sp revolver for a .357 mag revolver.

Yes, you can still practice with the .38 and then end up each shooting day with at least ONE cylinder full of .357 mag and YES it will recoil more than the .38 sp rounds do. And having the ability to shoot .357 mag is a nice option.

But as with anything in life, the GOOD things take a little more time, a little more attention to detail and a lot more work. But in the end, you have a new skill set that you will enjoy for the rest of your life.

Five years from now, you WILL go to the range just to relax and bring your skill set back up to par.

Assuming we are ALLOWED to still own guns five years from now.

http://www.rossiusa.com/product-deta...eadcrumbseries=

My wife LOVES the one she got...

Re: C&C class today...
 

Don't let it scare you too much. You don't need to count your rounds, just make sure that in the back of your mind you know something went wrong if it sounds funny when you pull the trigger. It is like driving a car. If you hear bad noises coming from the engine, something is wrong, but you don't need to drive around constantly trying to listen for bad noises.

And congrats on the class. You are almost ready for the walmart walk. Here is a map to get you started.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q...rttactical.jpg


Here is a primer on the walmart walk with pictures to help you better understand.
http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulle...l-journey.html

It is a bit of a joke, but mainly a way to encourage first time cc-ers to go into public and realize nobody knows they are armed and nobody cares either.

Re: C&C class today...
 

http://s3.tinypic.com/2pzdx5y_th.jpgAsk Santa to bring you a Dan Wesson CBOB. Bud's says they have one in stock at their Lexington KY store
http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/i...1/17/17999.jpg

Re: C&C class today...
 

All right avalon, but usually when a guy wants a bigger gun he is often accused of p--s envy. I guess a girl can get away with it.
Anyway, welcome to world of packin heat, glad to have you with us.
Pusher

Re: C&C class today...
 

Good shooting!!

you mentioned your gun was a "mess" dirty.....

its common for different loads and/or brands of ammo to have major differences in how much of a "mess" they leave behind due to different powders etc

so try different types of practice ammo


for me i shoot a lot of 9mm and i have found winchester's 9mm to be the dirtyest and fiochi's to be the cleanest with everything else in between.

the dirty part really only pertains to your practice ammo that you shoot alot.....for your carry ammo you want a good hollow point ammo such as Cor-bon or Federal Hydro shock...etc....which is much more expensive ....probably a thousand different opinions on the carry ammo

also for clean practice ammo i like a solid copper fully jacketed ammo to keep things cleaner

Re: C&C class today...
 

Shooting is also a 'perishable' skill I find. I can be very accurate with slow fire, but I struggle with the standard sights on my Glock, which is weird, as I believe I have
20-20 vision, at least the last time I was tested.

If I go for a month without shooting, I come back with bad habits that just destroy my accuracy, I need to go regularly in order to develop the good habits again.

The main ones I find are:

1. Slow fire is good training.
2. Half close left eye to avoid parallax vision issue when looking down sights.
3. Keep head up, lean into the shot slightly. Look down the sights.
4. Good stance, feet just slighly wider apart than shoulders, dominant foot slightly forward for support.
5. Grip fairly tightly, grip quite high on the gun. Use the front trigger guard if possible.
6. Weaver grip or side grip.
7. Squeeze don't pull the trigger, the detonation itself should always come as a bit of a surprise.
8. Use Glock trigger reset.
9. Keep barrel and gun clean.
10. Setup target in well lit area at range so you can see it.
11. Vertical and horizontal sight alignment.
12. Don't come to the range angry, un-fed or brooding about some other issue. It will certainly break your concentration and you won't have any fun.
13. Lock wrists, arms can be locked or partially out.
14. Seat rounds in mag, push them down a little a final time to help the feed.
15. Have fun.

These are just SOME of the things you have to do in order to achieve bulls-eye accuracy. It is very rare I will pull all these together and I usually miss one which
can cause accuracy to go downhill fast.

Only through years of practice can you form all these into subconcious thing that you do when shooting. You can see just how hard it is to hit bulls on a range, imagine
if (God forbid) you were CCW and got into a real gunfight, how accuracy would go down fast. The only thing that can help that is training... If you're better than the other
guy and can follow your drills under such extreme pressure, you will most likely be the one going home alive.

The other day I had a guy blasting away 2 lanes away. Usually people who shoot like that are innaccurate and just the usual spray and pray mob. While reloading I usually check them out and have a chuckle.

Not this guy, he was taking out chunks of paper target and hitting near the bull consistently at 10 yards. That can only be achieved through heaps of practice. Why he didn't change his target more often is a bit beyond me as I'm sure rounds were just sailing through the holes he had made..

I'm considering a laser unit for the .9mm Glock, not to be tacti-cool, but because it may help me sight better and work on a better grip.

Re: C&C class today...
 

He was shooting at the hole in a doughnut, he knew he would'nt miss wide so he just kept track of the hits on the doughnut. Aw doughnut I must be hungry:s1:

Re: C&C class today...
 

A laser can certainly show you how much movement you have in your grip and trigger pull (lot like using high power scope on a short range)(i will use one sometimes dry firing at home to work on grip and trigger control)

it can also be a bit distracting when i use a laser it changes my focal point to the target and i totally lose the iron sights. (which can really help a point and shoot shooter) but sometimes it just feels wrong

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Yeah you're right, that's probably what he was doing. I prefer to see where my rounds land I guess.

Re: C&C class today...
 

that's a good reason to keep to the right side of most new semi-auto shooters too, they often muzzle sweep the firing line to the left trying to make clear or chambering! hopefully the rangemaster spots it early and corrects on the spot. concentrate on what you're doing but do not lose track of those around you. get snap caps and dry fire practice a lot too (remember the 4 rules!). have fun! bancha

Re: C&C class today...
 

Avalon, did RCC train you? He seems like he really has his act together.

Re: C&C class today...
 

yep, he trained me.. he is extremely patient when teaching. He has trained hundreds of students over the last few years between his private and Range classes. I could not have done this without his help..

Next, I want to shoot some rifles!! He was talking about renting the range for the group if we can get enough people to make a commitment.. Im in..

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Fo shizzle. Count me in as well! That would make a great meetup.

:RockOn:

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It will give us something to look forward to in the dead of winter..Maybe
g-pond would like to join us on the range if we can get the details worked out..
..
BTW, your wife is really cute.. You guys are look happy together..

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Where is this?

Re: C&C class today...
 

We've been together for 17 years now, married 13 of it. The honeymoon never ended. She said the same about you as well.

:banana: