Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The wrong gun & the wrong training?

There must be different types of NRA Instructors. All the ones at our club walk around with all their pretty patches on their vests but never teach anything.

Would have to disagree Hawk... Without getting the fundamentals of any skill down all the practice in the world is useless... It's like a house...you have an inadequate or faulty foundation and one day the house falls down.

Had a guy came to me about midpoint of the shooting part of a BP class. He was probably about 60 and said to me "I've been shooting for over 40 years and I have never shot groups like this in my entire life..." Because he simply kept doing the same thing wrong over and over again... I see it every time I go to the range.

Are there those people who can self teach and get better...absolutely. But they are the minority...

LMFAO!

Here goes, not that any of it will actually make any difference to you. I'm sure you'll have some arbitrary checkbox that I haven't checked that makes all the difference to you.

No, I'm not an NRA instructor. I looked up the course a few minutes ago (http://www.nrainstructors.org/Instr...24B57BFE0A018DDB1CE3Q/TCPistol061517.pdf). It looks like the 16 hour pistol instructor course requires a pre-qualification test. A USPSA "C" classification will suffice, or you have to accumulate 80 points on an evaluation....and you get 30 of those points by successfully loading and unloading. As I said earlier, it's humorous to find that as your litmus test.

As for your questions....

I'm a TCOLE certified instructor and firearms instructor and have been for over 15 years. I currently work as a full time firearms instructor for a large municipal police agency. I have received training in, and practically applied training in the field, as an EMT, in tactical medicine, precision rifle, mid-range carbine, basic and advanced SWAT courses, and I am instructor certified in active shooter response and less lethal munitions.

I am currently the lead instructor for, and developed the curriculum for, the department cadet and in-service pistol training program. I am also in charge of, and developed the curriculum for, our firearm instructor certification program.

Every year I am personally on the range for qualifications for over 1,000 officers. Every year I spend roughly 350 hours on the range assisting in instruction for over 300 students in shotgun and rifle courses.

I've graduated approximately 700 cadets from my (roughly) 60 hour pistol training program and then assisted in instructing them all in another (roughly) 50 hours of tactical training and hands on evaluation exercises.

And I've assisted in the development of the curriculum for, and personally instructed, approximately 1,000 officers in concealed carry.

I'm a Texas LTC instructor and conduct LTC, basic pistol, and church security courses on the side in addition to contracting with other local agencies to assist in their firearms training.

In addition to those basic training courses I also instruct many in-service pistol classes in advanced technique and transition to MRDS and have been contracted as the lead pistol instructor for a federal agency's annual training cycle.

In addition to this formal firearms instruction I am a Master class shooter in both the USPSA and IDPA and have multiple Grand Master classifications in Steel Challenge. Every year (pre-covid) I organize and host the largest law enforcement multigun match in the country and weekly steel challenge matches for approximately 40 shooters from April-September.

***ETA***

I realized in proof reading that I didn't actually answer this question.... We work 4-10s, so I'd estimate 150 classes per year, if you count a day as one class. Many of our courses are a week long.



_______________________________________

So no, I'm not NRA certified.

But mastering the art of accurately firing a pistol and learning how to teach that skill to other people isn't something I dabble in. It's not something I almost did one time for some guy, or helped with a few times a year or on the weekends.

Shooting is essentially all I do. Every day I drive to work at a gun range. Standing on a range instructing people in firearms and their practical application in the field is what I do every day. I've conservatively estimated that I personally watch over 500,000 rounds a year fired on the range.

And none of that has to matter to you. But you can take your sanctimonious "what have you done" and shove it, because you're not the only guy around who's ever taught somebody how to shoot.

I'm a bit jaded.

You dont win the Kentucky Derby on a donkey with a whip.

Fundamentals and speed training are both important.....if you are good enough, accurate enough, and fast enough to shoot all the horses you could win it.

Well, at least now Bob knows...

But really, you would think that in all that shooting, Blue would take the time to get Wayne LaPierre's stamp of approval on his instructorship. lol

So, back to the original post and subject.....

Lots of proponents of semi-autos for a defensive weapon for new and inexperienced users. Lots of "get with the new technology son!" remarks or inferences. For those of you who are proponents, is the main reason cartridge capacity?

It's what the new shooters want.

No acknowledgement of Blue's bonafides?

LOL

I don't give a ph uck about his bonafides, or yours, so unless you've got something meaningful to contribute, which you rarely do on pretty much any subject on this forum - just snarky comments to appear cool to your posse of pogues - go choke yourself on a carton of milk or something.

And your point is?
I'm just glad it got under your skin enough that you pissed away all that time in your life that you will never get back typing up your resume in that dik measuring contest.

That's exactly how I expected that to go.

Fixed it for you.

He actually might know a thing or two about the subject at hand.

The thing about Clarke is that he's probably a contraption ace (the ones that never jam) but he can sling a DA wheelie better than most.

He wont publically admit it, but he's a 44 Special slut of the first order.

Blue...thank you for the time you took to describe exactly what you do...

And I am very sorry if I came across as "sanctimonious" but since leaving Texas where firearms training was taken seriously and had really good instructors, I have become very jaded because of what I have seen in this state as to LE training.

You make light of the NRA pre-instructor qualifier...there are many LE instructors in this state who if told to report to the range and do it cold would fail both the gun handling exercise and qualifier... Because an NRA Pistol instructor has to be able to deal with all types of firearms they don't just load and unload their own gun...when I ran it they would demonstrate with:
Semi-Auto:
SA
DA
DAO
Safe-Action

Revolver:
Two different makes

Single Action Revolver:
Original Colt style
New Ruger Transfer Bar Safety System

Most LEOs now don't even know what a revolver is...

And in this state at least that is better than the Police Standards and Training incoming per-instructor course qualifier...because there isn't one.

For many decades there was no incoming qualification...come in, do the course and bless you you are a firearms instructor. Then a new guy took over and instituted a pre-course qualifier...I believe passing was 90%. From what I was told 10-30% of the candidates were washed out every class before the first hour was up. And there was a standard to pass before graduation...no pass, no certificate. New commandant takes over a few years later...replaces the CI and puts someone else in and the next instructor class starts with.."well we know you all know how to shoot so there is no more pre-course qualification" and no exit qualifier either... I can't make his chit up...my imagination isn't that good... Things may have changed as a new commandant took over early this year..but I haven't heard anything different.

Again thank you for your time...it sounds like you are doing a great job and having a great time doing it...

And it's nice to know who I'm arguing with.


Bob

Anyone with a brain should have deduced as much from your posts here over time.
It was obvious that you knew the subject matter

What does this actually mean? Were you a member, did you teach them or you had a member as a coach when you went to SAFS at Camp Perry? Enquiring minds want to know.

He'd have to have one before he could measure it.