Atom Smasher
Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2011
- Messages
- 133
I had the most awful experience today. I was completing the safety eval for membership at a local private range. Basically you show up, the guy asks you some questions about the four rules, asks you to get your gun out showing you know safety, and put 10 rounds into an IPDA target at 10 yards.
I manage to answer all his questions about safety, pull my gun case out of my bag and open it so that when I do the muzzle is pointed straight at the guy. The gun was unloaded, slide locked back, but still. :banghead: Apparently any safety violation is an immediate stop to the interview, but you can try again on a different day. He almost stopped the process, but I guess he felt sorry for me and let me continue. I get the gun loaded and ready without further incident, and get ready to fire. He stops me, saying my grip was all sorts of screwed up, and helped me get it together. I was also not indexing my trigger finger properly, (I was holding it over the trigger guard, not above it) and was not pulling the trigger correctly. Apparently me taking my time and pulling my trigger finger completely off the trigger was considered bad form. At the end of it he waffled on whether I hit all 10 shots (I put them all into center mass, there were just doubles), but mercifully let me pass and said to show up for the 3-hour entrance class.
I felt like I knew a few things before this, but came out like I had never handled a gun before, completely shaken in my confidence. I don't know why, but this guy's pity killed me. I'm not even sure I want to join anymore. I mean, it'd drop my range fee costs down to nothing, compared to the expensive indoor range, but I'm now afraid I'm going to show up and get chewed out on all of the minor details I'm missing in my education. At the indoor range as long as you follow the four rules, nobody cares.
I dunno, I just feel really stupid. I know I screwed up, but I think I would've preferred just getting booted than let through because the guy was nice. And are private ranges all that anyway?
I manage to answer all his questions about safety, pull my gun case out of my bag and open it so that when I do the muzzle is pointed straight at the guy. The gun was unloaded, slide locked back, but still. :banghead: Apparently any safety violation is an immediate stop to the interview, but you can try again on a different day. He almost stopped the process, but I guess he felt sorry for me and let me continue. I get the gun loaded and ready without further incident, and get ready to fire. He stops me, saying my grip was all sorts of screwed up, and helped me get it together. I was also not indexing my trigger finger properly, (I was holding it over the trigger guard, not above it) and was not pulling the trigger correctly. Apparently me taking my time and pulling my trigger finger completely off the trigger was considered bad form. At the end of it he waffled on whether I hit all 10 shots (I put them all into center mass, there were just doubles), but mercifully let me pass and said to show up for the 3-hour entrance class.
I felt like I knew a few things before this, but came out like I had never handled a gun before, completely shaken in my confidence. I don't know why, but this guy's pity killed me. I'm not even sure I want to join anymore. I mean, it'd drop my range fee costs down to nothing, compared to the expensive indoor range, but I'm now afraid I'm going to show up and get chewed out on all of the minor details I'm missing in my education. At the indoor range as long as you follow the four rules, nobody cares.
I dunno, I just feel really stupid. I know I screwed up, but I think I would've preferred just getting booted than let through because the guy was nice. And are private ranges all that anyway?