Biggest "surprise" at your CCW class

[Gouranga]

When I took it, I for one found my CCW class extremely informative. Tons of information particularly legal that I did not know.

Of all the things we did, probably the biggest surprise were the last 5 rounds we fired for qualification. As our instructor indicated the percentage of attacks that occur at <4 ft, he had us set up the target at 3 ft and shoot 1 handed at chest level. I had not practiced that shot at all previously. I had to say, I did very poorly on the first 2 rounds (hit very low with the first and low to the right the second). They were the worst shots I took during the entire qualification by far.

Really opened my eyes to the need to expand my training beyond the standard I had been doing up till that time.

Anyone else have any "surprises" such as this in their CCW class? Be it the shooting or just classroom learning your absolutely were clueless on?

 

[COgunner]

That the number of grains on the label of a box of handgun ammo (ie, 230 grain .45 acp) was the weight of the powder charge and an indicator of how powerful the round was.:banghead:

She made several other factual errors. Obviously not impressed with the quality of this particular NRA-certified instructor.

 

[kingpin008]

COgunner - why the emphasis on "she"?

Are we to take it as some sort of expectation you have for females to know less about guns than males?

 

[Resto Guy]

When I took my course there was only one other person taking it that day. He was in the military and also worked security at the Federal Courthouse. He was carrying a .40 cal. Sig P229, and I carried my trusty stainless 4" Rossi M851. A bit bulky for concealed carry, but reliable and accurate at the range.
The instructor, a deputy Sheriff, finished the classrooom portion and had us drive to the nearby range. We were told to bring 50 rounds of ammo, and he had us shoot side by side, 5 rounds for each of the 10 man-sized targets. We shot slow fire for 9 targets, two hand, rt. hand, lt. hand, etc. Both of us had excellent shot placement. On the last set of 5 shots he told us to shoot as fast we could, and this time mix the shots. He said 2 COM, 1 head, 2 COM.
GO!
After the smoke cleared, the instructor told me to finish. I told him I was. He said I had one round left, go ahead and fire.
"Okay, but my target has 5 holes."
Click.
The instructor stepped closer from behind and said to me "Damn, you shot faster than he did"!
Both of us were given a 100 score for the entire course.
That "made my day'!

 

[mikewayde]

Gouranga - What state if you don't mind?

 

[Erik M]

In the state of Kentucky a sheriffs deputy can carry concealed for the rest of thier lives, but a Sheriff loses his ability to do so as soon as he leaves office.

Ex-Sheriff of my county was there to qualify at the range.

 

[TheProf]

Biggest surprise at my CCW class? Hmmm.....the "criminal-looking" element taking the class. I actually said to my self, "That's the reason why I need to carry..."

(Yes...even the bad guys, without prior arrests, apply for CCW.... that's more reason why the GOOD guys need to.)

"criminal looking element" = it's a combination of factors...no set "profile"...but you know it when you see it.

 

[Strahley]

Mine was the guy who was sitting next to me. Tall scrawny guy with shaky hands. Had never shot a gun in his life, and of course his first gun was a Glock 27 with a CT laser grip (you can probably already see the first problem!). A few points of interest...

*The instructors passed out snap caps to make sure we could load a magazine, chamber a round, eject a round/clear the gun. He forgot his little speed loader at home, so we had to load the snap caps for him

*Horrible gun handling. Finger was always on the trigger (he managed to pull it all the way at one point), muzzle was all over the place. We had to teach him the golden rules on the spot, so he did get better...

*Out at the range, this guy's laser was going all over the place. He looked VERY scared of his gun, and his shooting showed it. You could see him nose diving into every shot to try and make up for the recoil. We even saw him shoot somebody else's target at one point

*His hands were bloody after shooting just 20 rounds. His grip was so bad, the slide was eating his skin away

*His target looked like someone was trying to pattern buckshot at 25 yards with an 18" smooth bore shotgun

Now, I'm all for people wanting to defend themselves and take the steps to get a CCL. But come on, at least take a basic gun course first! Also, a sub-compact .40 S&W was about the last gun this guy should have been shooting for a first timer

 

[Quoheleth]

My instructor showed a student his empty gun before demonstrating something to the class. He explained he now does this, having a 2nd person verify an empty gun before continuing, because he once "knew" his gun was empty and fired a live round through a plexiglass window, 6" from his wife's head.

The bullet hole is still in the plexi, and you could see the bullet hole in the exterior wall.

Q

 

[konfederate.kowboy]

Biggest suprise is when he call me up in front of the class and handed me a 1911 that he stove piped with dummy snap caps and ask me to clear it and reload a new mag of snap caps and stop his forwarding attack in front of the class needless to say I did it faster then I feared even the istrutor was suprised that I still stopped him a few feet infront of me

 

[Two Cold Soakers]

I was surprised that the retired police chief they had come in and "tell us the law" admitted that he ordered his officers to bully and intimidate people who were lawfully exercising their right to open carry.

 

[Gouranga]

Gouranga - What state if you don't mind?

North Carolina.

 

[armoredman]

My first CCW class was in 94, when AZ finally got CCW. Class taught me nothing, BUT one of my classmates was a naturalized US citizen from Russia, and he was wearing a 5.45x39mm gold plated cartridge on a neckchain. Turned out he was in the Soviet Army same time I was in the US Navy, and we thought it quite nice we ended up shooting together, instead of at each other.

 

[Erik M]

Something else that popped into memory was how many of the individuals there had bought new guns for the occasion. I would estimate 15 of the 20 or so people in the class brought a new pistol to the class still in the factory tupperware. It would never have crossed my mind while I was there but the instructor actully noticed and asked who had a new weapon with them to raise thier hand. Very unconventional guns there that day. I saw a long slide glock, and immaculate Colt Diamondback, and a guy who planned on carrying two of the palm sized .22mag revolvers, one in each front pocket.

 

[Phydeaux642]

I was horrified with how poorly most of the folks taking the class shot their weapons. It's seven yards for crying out loud, and a large percentage of them could barely keep their shots on that huge target. They were looking at me like I was some kind of freak because my twenty shots went into a hole about the size of your fist. I basically thought that that was just passable shooting as I don't consider myself to be a crack shot at all.

It scared me to think that these people were willing to carry a gun concealed without really being very proficient at shooting it.

I was surprised that the retired police chief they had come in and "tell us the law" admitted that he ordered his officers to bully and intimidate people who were lawfully exercising their right to open carry.

That's messed up.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

No surprises. We aren't required to take a CCW class.

 

[Impureclient]

We aren't required to take a CCW class.

Showoff

 

[kingmt]

The best info I took away with me was a idea of putting my hand inside of a brown paper bag while holding my gun would look like I was carrying my lunch. Now if I could ever figure out when this information would be helpful.

The biggest surprise would ether be when he took us down stairs & handed me a .22 with about a 7" or 8" barrel & a round that was propelled by primer only (I had to ask if that came out of the barrel) or the fact that I just gave him $200 for me & my wife to waste 4 hours of our time.

 

[TheProf]

+1 on seeing shooters with obviously very little skill at the CCW class. Now, I'm all for gun rights....but these people do pose a risk...if they CCW and don't improve their skills.

They should make the "marksmanship" and safe weapon handling requirement more stringent. Safe CCW holders is good for the 2A cause. It is bad weapons handling that give antis ammunition against us.

 

[HGUNHNTR]

No class necessary in Georgia either. There are some great websites that help support the new ccw'er though.

 

[COgunner]

COgunner - why the emphasis on "she"?

Are we to take it as some sort of expectation you have for females to know less about guns than males?

As a general rule, yes (there are obviously exceptions). Sadly, my classroom experience with her reinforced those expectations.

 

[wishin]

No surprises. We aren't required to take a CCW class.

We aren't either, but I do think it's a good requirement when done properly, especially after reading some of the posts here.

 

[AWDeanSR]

Took my class last November. My biggest surprise was NC's laws covering legal concealed carry. e.g. Not allowed to carry in a state of emergency...can't have your weapon in pick up/ drop off line at schools.


Other than that, the age of the members of my class. I was 35, most everyone else there was north of 50

 

[Gouranga]

Ditto on the ability of the shooters there. I bought my CCW weapon (for the class) about 2 months before I took the class and ran 600+ round through it before I went to the class. Turns out I was the second best shot there (which is scary), behind a WOMAN who should have been trying out for an army sniper school. This woman was sick with how accurate she was.

We had multiple folks there with weapons that had not been fired in YEARS. Go figure we had a number of jams from those weapons, including one that simply would not fire any round put into it. Oh and one dude who tried to load 9mm ammo into a 45. Kept trying to put them in the clip, kept popping out, It was funny, the instructor must have said 10 times, "The state says you only need to hit the target with 15 out of the 35 rounds to be considered proficient. I tend to disagree with that statement but that's the law.".

He had a good point there though. Said "15% of round fired by law enforcement hit the intended target and the have to qualify at 90% every 6 months. So if they do that and hit 15% what is someone that can only hit 15 out of 35 going to do?"

 

[230therapy]

The biggest surprise was the large number of people who justified their poor shooting instead of addressing it. They simply failed to practice correctly and frequently enough to be able to hit Texas DPS target (which is the size of a 500 pound man). One guy's excuse: "My Ruger heats up and throws them off target." I was very pleased to see a very old lady out there shooting. She didn't do that well, but the instructors trained her until she passed.

The biggest surprise of the Utah course I was in was the "unloaded gun". Fortunately, the owner of this "unloaded" gun didn't touch the trigger and managed to keep it pointed in a safe direction.