Intro to Handguns Class...

As we head down the road leading to our becoming a "handgun owner family", I felt our first step was to sign up for a basic class on handguns. I've shot handguns a few times, but most of my shooting experience has been deer rifles and bird/turkey hunting with a shotgun. Nancy previously had NO handgun shooting experience. So, I signed us up at our local "Bullet Trap" indoor shooting range for their "Introduction To Handguns" class. The class is scheduled as a 3 hour event, with approximately the first hour spent in a classroom setting as shown below.

In this lecture portion, the certified instructor gives an overview of firearms safety, grip, stance, sight picture, trigger squeeze, how ammunition works and different types of handguns. The basic differences between a revolver versus a semi-automatic handgun was also explained.

Once the lecture portion concluded, the twelve of us were then taken into the firing range area. There were 5 lanes segregated from the general population for use by the class. I did not take any pictures inside the range, as we were asked not to do so (a flash going off might startle someone or whatever...). But, our range exercise consisted of firing 5 rounds of ammunition through each of 16 different handguns. The guns used were as follows, and the order listed is the order in which we fired them:

22 Long Rifle:

S&W Mod 41 (semi-auto)
Kimber Rimfire (semi-auto)

Ruger MK III (semi-auto)

Taurus 94 (revolver)

S&W Mod 617 (revolver)

.38 Special: (all revolvers)

Ruger SP101

Ruger GP100

S&W Mod 686

S&W 620

S&W Mod 10

9mm: (all semi-auto)

Springfield XDM 3.8"

Glock 19

Baby Eagle

S&W M&P 9

Beretta 92FS

.45 ACP:

Night Hawk Custom .45 ACP (semi-auto)


I did think to grab this target for posterity. Most of the holes in this target were there already when I came to this shooting lane to shoot the 9mm Springfield XDM 3.8". I picked a spot on the upper left hand area of the paper target where some fine print was printed and shot that area. I put all 5 rounds within a bulls-eye diameter! (I think I did just about as good with the Glock 19, but I didn't think to retrieve that target...)

The final gun we shot this night was the Night Hawk Custom .45 ACP. We took turns one at a time with this gun, and as each person (or couple) completed their shots, the double target paper was retrieved and handed over as a souvenir. Here is how I did:

And here is how Nancy did:

We are apparently a "low shooting" family, but we are consistent! When we finished and the instructor retrieved our target, he said "nobody better try and break into this couples house!"

It was fun, and a good experience.

Tom