So way back on my birthday, I asked for a gift certificate to a pistol course. It has been in my mind for a long time that as a small single woman living alone I want to own and safely handle a gun. Not just that, but I think that everyone should be able to safely pick up a gun and know how to safely handle it regardless of if you are going to fire it or not. Also, I want to be able to carry a gun concealed if I ever need to.
Well my parents got me a gift certificate to Paradise Sales, a local gun shop that runs a really good pistol course. Way way back when I called them to set it up but then my sister and brother-in-law wanted to come too so I had to cancel and reschedule for a class that still had three openings. That ended up being the class this month. Honestly it kind of crept up on me. I thought it was this coming weekend instead of last weekend so I was not prepared when they called me to confirm. I feel extremely unorganized right now and it is wreaking havoc for me. Living out of boxes for months on end is very hard.
Anyway, so the course lasts about 25 hours over the weekend starting on Friday night. It is designed for people who know nothing about guns to come in and learn about pistols from the bottom up. You learn the parts and how both a revolver and semi-auto work. You learn about ammo. You learn about how to handle a gun. There is a section about law too. Then you are fitted for a gun if you don't already have one.
I knew I needed a fairly small gun because I have small hands. So I first got fitted with a Bersa Thunder. Very cool gun. But I found out that I have a hard time shooting it as a double action, which is what they want you to practice with. The Bersa was just this side of being too big for my hand so I had to reach for the double action trigger. Then because I have a bad trigger finger from a bad break as a child, it got really stiff after a while. My finger doesn't straighten real well and it doesn't curl all the way down very well either. So after a while of dry firing the double action my finger started to tighten up. It made it curl just right naturally that my finger kept resting inside of the trigger guard, which is a big no in handgun safety. So I needed a gun that had a little bit of an easier trigger for me to handle. I went down to a SIG 238.
We spent all of Sunday at the Cactus Flats range down south. So much fun. We started the day doing a round robin, where you fire all these different types of handguns, rifles and shotguns. A lot of the handguns are too big for my hands to shoot as a main gun but it was a lot of fun. I do prefer the semi-autos to the revolvers. The rifles were a lot of fun too, especially the AK-47. I also shot all the shotguns. They had a 10, 12 and 20. Most of the women my size shot from the hip on the bigger shotguns but I think they're so much fun that I shot from the shoulder. They weren't that bad. The one I had the most trouble with were the flint-lock rifles. I shot them very last and my arms were already killing me. Those suckers are heavy but a lot of fun. And I hit the gong, which was satifying.
After the round robin we spent the second half of the day shooting our own chosen guns. I really really like the SIG 238. I am fast on my trigger pull so I tend to jerk down just a bit because I have a hard time slowly squeezing my bad trigger finger. So that is something I will have to really practice. Hopefully with a lot of practice my finger strength will get better and I'll actually have better use of the finger. It was a really great time and they have you work one on one with an instructor the whole time so you really learn a lot. At the very end of the day we all shot for our concealed carry qualifications. I qualified with flying colors. So now this coming Friday we're going to take the test and after that I can go to the Sheriff's office and get my concealed carry permit. After that I'm going to buy my first gun.
I think I am going to come out of this with three guns total. The SIG 238 for my carry gun, a bigger 22 for my target gun and a shotgun for my home. This could get really expensive really fast.
This is the SIG 238 I want. Pretty pretty!
Anyway, don't mess with me because pretty soon I can have a gun on me.
Good times!
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