I attended a two-day course on Friday and Saturday in Basic Pistol, Defensive Handgun 1 and Defensive Handgun 2.
I was one of 38 students. There were four of us with revolvers.
At the beginning of the course weekend, we all had to check our firearms in with the staff for a safety and function check, as the "basic" course included folks who were borrowing firearms from others to see if this "gun thing" is for them.
So, as I checked in my revolver, a few of the students were looking on and gave me a hard time (in good fun, not being snooty) for only having six shots in my Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt. I just smiled, and continued on, but the lead instructor addressed the whole room and said...
"From this moment on, we're going to keep a tally. There are 34 students here with semi-automatic pistols of all brands, sizes, calibers, and build. I guarantee you that over the course of the weekend, all 34 students will experience a malfunction while going through our drills".
Everyone laughed, but I didn't. I just nodded my head at the instructor, who nodded back at me.
So, we kept a tally - 72 malfunctions, and all 34 semi-auto students had at least one major breakdown. It was windy, and I live in the desert of Washington State, and so it was DIRTY.
There was only one guy who was getting a little nasty citing the reliability of his Glock, and how it would never go down. In the last training run, he had just gone indoors to strip and clean his G19, and then he came back out on the range with a pristine pistol. On his second run through the barrier course, his weapon jammed SEVEN times. The barrier course only required five shots.... so the trainer asked me to take him my revolver, and I did. Of course, it worked.
The trainer then said to the class in our final moments, "Some of you want to consider which is best - having 15+ rounds that MIGHT work, OR.... having six shots that always will.
I was beaming the entire time.
Carry on, ya'll.
I was one of 38 students. There were four of us with revolvers.
At the beginning of the course weekend, we all had to check our firearms in with the staff for a safety and function check, as the "basic" course included folks who were borrowing firearms from others to see if this "gun thing" is for them.
So, as I checked in my revolver, a few of the students were looking on and gave me a hard time (in good fun, not being snooty) for only having six shots in my Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt. I just smiled, and continued on, but the lead instructor addressed the whole room and said...
"From this moment on, we're going to keep a tally. There are 34 students here with semi-automatic pistols of all brands, sizes, calibers, and build. I guarantee you that over the course of the weekend, all 34 students will experience a malfunction while going through our drills".
Everyone laughed, but I didn't. I just nodded my head at the instructor, who nodded back at me.
So, we kept a tally - 72 malfunctions, and all 34 semi-auto students had at least one major breakdown. It was windy, and I live in the desert of Washington State, and so it was DIRTY.
There was only one guy who was getting a little nasty citing the reliability of his Glock, and how it would never go down. In the last training run, he had just gone indoors to strip and clean his G19, and then he came back out on the range with a pristine pistol. On his second run through the barrier course, his weapon jammed SEVEN times. The barrier course only required five shots.... so the trainer asked me to take him my revolver, and I did. Of course, it worked.
The trainer then said to the class in our final moments, "Some of you want to consider which is best - having 15+ rounds that MIGHT work, OR.... having six shots that always will.
I was beaming the entire time.
Carry on, ya'll.