Observations during my CHL exam

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greyson97

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Share your CHL experiences here

I recently took my CHL this weekend. The classroom part was brutal. 9 hours in a classroom! the shooting part was very very fun

we shot at 3 7 and 15 yards. I scored a 250/250 with my 9mm 1911 Springfield Loaded. It was pretty easy. while I did score a perfect, one of my shots hit the 8/7 line, so i barely squeaked by

and people have said this before, but when you shoot 6 rounds in 10 seconds, and 5 rounds at 15 seconds, 10 and 15 seconds is a VERY LONG TIME.

I got all my shots off, controlled, in under 3 seconds, and I got to stand there holding my gun at low ready until the instructor yelled stop after 8 seconds.

If i had taken the full time, or a little more time per shot, all my shots would be in the 9 ring or better.

but its fun to rapid fire

of course after the 3 yard round, there was a big gaping hole in the center of the target

2 people got disqualified cause when they put their guns back into their gun bag, they swept the muzzle down the line

1 person got disqualified cause they were wearing earmuffs AND plugs, and didn't hear the fire command, and fired after the stop command

I saw a lot of interesting guns:

One guy who shot way better than me was shooting a 9mm EMP. Looks like I might have to use my tax refund next year on one

His buddy also had an 9mm EMP, but it seemed that it was completely new to him, since he didnt know how to release the slide, and unlike his buddy, his groupings were terrible

I saw a guy with a glock 35, the 5" long slide with a thing cut out of the top slide

there was a guy with a 1911 in .40 with a 2 port compensator

i saw a guy with a hi-point. when I saw it, i didn't know what it was. It was huge and bulbous, like a black twinkie. His gun jammed a few times. You can tell, cause when a gun jams, the line is stopped and the instructor goes over to assist the student

there was a guy with a 9mm S&W sigma, and it jammed so much the instructor asked if anyone could lend him a 9mm, which someone lent him a beretta, wasnt a 92 though, and he actually shot better groups with it than when his sigma did fire

and i saw a lot of shots going low and to the left. lots of people jerking the trigger to get their shots off in time.

now, those were my observations, and I am in no way bashing any of those guns i spoke poorly of.

a few people either didn't know how to or couldn't load their magazines, so the instructor had to do it for them

there was one guy who seemed a total washout. he didnt know how to load his mag, his groupings were the worst in class, he kept putting his gun right side down when he was right handed, and the instructor kept telling him to put it left side down to make picking it up easier, but he just couldnt get it. He was also one of the ones disqualified for sweeping the line with his gun. I am uncomfortable with him CCing

One guy had crazy eyes

During the shoot 3, shoot 2, One old guy who couldnt load his mags, couldn't remember how many rounds he fired. and the instructor later determined he was just pulling the trigger until the gun was empty. That didn't make me comfortable that he might be carrying.
 
I just had a bunch of old ladies with rented .22s and one old man who, at the end, saw my target and proclaimed "My man over here must be sniper! That ain't fair. You da man."

I did do better than the rest of the class :D, but nothing's impressive at those distances.
 
My main observation was that it would be difficult to have been a bigger waste of time. It was essentially a hunters safety course with 30 minutes of legal speak and then the ADA of the county coming in to spend 15 minutes telling us that our area is not dangerous enough to carry a gun all the time and "You guys aren't going to carry all the time, right?"

The shooting portion was a joke. I could have almost leaned forward a little and touched the muzzle to the target. It was 20 rounds. 5 slow, 5 more slow and then 10 at "whatever pace you're comfortable". All they cared about was muzzle discipline.
 
First one I took was many years ago for a FLA non-resident permit. Shortly thereafter, Michigan decided to not honor non-residents. But the guy gave me extra paperwork for Michigan, in case I wanted to try to buck the state's good ole boy network of friends of the beareaucrats get CCWs. During that time we had to fire 60 rounds, there were no limitations on ammo or guns, so I used my .45 pin gun and pet reloads. As I was just starting my first string, I was beeped. It was the wife, and she was in trouble. (Handicapped) I then asked the instructor if there were any limits on how fast we could shoot. He said, "Nope, just as long as it's 60 rounds." I loaded mags and fired as fast as I could and in just as couple minutes, I was done. The instructor came over, saw the hole shot out of the center of the target, muttered an expletive while shaking his head, and signed my paperwork. I was on my way back home before some had begun to fire.

The second was for Michigan's CPL, when they finally became shall-issue. I remember this one being rather boring, with an incredible amount of people that had never been even exposed to firearms. Watching some of them handle them was a sobering experience.:eek:
 
BH

In texas, the minimum required caliber is .32, but due to the revolver only qualifies you with revolver and semi qualifies you with both, and the commonality of 9mm vs the scarsity of 380 and .32 auto, most people shoot at least 9mm or higher
 
1 person got disqualified cause they were wearing earmuffs AND plugs, and didn't hear the fire command, and fired after the stop command
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Not sure I agree with that, a lot of people wear muffs and plugs, and I would enchourage it. I wished I had when I first started.

I believe its the range officers responsibility to make sure everyone hears the commands.

When using a beeper type command I cant here them at all, unless I remove one of my muffs and the RO puts the beeper next to my head.

I was shooting a multi gun match one time and the RO tried three times to set off the started beeper. He finely got my going by tapping my shoulder as a command to fire.

Again I would enchourage everyone to use double hearing protection, I would demand ROs take into account one using double protection and not disqualify someone to is trying to protect their hearing.

You can buy a lot of ammo for the price of a $2500 hearing aid.
 
I just want to make clear, they weren't disqualified because they were wearing double protection, they were disqualified because they could not hear the command and fired after the stop command

the act of firing after the stop command was what got them DQ
 
You can buy a lot of ammo for the price of a $2500 hearing aid.
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And even those aren't the top of the line.

I agree, it is up to the RO to make himself heard. He should expect people to use hearing protection. When several people report that they are failing to hear the command, the RO has to take it upon himself to find a better way to communicate with them - louder, visual, tactile. If I was one of those people I would be a bit steamed.
 
Greyson:

Where did you take the classes? I live in Austin and am looking forward to becoming eligible for my permit next year. :)
 
When I renewed my CHL 2 years ago there were 2 people in the class that the only thing that scared me more than the thought of them carrying a firearm was the knowledge that they drive on the same roads. :eek:
Some people have no concept of safty with anything. Guns, cars, heavy equipment, ect. That realy drove home the point to me that common sense quit being common a long, long time ago.
 
the ADA of the county coming in to spend 15 minutes telling us that our area is not dangerous enough to carry a gun all the time and "You guys aren't going to carry all the time, right?"
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Boy, is that an elitist and arrogant statement for that person to have made- he's important, he knows best, and he's humoring you with allowing his wisdom to dig it's way into your head, was that the idea? I guess he can dictate when "dangerous" and "not dangerous" occur. He must be quite a talented individual
 
Great and frightening observations. My class is coming up May 1. My goal in addition to passing is to not get shot by someone in the class. I totally relate that common sense is not so common anymore.
 
I have never heard of a person being DQ'd for a safety violation. I have heard of people being DQ'd for firing out of time or sequence, but not for safety. Interesting.
 
Chris_B said:
Boy, is that an elitist and arrogant statement for that person to have made- he's important, he knows best, and he's humoring you with allowing his wisdom to dig it's way into your head, was that the idea? I guess he can dictate when "dangerous" and "not dangerous" occur. He must be quite a talented individual
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In all fairness, he's right in a great many ways. There is virtually no violent crime in our area. The occasional occurrence is almost always between rival meth dealers/users. We literally go years between murders.

But...

You're right too. It's not his call and the guy who comes to a CC class to talk about the law should leave it at what is and is not legal. We can form our own opinions.
 
When I have to stand alongside someone firing I use double hearing protection. I would be PO’ed no end to be disqualified because the RO didn’t have some method to let ALL persons hear his commands.

In a SD situation we’ll not be wearing ear muffs and plugs but when target shooting we should and the more muffled the better.

I say disqualify the RO.
 
I've got to add my 2 cents to that. I'll have to agree on the class instruction being very limited, I think I learned more reading myself than what was actually taught in class. Secondly, it was mostly a political rant and rave session, supporting your national firearms associations and "when I was teaching this federal agency..." Yadda yadda yadda. The firing in the AM of the class was awesome, mostly XD's and 1911's. A few odds here and there and only 1 Glock amazingly. I figured there would be more. One guy had a S&W Sigma 40 as did I and he was in the first firing line. It jammed 4 times before his shooting coach lent him some older Ruger handgun that fired without issue. I had intended on qualifying with my Sigma 40 but after those issues, I was INCREDIBLY thankful that I took my Walther PK380 which fired flawlessly. I too qualified in Texas and it was at a military rod and gun club so most of the people firing were active military. Needless to say, the scores were all incredibly high and perfect. I got two in the 8 ring and the rest were in center, one was a pull to the right shoulder of the target the other was a head shot. I've actually learned more about discerning the law here on the forum than I did in my class. I'm curious as to what my recert will be like. The turnaround for my license was about 3 months but that's not average cause halfway through the asked for supporting documentation for my "veteran" selection at the state level paperwork. My DD214 was faxed end of May and I got my license in the mail the Thursday following Good Friday. It was surely a learning experience. Needless to say my younger brother has since purchased my Sigma from me at quite a discount. :)
 
My concealed carry class went something like this:

1 hour getting photographed, fingerprnited and filling out paperwork.

1 hour going over the laws on conceal carry.

Short little 10 question test.

Loading and firing one .22 shot from a revolver at a target about 5 feet away - didn't even have to hit the target......come to think of it, didn't even have to fire the shot, could have just picked up my certificate.


I had more instruction than this when I when I was 8 years old learning to shoot a 22 rifle for the first time - I'm sure I could have passed that 10 question test at 8 too.:D
 
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When I went for my Texas CHL, the 8 hour classroom part was long and boring.Our instructor was a retired LEO who passed on lots of war stories. Class room part could have been better. Instructor's main thing seemed to be getting out to the range. I was surprised that there were people in the class with little or no range time and weren't that familiar with their weapons. Two persons had to repeat the range portion to have a good enough score to pass. I found the 3 & 7 yard shooting portion was pretty easy, probably due to I practice at 25 yards.
 
2 people got disqualified cause when they put their guns back into their gun bag, they swept the muzzle down the line


teehee so what does that mean? Sorry new to all of this and dont know, well much of anything for that matter....
 
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