NRA Basic Pistol Lesson 3

All right, Lesson 3: Shooting Positions and Shooting Qualification. Learning objectives: demonstrate the learning step to assume the bench rest position and shoot from the bench rest position. We are not doing that. Demonstrate and learning the learning steps to assume the isosceles position and shoot from the isosceles position. Yes. And then shoot the course qualification. Well, no, because you're watching this, which is a replay after you've already taken your course. So, um, we will just pretend that we are there again. All right, range layout and limits. For the range being used, identify and know the significance of your ready line, firing line, target area, backstop, impact area, left-right range limits, firing points, target and firing point numbers, downrange area, safety berms. So your firing line is where you are standing when you're handling firearms at the range. Your Your target area is where the targets are being hung. Backstop impact area is where the bullets are landing after you've shot them through your targets. Left-right range limits, we usually, we are imagining it is zero. You must keep your firearm pointed downrange, parallel to the ground, and perpendicular to your backstop. Firing points, if you go to a really fancy range, you will have somewhere and they'll say you're on lane 4. And you'll go to lane 4 and it'll say lane 4 on the wall and your target hanger will say lane 4. And if it's really fancy, the backstop will actually have a giant 4 on it. I've been to one range like that ever. Target and firing port numbers, that's what I just described. Downrange area is anywhere in front of the firing line. Safety berms are the left and right portions of an outdoor range. There, when you go to the range, you do want to know where your entry and exit routes are. Some ranges do have a flow of traffic so that you go in one way and come out another, but in general, whenever you go anywhere, you want to know how to get in and how to get out. Range flags, we don't really use around here. Warning markers and other safety features, I'm not sure. First aid kits, uh, top 3 reasons that an ambulance shows up at a range are heart attack, heat stroke, and hypothermia. So with that, their first aid kits— very often ranges will actually have AED equipment. Now, if you're at a public range, chances are they have people that will know how to take care of these things. But whenever you go somewhere like this, knowing where their first aid kit is, knowing where the phone is, and the procedure for dialing 911 can always be helpful. It's just one more piece of your safety when you're out and about anywhere. 911. If for some unlikely reason someone was actually to have an accident and shoot themselves in the hand or the foot or something, uh, do not call 911 and say there's been a shooting. You need to make sure you let them know that there has been a training accident that, um, you know, there's been an a training accident, because if you happen to make the mistake of saying there's been a shooting, well then that poor person is going to be lying there bleeding for a really long time because SWAT and everything else is going to be dispatched before they allow the ambulance and the EMT folks in. So 911, if someone has an accident shooting, make sure you say there's been a training accident, because if you say there's been a shooting, It's just not going to work well. Fire extinguishers, yes, good to know. Restrooms. All right, gentlemen, ready? Here's the deal. If you are going to a friend's club and you want to bring your wife or girlfriend, please ask ahead if there are any restrooms, because as a female, I will tell you, I have been to clubs that have no restrooms and no outhouses, and Yeah, I was all day. So restrooms are not something you find at all ranges. And I just think that's something you should know before you go. Before you go. All right. Oh, NRA. Know your target and what is beyond. Be sure a gun is safe to operate. Know how to use the gun safely. Use only the correct ammunition for your gun and wear eye and ear protection as appropriate. You're like, wait, Brooke, what are you reading? I'm reading the notes because that's the next one. Are you ready? Dun dun dun! Sorry, yeah, I just had to make it not death by PowerPoint. It is death by PowerPoint, but here we go anyway. Um, know your target, what's beyond. When you are hanging a target, if you have the opportunity, you want to make sure that that target is roughly at your eye level. Because why? Oh, what did we say about safe direction? We said that you want it to be parallel to the ground. How can it be parallel to the ground? Well, when we are shooting, We want the gun out at our eye level. So we want our targets also out at our eye level. Know your target, what's beyond. Okay. What's beyond it? Well, we're talking safety at the range. Therefore, what's beyond your target is going to be where the bullets go, which is your backstop. Now, at some point, if any of you are here for self-defense, the other know your target, what is beyond is when you get into self-defense, if there is a bad guy, that you are aiming at, you want to make sure there is not an innocent person or animal behind them. So knowing your target, being aware, and thinking about where your bullet's going to go after it goes through your target is good to start that habit while you're at the range. Be sure the gun is safe to operate. I am assuming most of you are going out to buy your first gun, so hopefully it will be a nice brand new gun and everything is working well. Know how to use the gun safely. So know how to follow the range rules as well as the safety rules. And because we just finished talking about range rules, one of the things I forgot to say is that range rules are specific to a range. The safety rules apply at all times whenever handling any firearm at all, regardless of where you are. Use only the correct ammunition for your gun. Yes, remember how we talked about the +P and the +P+ ammunition? If the ammo is too hot for your gun, you can cause damage to your gun. So make sure you have the correct ammunition. Remember, everything must match. Wear eye and ear protection as appropriate. This is something I couldn't figure out forever because every range you go to is absolutely positively going to make you wear eye and ear protection. Some ranges will also make you wear a brimmed hat as well. But then I realized there is one person, one group of people that do not wear eye and ear protection, and that would be the hunters because they take one shot for the course of a day, if that, and they generally don't wear eye and ear protection for hunting. And I talked to a DEP guy and he actually said that they couldn't wear electronic ear protection because that would be unfair advantage. So who knew? You can always learn something. Never use drugs and alcohol before or while shooting. Notice we don't care what you do when you're done shooting because this is a nonjudgmental zone, but please do not use drugs or alcohol prior to or while shooting. Store guns so that they are not accessible to unauthorized persons. Like I said, the laws around here are always changing. So yes, this is where I'm going to say, please, if you do nothing else today, sign up for CCDL so that they can help keep you updated because there are so many gun laws out there already. It is near impossible to be a law-abiding gun owner. We can only strive at this point to be responsible gun owners. Be aware that certain types of guns and many shooting activities require additional safety precautions. All right, know and obey all range rules. Know where others are at all times. Shoot only authorized targets and stop shooting immediately if you think you've experienced a malfunction. Like I said before, range rules are to the range that you're on. Every range you go to is going to have you read their set of range rules, just like before you came to my class you had to read all of them. Some places have more than others. Know where others are at all times. It depends on the range that you have. Authorized targets is generally listed in the range rules. Most of them say things like, you know, no exploding targets and that sort of thing. Many ranges actually supply their targets for you to make it easy for you. And then if you have any malfunctions and you're at a public range, there's generally a safety officer on, so you just can stop and you'll be able to raise your hand and get someone's attention. Oh, sorry, that was the next class. You know, you'd think I'd done this before, maybe. All right, so shooting— a shooter having any questions or problems during any range section exercise should stop firing immediately, keep the gun pointed downrange, raise the non-shooting hand to signify there's a problem. Range personnel will provide assistance. So like I said, if you're at a public range, there is generally range personnel. When you are private clubs, there is not often safety officers on the line, but it just depends on what club you are at. Hygiene guidelines: while shooting or cleaning a gun, refrain from eating, drinking, or smoking, or placing hands close to mouth. After shooting or cleaning a gun, wash hands and face thoroughly with soap and cold water. Why cold water? Well, because we're trying to keep lead particulates, etc., exposure to elements, you know, all of that out of our skin. Cold water keeps our pores closed and where hot water would open them up and allow it to go. Change and wash clothing as soon as possible after shooting or cleaning a gun. So let me read what it says here, because shooting or cleaning guns can expose a person to airborne lead particulates, powder residue, solvents, and other chemicals like the stuff that got left on your gun after you cleaned it. Although casual exposure to these elements is minimal compared to daily activities and exposures, such as exposure to household chemicals, the shooter should still follow certain precautions. With the change and wash clothing as soon as possible after shooting or cleaning a gun, when I was competing indoors during the wintertime, there was one gentleman who would show up, he would change into his shooting clothes, he would help us set up, we'd shoot the match, and then before he would go, he'd change out of his shooting clothes into his regular clothes, put all of his gun gear into a plastic bag and he put it in the trunk of his car. Now, why would he do that? Because he had a newborn baby and they had one car and the baby's car seat was in his car. And lead is amazingly not good for developing brains. So that's an example of a reason why you'd want to make sure that you followed all of these rules. I'm not a doctor, not giving any, you know, health advice. But it's one of those things like if you were to have a lower immune system or something along those lines, you know, your hygiene guidelines are based on what your health is. The average shooter who goes to the range once in a while is really not being exposed to a ton. There's so many mitigating circumstances, but to give you an idea in the competition, so the average shooter goes to the range, she shoots around 100, 150 rounds in an hour, and maybe there are 2 or 3 other people around him shooting as well, depending on the range. Obviously, the competitions that we would go to, we would be there from 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock at night until 10 or 11, and there'd be 20 of us shooting at least 200, 150 to 200 rounds per person. So that was a lot more exposure than the average shooter. So when, you know, taking this into consideration, these are some of the things. And indoors is definitely more exposure than outdoors because outdoors there's free air everywhere, whereas indoors it just depends on the range you're at, how good their air exchange is. All right, range commands. This is what we get to learn at Bullseye. Load: students may load their pistols. Commence firing: students may begin firing when ready. Stop, called by anyone observing an unsafe situation. All shooting stops immediately. Shooter, take finger off the trigger, keep gun pointed in a safe direction, and wait for instructions from the range officer. So if you're playing bullseye, these are your range commands. While we are teaching down at the range, since this is one-on-one instruction, maybe one-on-two, um, this is where we will, you know, we'll be talking to you, talking through all of this. So stop. This is super important for you to understand. Just because you're brand new doesn't mean you don't know when something doesn't look right. I know when I was brand new, I used to think I'd see people do stuff and I'm like, maybe they know something I don't, you know, like, oh, the gun is unloaded. No, no, no. All guns are always loaded and treat them as if they are. So, um, stop is something even you can— if you see something, say something, because you don't know. The other thing is, like, if you see somebody downrange or something, please yell stop. And then if you realize it was just a shadow, it was way better that you called stop than if you were— if it really was somebody, you'd feel horrible if they got shot and you didn't say anything. So the other part of it is when someone calls stop, All you're doing is taking your finger off the trigger and keeping the gun pointed downrange because you don't know if you might be the problem. So when someone says stop, pretend you're playing red light, green light, when, like, when you're in school. All right, so learning a shooting position. When you study the shooting position in your handy-dandy book, it has all sorts of pictures. Practice the position without a pistol like we've been doing here in the classroom. Practice the position with an unloaded pistol, or maybe like the plastic ones we have here in class, align the pistol with the target, dry practice with the pistol at the target. Again, everything that we've done in class so far. Shoot at targets, adjust sights, and resume live fire. So you're gonna read about it, you're gonna see it, you're gonna hear about it. That is the idea. Oops, and then I messed up my thing. Okay, so I guess we're on the next slide, adjusting the sights. Uh, we have another test question waiting for you. This is question number 19. All right, so if you just look at the very top of this thing, so go to question number 19 and then read just this part right here. The rear sight is moved in the same direction as the shooter wants hits on the target to move. So question 19 says the basic rule for sight adjustment is, and all you have to do is match, the rear sight is moved in the same direction as the shooter wants hits on the target to move, which would be C. And that is that. Um, this is talking about actually adjusting your sights as if you had a new gun and you are currently looking to sight in your gun. Since this is a basic pistol course, we are not going to get into all of that because you're not shooting your gun while you are here at our class. This is just borrowed guns. When you borrow someone else's gun, you are not going to shoot it necessarily as well as they do because it's most likely adjusted for them. So we're not going to be adjusting sights today in class. Okay, the bend, rest. Like I said, we are not going to be doing this, but if we were, this would be the position you'd really want to be in if you're going to sight in your gun. Now there's a couple slides here, um, and we would be doing a bunch of stuff if we're going to do that, but we are not. So let's move on to the practical exercise of the isosceles shooting position. We are going to create the grip the way that we showed earlier. Um, you have the picture here right in front of you, and we've practiced this in the classroom. So proper grip, feet roughly shoulder width apart, weight evenly distributed— okay, I can do this— weight evenly distributed left and right, legs are slightly bent. I know that it says, um, straight, but if you think about it If we're looking to, um, we want to manage our recoil, and it's like we want to kind of be in a position where we're running towards the target because the gun is going to push us back slightly. So we want to be in a physical position that makes us feel like we could run towards the target relatively easily. Our head is erect. We always want to make sure that while we're looking at the target, our chin is up. Arms are fully extended except in just a tiny bit, right? So we've got that prayer hands thing where perfectly straight was really using itty-bitty muscles in our arms, but if we bring that back just a tiny bit, we engage our chest muscles. And then we want to make sure that the pistol is to our eye level, right? We don't want to turn into a turtle and squish our head and our shoulders up. And ideally you want to be relaxed and comfortable. Chances are you're not going to be relaxed and comfortable simply for the fact that this is something new. When do you ever hold your arms out in front of you like this? And my example is, yeah, sort of like if you were a witch with a giant cauldron and you stirred. But other than that, I can't think of a reason why your arms would be straight out like that other than shooting a gun. So most of us have never been in this position before. And we're gonna do this with dry fire, which means here in the classroom before we go down onto the range. And then we're gonna do our single shot, 5 shots. So once we get down to the range, we're going to be doing that teach and teach back thing. You're gonna help one of your friends and then vice versa. And we will just run the line that way. Here's— once we are done, we're going to do our shooting qualifications. For today, we are just going to do Level 1 Red at 10 feet, 4 groups of 5 shots each. In my class, we will be, um, doing our, uh, first things first, we will be taking Revolver, and we're going to go on 1 and 3. We're going to do 5 shots on number 1 and then 5 shots on number 3, because with revolver, we're going to put that in single action each time, rebuild our grip. And, um, so it'll look like this when you are doing revolver. You're going to be here, you're going to cock the hammer, build your grip, go back up on sights, come back down, cock it again, build your grip. So when we're shooting revolver, you get to rebuild that grip over and over and over again. Then we're gonna go on to semi-automatic, at which point we will do, um, whatever that's called, we will do 5 on the other side. So on 2 and 4, we'll do 5 shots on 2 and and 5 shots on 4. All right, NRA rules for safe gun handling. What is a safe direction? At the target. Yes. What's behind the target? Oh, that would be the backstop. Good. All right, parallel to the ground, perpendicular to the backstop, finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. Does it mean it's floating around? No, it is not floating around. It has contact with the frame at all times. Or the grip, or just under the trigger guard. And then always keep your gun unloaded till ready to use. Alright, Lesson 3 Summary and Review. As a result of your participation in this lesson, you are now able to demonstrate the learning steps to assume the bench rest position and shoot from the bench rest position. Well, you understand it at least. Demonstrate the learning steps to assume the isosceles position and shoot from the isosceles position. Yes, yes you do. And then shoot the course qualification. Off to the range we go. What are your questions?