Thank You Sportsman Channel, I won!!

[BigK]

The first day was hard, but rewarding. There are so many "whys" about the fundamentals we alll learned. I was amazed how little I know about my own gun and the fundamentals.

I'm not blowing smoke up you anyone's whazoo, this instructor, Aaron Roberts, is AMAZING! He knows how to walk you thru every step in the right order, so that all of a sudden you go...OH, I see.

Mostly it's drills, drills, and more drills. It sounds like I'm whining about that, but I'm not. I "practice" at the range all the time, but now I know what to practice to get better and most importantly, why to paractice it.

[Guest TargetShooter84]

Congratulations!

[tnroadrunner]

Did he say when the next season of HANDGUNS will start?

[Guest db99wj]

That's awesome!

[Murgatroy]

That is awesome, I would love to do classes like this.

[Bubba0031]

I'm jealous

I also wish Comcast would offer the Outdoor Channel

[BigK]

Did he say when the next season of HANDGUNS will start?

March 2011

I couldn't believe that far out! The writer for the show, Paul Scarlata, participated in the class too. He's a competition shooter and writes for MANY magazines too. He said they haven't started filming for next season yet.

[BigK]

I'm jealous

I also wish Comcast would offer the Outdoor Channel

Bubba, I have Comcast and I get the Outdoor Channel. The HD version is channel 289 and the regular version is 710. The Sportsman Channel is 709 in my area.

I will say though, I had to call Comcast 4 freakin' times before somebody was smart enough to figure out why these 2 weren't coming in. It was because I had that crappy sports package a few years ago and decided it wasn't worth the money. There's some sort of glitch in their computer that made the rep have to remove some features and add them back.

[BigK]

On the 2nd and 3rd we got to shoot steel targets. I was stoked, b/c I'd never shot steel before. It was everything I had hoped it would be. There's something about the instant gratification you get when you hear that ping that I really like.

He had us do a drill where we get 2 shots to hit a 12" X 18" steel silhouette from 20 yards. If you miss, you join the losers' pool. If you hit, you join the winners' pool. The winners go back 20 more yards and take 2 more shots like before. Then 20 more yards etc. until we got out to 100 yards! On the first day the instructor and one other guy made it out to 100 yards, but only the istructor hit the target. On the third day only one guy didn't make the 100 yard shot!

We also got to shoot in head-to-head competition on a dueling tree. If you haven't seen one, it looks like a wide support stand with 6 steel lollipops that swing from one side to the other when you shoot them. The circles are 3" and we shot at them from about 10 or 12 yards away. I got to go 4 times and only lost once, to Paul Scarlata, the show's writer.

All of this was a little harder for me, b/c I was shooting my CZ P-01, which is DA first shot and Aaron instisted that I take ALL first shots in DA mode to simulate how I would be shooting for personal defense. All-in-all, I'm glad he made me do it like that, I'll be better off for it, but the 1911 and striker-fired shooters had a distinct advantage.

I am DEFINITELY going to save up some cash, so I can afford to do this again. This class was a half day Friday, a full day Saturday, and another half day on Sunday, but Aaron 'gave' us 3 extra hours of his time the first day and 2 more hours the 3rd day. His regular combat handgun class is 5 full days for $750 and includes low-light trainging, clearing rooms/breaching doors, and friendly/hostile target shooting (all of which we didn't have time for). He told us, the full class is like a week of total immersion and they have a place to put you up. I don't know how long it will take me to save up, but as soon as I can, I'm doing it again.

Edited September 30, 2010 by BigK

[Chief07]

:up:Congrats! Hope you have a great time.

[Guest Plainsman]

Just saw the write up by Scott Rupp in the February/March '11 issue of Handguns. Seems like an awesome experience. Glad someone from TGO had the opportunity!

[BigK]

OOH! I haven't read my issue yet. Thanks for the heads up.

It was incredible and ironically, there were 2 of us from middle TN there.