Review of NRA Basic Pistol by Shooters Active in Firearms Education (S.A.F.E.)

[Favabean]

I took the NRA Basic Pistol class taught by the instructors from Shooters Active in Firearms Education (S.A.F.E.) this weekend (March 1st and 2nd) out at the Coraopolis District Sportmen's Association. Just a brief bit about me so you have some frame of reference. I grew up in rural north western PA and did my share of plinking. It wasn't until recently (within the last two years) that I became very interested in firearms. In the last two years, I have done a good deal of target shooting, but I am by no means a seasoned shooter.

The class is broken down into two days, approximately ten hours of training. Eight hours the first day of classroom work and two hours the following day of live fire exercises at the range. There is a test at the end of the classroom work, so one is advised to pay attention.

The classroom work was primarily Powerpoint with the three instructors offering additional anecdotes and explanations to add to the content. Eight hours of Powerpoint it a long day. The instructors did their best to break up the day and overall, they were successful. The did not teach to the test, and were instead interested in sharing their knowledge, which I think is really important. Some of the people in my class were much more knowledgeable about handguns than I was, so I imagine for them the classroom day was a bit slow. I am however, confident that everyone in the class learned something.

Day two was entirely at the range. On the range you fire a total of about forty rounds. You shoot from a bench rest, two handed standing and one handed standing. During your entire time on the range the instructors are near-by encouraging you, guiding you, and making sure the range is safe. On successful completion of the session, you are awarded an NRA certificate and a handshake.

For me the class was excellent. I think that I am probably the perfect target audience for this class. I was familiar with handguns, so I wasn't lost in the terminology and yet not so fluent that it was all a repetition of material I already knew. The instructors were all very personable. They obviously put safety first as their number one concern. Like I said, the classroom day can be a bit slow, but these instructors kept it interesting, they engaged the class in discussions and were more than willing to discuss questions and material that was maybe a bit off the syllabus.

The range day was the best for me. In just two short hours I found myself grouping much better and more consistently than I had been the day before. Each instructor took time to personally stop by and offer guidance and suggestions. Now the challenge for me is make sure I remember it all and put it into practice.

I would definitely recommend this class (and have already) to others. I was lucky, a class that normally has 20 students, in my case only had 4. This allowed for some very valuable one on one time. This would be my only suggestion to the folks at S.A.F.E -- keep those class sizes small, as a student that small class size really helped me get the guidance I needed..

[PisnNapalm]

Whoa... 8 hours of "class" time? That's alot.

I took the Basic Pistol class at my gun club. We had about 3-4 hours of class/demonstration time and about 4-5 hours of range time. The range time was all 1 on 1 with NRA certified instructors. It's run by the pistol club and I think a majority of them are also instructors.

I fired off well over 200 rounds during our range time. They did things like mix snap caps in with your live ammo to check for flinching. We worked on two handed, strong hand and weak hand shooting. We did quick 2 shot drills and at the end some competition with knockdown plates.

[Favabean]

Whoa... 8 hours of "class" time? That's alot.

Well -- 8 hours on site, but their is lunch in there and breaks.

And it maybe a lot, but when I left the first day, I didn't feel like it had been too much.