Rossi Rifleman

I completed my CCDW class Saturday. It was a struggle. Not because the class was difficult, but because I had gone to bed early that Friday night at 11PM (I work 2nd shift, so 2AM is usually bedtime). I woke up at 2AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Three hours of sleep made it difficult to concentrate. I wasn't worried about the class, I just couldn't get back to sleep. In the last month I've attempted to go to bed early 3 times. Each time has had the same results. I think my body thinks I'm just taking a late nap. grrr.

If I had been at home I would not have even thought about grabbing a firearm for some target practice, as it would only have been an exercise in frustration. I did qualify. But, if I had shot this group at one of ours "friendly shooting competitions, I would have ended up near the bottom. I didn't use my Merit aperture suction cup thingy on my glasses, so my front sight was pretty fuzzy. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my shooting. Ten of the 20 shots hit the "5X" and only 1 shot (my first shot) was out of the center ring.

I did learn a couple more shooting tricks. It was a good class.

I was shooting my .357 Blackhawk with a 6 1/2" barrel.

I encourage people to shoot a qualification course as they would in the real world. You won't have time to put on reading glasses, aperture suction cups etc, and at social shooting distances it just won't matter.

About 95% of self defense shoot soccur at ranges of 5 yards or less and are over and done in 5 seconds or less with 5 rounds or less fired.

A couple years ago the FBI reviewed 12 years of data on agent involved shoots and found that 75% occurred at 3 yards or less with no more than 3 rounds fired. They adjusted their qualification course accordingly to reflect the closer ranges involved, with fewer rounds fired at longer distances.

The NC CCW qualification course uses 40 rounds drawn and fired at ranges from 3 to 7 yards in slow and rapid fire stages. Shooting it full speed (well under the required time limits for the rapid fire stages) and without my reading glasses made no real difference and I have pretty bad middle age accommodation issues. With enough practice (with your glasses on), alignment of the front and rear sights becomes something that your hand does all on it's own, as you develop an eye motor loop that "knows" how the muscles have to be to align the sights. Once you get to that point, short range shooting at speed is just a matter of placing the front sight on target as the alignment takes care of itself, and it doesn't matter if it's a bit fuzzy if you're of an age where your arms have gotten too short.

I drove the pistol down for the 8s and 9s in double taps (a known issues I've had for years), but it's way above a passing score, and it was shot under something slightly closer to real world conditions in terms of time pressure and lack of glasses.



There is an element of unreality here, as in the real world you'd want to hit an assailant higher in the chest, on the line between the 8 and the 9 on a B-27 target as it increases your odds of a cardio vascular hit in the upper chambers of the heart or the large arteries above the heart and it does not decrease the odds of a CNS hit to the spine.

Well done Moon!

I think center mass with proper caliber and bullet you'll do fine if ever need be. great shooting.

52 nice shooting. Muscle memory and the human body is an amazing thing when you stop to think about it. Remember when we were young kids learning to throw a baseball or teaching our kids or grandkids to do the same. As muscle memory develops we go from throwing the ball everywhere, to hitting the glove to snagging hot grounders and throwing out the runner at 1st. Simply amazing.

I wear glasses 100% of my waking hours. I know in defensive/aggressive situation that I can't call "time out" to attach my Merit optics. Heck, I couldn't even get a deer to stand around long enough to do that. haha

I'm finding in the isosceles stance that I've gravitated to, that the front sight is right in the notch when the pistol is in front of my face about 70% of the time now. That's an improvement from 10% a couple months ago. I still have a long ways to go from where I'm at to drawing and shooting quickly and accurately. But, I'll get there.

RD and AK thanks.