Class #92 Hell Week: Day 5 - Gun Qualifications

Sorry this post is a couple days late! Friday was the last day of Hell Week for Class #92. They had their gun qualifications for daylight and lowlight (aka dark!). Since they would be in class late, they had a late start. Josh and I got to bum around for the morning before he had to head to school at 11:00. The shooting range is in Sylva, so it is about a 25 minute drive from the school. Therefore, Josh couldn't come home for dinner. I didn't get to see him again until about 10:30 Friday night! They have been practicing qualifications for a couple weeks now. They have to properly draw their guns and shoot before the target turns in a short amount of time. Then they assess the situation and replace their guns. Their holsters have a double lock on them, so it took some practice learning how to smoothly draw their weapon. For the qualifications, they shot at a human shadow for their target. (This sounds really bad, but I promise it's not! They are just like any other target just in the shape of a torso.) They have to hit within the inner shadow to unsure a valid shot. They shoot at 3 yards, 7 yards, 15 yards, and 25 yards. Some of the shots are with their non dominant hand, and the 15 and 25 yard shots are from behind cover. At one point they have to shoot twice, change their magazine, and shoot again. This is called Tactical Magazine Exchange. They have between 3 and 5 seconds to make either 2 or 3 shots depending on which distance they are shooting from. That means the have to draw their weapon and shoot up to 3 times in under 5 seconds! They are crazy fast!! There are a total of 30 shots. A 21 is passing. They had to "qualify" for 2/3 attempts in both daylight and lowlight. Josh has been shooting his entire life, so this was pretty easy for him. It took a little practice to learn how to properly draw and hold his gun, but he was able to have fun with it. A few of the others had never shot a gun before, so the qualification was very difficult for them. There are a few ex-military members in the class, so they did very well. Overall this was a less stressful, more fun way to end Hell Week! (For Josh at least!)