Thumbcocker
01-26-2015, 09:42 PM
Mrs. Thumbcocker and I took our first ever pistol course over the weekend. The course was put on by to retired Illinois State Police range officers and was very professionally done. Illinois requires 16 hours of training to apply for a ccw. We aren't sure if we will apply or not but we figured some formal training by qualified instructors couldn't hurt. The course was very basic and no one touched a gun until after 12 hours of class time. They covered gun types, safety, ammunition, loading, cleaning and maintaince, and the applicable law for use of force and legal carry.
The email we had received stated that we need to bring a holster. We figured we would be doing holster work so the only gun that I had that would half way work in one of my single action holsters was my Smith model 24 .44 special. I worked up a load with the accurate molds 190 button nosed wadcutter over 5 grains of red dot. Mrs. Thumbcocker shot her model 19 (pin barreled counter bored) using the Lee 125 rnfp over 4 grains of red dot. The statute only requires 30 rounds to qualify. Our instructors put us through 130 rounds starting with one round then two and so on up to 5. I also brought my Sig 1911 with a bag of Lyman 452460's over 7 grains of power pistol. At the end of the first day they said we would not be doing any holster work. Some students had never fired a handgun before. We first shot at a B27 target starting with one shot etc. Course of fire was 10 shots at 5 yards, 10 shots at seven yards, and 10 shots at 10 yards. We were the only revolver shooters. Here is my first nonqualifyer target. 128623
Then we shot bad guy targets and did several drills including shooting weak hand and ball and dummy drills. The instructors were great. I slightly knew them from work. At the end of the first day they said factory ammo only. I pulled one aside and told him we did not have any factory ammo. He asked how long I had been reloading and I told him since march of 1986. He let us shoot my loads. During the trigger reset drills Mrs. Thumbcocker and I would cock our hammers and shoot single action. I was also allowed to shoot the 1911 during some of the drills. I wanted to get the instruction on the semi-auto since I don't shoot them as often.
Then it was time to shoot our 30 qualifying rounds. Ten rounds at 5 yards, 10 rounds at 7 yards, and 10 rounds at 10 yards. Mrs. Thumbcocker's arms were getting a bit tired. The targets were scored by the instructors and I guess it was standard scoring. Here is my qualification target 128625 .
All during the class I had been catching grief about shooting revolvers and not holding back on my views on Glocks. When the instructor passed around his Glock I held it with two fingers like dead mouse. All through the course they said that the high scorer would win a mini Glock. I wanted to shoot well and tried hard. I was the high shooter with a score of 299 25X. Mrs. Thumbcocker shot 288. She would have placed fifth but another shooter had a higher x count.
Please don't take this as me bragging, I am a mediocre shooter at best, I really don't see what the big deal was. I was shooting a very accurate gun with my loads and with no time limit on the qualifying target. The longest range was thirty FEET for goodness sake. I was very annoyed with myself for pulling two shots out of the hole on the last string. There were 15 students in the class. The women all did well and some of the first time shooters did very well. So here is the picture of the mini Glock I won 128626.
One student that I took a liking to was a Vietnam era Marine veteran who was congratulating me on my shooting. When I was presented with my prize he said " Hell he will probably shoot the x ring out with that one too". The instructors said the record for their class was 300 28x shot with a .22 target pistol.
I am used to comparing my shooting with what you guys do here. I am trying to shoot like Lloyd, Dale 53, .44 Man, and a dozen others here. I really don't see how shooting from 15 to 30 feet is some major feet. It was gratifying to make the score with a sixgun and boolits and we met some really nice folks. We shot at 38* in a mist but the firing line was covered. Anyway I just wanted to share my big win with you guys.
The email we had received stated that we need to bring a holster. We figured we would be doing holster work so the only gun that I had that would half way work in one of my single action holsters was my Smith model 24 .44 special. I worked up a load with the accurate molds 190 button nosed wadcutter over 5 grains of red dot. Mrs. Thumbcocker shot her model 19 (pin barreled counter bored) using the Lee 125 rnfp over 4 grains of red dot. The statute only requires 30 rounds to qualify. Our instructors put us through 130 rounds starting with one round then two and so on up to 5. I also brought my Sig 1911 with a bag of Lyman 452460's over 7 grains of power pistol. At the end of the first day they said we would not be doing any holster work. Some students had never fired a handgun before. We first shot at a B27 target starting with one shot etc. Course of fire was 10 shots at 5 yards, 10 shots at seven yards, and 10 shots at 10 yards. We were the only revolver shooters. Here is my first nonqualifyer target. 128623
Then we shot bad guy targets and did several drills including shooting weak hand and ball and dummy drills. The instructors were great. I slightly knew them from work. At the end of the first day they said factory ammo only. I pulled one aside and told him we did not have any factory ammo. He asked how long I had been reloading and I told him since march of 1986. He let us shoot my loads. During the trigger reset drills Mrs. Thumbcocker and I would cock our hammers and shoot single action. I was also allowed to shoot the 1911 during some of the drills. I wanted to get the instruction on the semi-auto since I don't shoot them as often.
Then it was time to shoot our 30 qualifying rounds. Ten rounds at 5 yards, 10 rounds at 7 yards, and 10 rounds at 10 yards. Mrs. Thumbcocker's arms were getting a bit tired. The targets were scored by the instructors and I guess it was standard scoring. Here is my qualification target 128625 .
All during the class I had been catching grief about shooting revolvers and not holding back on my views on Glocks. When the instructor passed around his Glock I held it with two fingers like dead mouse. All through the course they said that the high scorer would win a mini Glock. I wanted to shoot well and tried hard. I was the high shooter with a score of 299 25X. Mrs. Thumbcocker shot 288. She would have placed fifth but another shooter had a higher x count.
Please don't take this as me bragging, I am a mediocre shooter at best, I really don't see what the big deal was. I was shooting a very accurate gun with my loads and with no time limit on the qualifying target. The longest range was thirty FEET for goodness sake. I was very annoyed with myself for pulling two shots out of the hole on the last string. There were 15 students in the class. The women all did well and some of the first time shooters did very well. So here is the picture of the mini Glock I won 128626.
One student that I took a liking to was a Vietnam era Marine veteran who was congratulating me on my shooting. When I was presented with my prize he said " Hell he will probably shoot the x ring out with that one too". The instructors said the record for their class was 300 28x shot with a .22 target pistol.
I am used to comparing my shooting with what you guys do here. I am trying to shoot like Lloyd, Dale 53, .44 Man, and a dozen others here. I really don't see how shooting from 15 to 30 feet is some major feet. It was gratifying to make the score with a sixgun and boolits and we met some really nice folks. We shot at 38* in a mist but the firing line was covered. Anyway I just wanted to share my big win with you guys.