1st Class Finished

[texasjeep44]

What a day.

That was probably the hardest money I have ever earned.

We had 19 people in the first class. 16 first timers and 3 renewals. I had originally planned on just having friends/family in the first class and giving them a really reduced rate. Some of them were unable to make it so I opened it up to anyone interested at the same reduced rate. I figured since it was my first time there would be some kinks in the program.

I intended to start at 7 am. and be done right after 6 pm with lunch and everything.

The place I had the class at is a gun shop and there is a classroom there. This is the first CHL class at the location so I had to set up everything ect. Well to start with, the a/c unit on that side of building went down and so I had to bring my own portable a/c unit. It wasn't nearly large enough, so it was hot. I think it was somewhere in the range of 85 to 87 the entire afternoon. The folks that were sitting by the computer projector were misserable I think. Those things put off a lot of heat.

The actual class and material portion went well I thought. Mostly good questions asked by the folks, and they all seemed like reasonable people. No complete loose cannons who were ready to go out and play Rambo once they got their license.

We are providing the fingerprinting, photos, and notary so it is a one stop deal. There is a range, although not fully complete outside the gun shop. Well we had problems with the printer. Couldn't for the life of me get the thing figured out, nor could a buddy who was in the class and works at a computer/copier place. Wife even made the nearly hour long round trip back home to get the wireless router since that is the way it is set up at home, but no such luck. We will be mailing the photos to them tomorrow, along with the form 100 since the wife sent some of them home while I was still doing the handgun qualification with some of them at the end. She told them that we would send the signed forms with the photos and they could go after they were done.

Most folks were gone in about 12 hours or so, including an hour for lunch, the friends and family who I asked to shoot last, and then they helped pack up some of the stuff with me finally left when we did at about 8 pm.

What a long day. I was totally drained by the end. My shirt had salt stains on it all over the place where it had been completely soaked several times with sweat between the heat in the classroom and the range time.

Glad to say, everyone passed both the written and proficiency portions, and I didn't have any serious issues on the range. Biggest problem was a renewal that brought two Jennings guns, after the 9mm didn't work beyond one or two rounds, he switch to a .380 and got a couple off out if it. I even took it and soaked it with some lubricant but it still felt like it had sand paper on the slide rails. I finally told my wife to get some empty mags out of my range bag, and I let him shot my 24/7 pro 9mm with his ammo so we could get through the qualification. I told him he really needs to get something that works before carrying the gun for self defense. He said he usually carries a snub nose revolver. I certainly hope it works better than the two Jennings he brought. I don't usually like to bad mouth gun makers, especially since folks do it all the time about Taurus and I have two in my carry rotation. Mine have been flawless by the way. But these Jennings really did seem like pieces of junk. Who designs a SA gun without slide locks?

I have some changes to make and to work out some computer/printer glitches, but all in all I think things went pretty well. No one blew a fuse and the wife said she didn't hear any complaints. I have typed up a letter that I am sending all the students with their form 100 and photos and asked them to email me their suggestions/comments ect. We will see what they say.

Now I am looking forward to the next class. I already have about 20 city employees of a small town a friend of ours works for committed to taking the class, and yes I am giving them a discounted rate as well, but I figure I should get some good word of mouth in the long run.

[MoJo]

It'll get better, 19 is a big class for a first timer. Keep up the good work!

[Capt Roy]

Congrats on getting that first one complete... That's a big class!

It will get better with time and practice... I've completed 4 classes so far... I'm still making tweaks to the powerpoint..

[Crossfire]

Congrats on your first class. Sounds like you had a real adventure! Best thing is, no one got hurt, and you learned lots.

Here is a little hint. We keep several rental guns for situations such as your renewal with the Jennings. You will have gun problems and you will have ammo problems. If you keep rentals available, WITH ammo, you can work around it.

We aren't bashing any particular gun makers, but, general rule of thumb is - if the gun they brought originally sold for less than the box of ammo they need, then they will probably need a rental.

[garcia946]

Congrats , like everyone said , it will get better. Once you have everything down it will run like clockwork.

[texasjeep44]

The shop I was teaching at had some rental guns, and had plenty of ammo available. I will let him make the money off of that end.

For simplicity and speed to get the three renewals I was doing the qualification with finished, I just opted to pull my Taurus off my hip, clear it, hand him a couple of mags and tell him to finish with it. He shot pretty good with it.

He was the only one that had a serious problem. One girl that was shooting a 3 inch 1911 had a time or two when she released the slide to slow and the round didn't strip off from the mag, but everything else worked like clockwork on the range. Well besides being over 100 degrees outside.