My wife and I just competed a 2 day NRA CCW class.
Saturday was 12 hour classroom with about 2 hours of homework.
Sunday was 8 hours at an outdoor range. Definitely wish we did this in cooler weather. It was 91f in the shade with a lot of drawing and firing from under a coat. The under coat drills were last when it was the hottest. It never occurred to me they would use an outdoor range with just 35 or so feet being the longest distance, but no indoor range would rent out their facility or allow any draw. This range was in the boonies half way to California [/exaggeration] and would rent one isolated section to the instructor.
Incredible instructor. Was ex Army Ranger and retired LEO. We got along fine except when he ordered me to move my car closer to the range entrance. I should have just done it. But I said I like the walk. He barked back: that's too much effort to carry everything in and out. I stupidly told him we wouldn't ask him to do that. When I came to, I moved the car [/another exaggeration].
Then another student who happened to also be an instructor but needed attending a recognized CCW class on his CV to get a higher rating arrived and parked as far as I had. I knew not to point that out.
Was rough on my wife's hand to fire hundreds of rounds thru an 11 oz gun in a session. She ended up with blisters in the web of her strong hand.
A SINGLE miss would fail you and force you to redo the entire day. I can only surmise that innocent bystanders have a strong lobby.
And was hoping using revolvers would save us finding and picking up brass, but all the drills involved using speed loaders. Of course, prior day shooters with no supervision left plenty of other brass for ours to hide among. Our 70+ YO bodies did not enjoy so many hot sun deep knee bends.
I was grateful the instructor allowed us to share a gun, and allow us to use our silver snap caps. Apparently, the class guidelines require bright colored snap caps. But he gave me permission in advance to use the weighted silver ones we already had with large holes completely thru the cases. I admit the colors are much more easily identified.
Since part of the first day covered types of concealed holsters, we did not want to waste money guessing what we would end up with so bought a $12 throw-away pair on Amazon just for the class. But they enclosed way too much of the small grip and literally made it impossible to draw with the EXACT hand position taught. Was worried we would lose too many points in qualifying but came out okay.
Instructor wasn't used to having revolver shooters in the class. Apparently in the years he taught this class, we were the first. My favorite part was the other student who was also an instructor kept asking us questions about our J-Frame. Turns out he was deciding if he should suggest to his wife (also retired military) to carry a J-frame but in .32 mag to get an extra round.
For my wife and me, the VERY much lighter Scandium frame (only in .357 mag) was more important than an extra round. Our life styles expose us to fewer than average risks. We are more likely to be struck by lightning that to need more than 5 rounds. Smaller, lighter, more concealable, firable from inside a purse make the Scandium J our best choice. This is Arizona, I will probably be carrying in a pocket holster much of the time.
One strange incident: during a break, someone painted the instructor for about a second from the direction of the parking lot. I informed an employee of the range who said not to worry, probably just someone checking out their equipment?!?. Was it someone he knew and liked? Not cool. I almost hit the deck when it happened. WTF?
We will very likely get concealed carry permits, but Arizona has open or concealed carry with or without. I know the few upsides but need to understand any potential downsides such as appearing in more govt databases.
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