Range Report

At the beginning of September we started a new and more structured training regime at the gun club. So far we have only had a few new trainees which is proving beneficial for ironing out the wrinkles.

One of the major changes we have made is to try and eliminate the "just coming to see what it is like" people from the actual training course. Up to now these people have been included in with the trainees and it can make things difficult, especially when there are lots of trainees and lots of "try & sees". We are now planning to hold monthly "Have a Go" sessions designed for these people and keep the training course for new members only.

The other change is that we run a separate course at a different time for the first training session and we're going to limit this course to 4 participants only.

The way the training was run was that people could join at any time during the twelve week program and we just "coped" with it. This way we can assess and ensure that the newbies have basic gun handling skills before mixing in with the bigger classes.

But as I said, we've only had four newbies since the beginning of September - two we've seen only once and haven't applied for membership. The other two have submitted their membership forms and seem quite keen.

The Chief Instructor has been letting me do the majority of the training which has been great, and he's been there to offer advice and help when I've needed it.

Today we did an extra training session (we don't normally train on Sunday) but we're not there next weekend and the trainee from yesterday was keen to do more. The schedule called from shooting from various start positions - including "prone" - shame it had been raining (our range is outdoor on gravel). We did find a bit of plastic to put down, but that made it slippery. The trainee was a good sport about it and yes, I got wet & muddy too as I demonstrated how to keep the gun in front of your body while going prone.