That's Like 1,440 Hours!

Howdy, folks! It's Sunday, and it's kinda early. As you have noticed, I haven't posted since Thursday. For once, it's not because I had nothing really in my little brain to type out. No, this time it's something much better...

Friday, I hauled the Px4 to work (left it in the car) because I knew I'd be blowing through the only public indoor range in the entire area at Bass Pro Shops. It was a really nice range, though it is only six lanes and your $10 gets you 30 minutes. Won't be any four or five hundred round shoot-a-thons going on in there. So I got fifty rounds and five targets (won't make that mistake again. Wasted $2.50. Next time? ONE target) and the whole shebang cost me about $25. Nice.

Oh, and why, might you ask, would I intentionally "rush" through a trip to the range like that? Well, I wanted to brush up my chops because I knew that on Saturday, I would have to be at the gunstore at 0730 sharp for my Texas Concealed Handgun License Course.

$140 to the State and another $140 to the store for the training gets you an all expenses (otherwise) paid 11.5-hour-day with twodamned fine trainers giving up some damned fine training, and they provide ammo, target, and a catered lunch to boot! They fingerprint you, they help you fill out every inch of paperwork AND check it before you leave. They do it all.

It was fun. It was informative. It was grueling shooting outside in the beating South Texas sun. And it was worth it.

No gunshop commando's, no manufacturer-induced bias (though we did get to see one of the instructors conceal four different Kel-Tec P3AT's on his person), no opinions that weren't duly expressed.

We even got to see just how you can conceal a firearm, or in this case several. Aside from the hip-worn 1911 that you could see, there were several (and I mean SEVERAL) that you couldn't: the aforementioned P3AT's in back right pocket, left ankle, right ankle, and with the belt-clip, inside the waistband; a North American Arms Mini-Revolver in the front left pocket; a .357 Magnum revolver in a day-planner w/ holster; a Glock 21, a .44 Magnum revolver, and an AR pistol w/ 30-round banana magazine in a briefcase. Maybe not his "everyday" carry rig, certainly a testament to the not-gun-nuts in the room that you can, in fact, conceal a full size (or larger) handgun.

The state's requirements are: no less than 10 hours but no more than 15 hours instruction time, a fifty-round course of fire (which, as they put it, Stevie Wonder could pass), and a fifty question exam. On the firing line using the Texas DPS-standard B-27 target, I scored a 248 out of 250 (I let a couple shots slip low and left into the 7-ring. Dammit!). I aced the written test.

Now, I have to wait 60 days for my CHL card to show up in the mail. Dammit!



tweaker