Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Met up with Chasbo00 for a lesson at Blue Ridge today and I am blown away by how helpful it was! When I first when to the range with my new gun I attributed my poor performance to nerves and trying to get used to a new gun. The first thing we did when we got into the firing range was use a laser practice pistol which showed me even with shaky hands you can keep the gun pointed where you want it and that if the shot goes anywhere else it has more to do with trigger pull and grip.

I started off performing about the same as I would expect but the farther we got into the lesson the more I improved. He showed me that I CAN shoot well with focus and practice and now I know what I'm doing wrong when I make mistakes. Charlie is a great instructor, patient, and a blast to shoot with! Here's a picture of probably my best group, after just 30-45 minutes in!



5 rounds fired in a ~2" group compared to last week, this was the best I could do in 15 rounds:



It's hard to tell by the pictures but the black/red target is actually quite a bit larger, so my groupings today were much tighter, and I had very few rounds flying off target after a bit of instruction. Very happy, feeling confident after today and can't thank you enough Charlie!

Oh and about the range, I didn't really talk to the employees but they seemed friendly enough, the range itself is obviously not as high-dollar as the NRA range but it was much less crowded, and the fact that they have separate ranges for pistols & rifles is a big plus. Blue Ridge also seemed to have a wider selection of accessories & firearms paraphernalia. I would definitely consider going there again even though it's almost twice as far away as the NRA range for me.

Thanks for the kind words zenmaster. It was truly a pleasure shooting with you today. You are a very fast learner. I almost never use a shot timer with someone just starting out, but you were progressing so well and so quickly I thought doing a little speed work at the end of our session was worth a go. You were able to keep all your shots within an 8" diameter circle at 5 yards while shooting at a rate of nearly 3 shots per second using a Glock 19 and full power defensive ammo. That's damn good recoil control, especially for someone just stating out!