Help ease my mind.

[Michael Brown]

I respectfully disagree. You can be "competent" but not yet carried frequently enought to be "comfortable." Competence comes with learning and practice, but comfort truly only comes with successful and demonstrated experience. You will always have some discomfort the first times you carry until you do it a few times and end up NOT shooting yourself in the leg.

The definiton of competence is sufficient skill and knowledge.

If you have those, what do you have to be uncomfortable about?

In your words, if you practice and learn you are developing succesful experience.

The two are completely intertwined and one does not exist without the other.

The answer for the OP is obvious: He needs training. If you look at some of the other questions it is clear that the OP needs basic familiarization with his equipment thus it is clear that he is not yet competent with it. One can do that on his own or find a competent instructor, of which there are many in this state.

Michael Brown

 

[Roadking Larry]

Take a pistol class.
taking anything else to heart is just listening to a bunch of guys in their underwear on the internet.

You failed to mention the Cheetos.

 

[SMS]

load it, holster it and set in on the coffee table...now, using sheer willpower, command it to fire. Keep doing that until you are convinced it's just not going to unless you pull the trigger.

 

[prdator]

I was wondering if anyone felt that I could get more out of a 2 hour private lesson than I would out of a group class. Couldn't the instructor get more into my specific needs? I've been reading a bunch - real books not just guys in their underwear - and practicing also. The all day classes aren't very practical for me right now.

B

If you are in OKC your best bet would be www.oklahomashootingskills.com
PS2 wold be the class you want to start with, You will get the basics in that class. Will is a very good instructor and will get you up to speed in no time.
You cant beet the price of the class either..

 

[blutch]

If you are in OKC your best bet would be www.oklahomashootingskills.com
PS2 wold be the class you want to start with, You will get the basics in that class. Will is a very good instructor and will get you up to speed in no time.
You cant beet the price of the class either..

Thank you for that suggestion. I have looked at that curriculum in detail. The only thing listed there I haven't already had training on is holster basics. Otherwise, I think I'm in good shape on the other basics. Grip, stance, trigger control. You can't draw from a holster at H&H so I need to get to an outdoor range to practice it with live rounds. I practice at home all the time. This is why I was thinking a private lesson or two might be more efficient training for me. Maybe not.

B

 

[BadgeBunny]

Thank you for that suggestion. I have looked at that curriculum in detail. The only thing listed there I haven't already had training on is holster basics. Otherwise, I think I'm in good shape on the other basics. Grip, stance, trigger control. You can't draw from a holster at H&H so I need to get to an outdoor range to practice it with live rounds. I practice at home all the time. This is why I was thinking a private lesson or two might be more efficient training for me. Maybe not.

B

Depends. If the range guys are familiar with you (read: you shoot there regularly) and the bay you are on is not too crowded, they will let you practice your draw. Just ask. If you already have your grip, stance and trigger control down and are not just going all gansta style, you can save your money and practice your draw in front of a mirror at home with an unloaded gun. Start slowing, make it as smooth as possible.

Three positions -- clear the holster, rotate your elbow to bring the gun up, then push forward bringing your weak hand into position and pushing forward.
Watch for your sight to line up, then finger on the trigger and dry fire.

Remember, smooth will translate into fast later on down the road. Nothing replaces regular practice and dryfiring, unless you are filthy rich and then live practice on a private range is, well, it is the cat's meow!!

There are plenty of videos on youtube -- some of them are quite hysterical. It is pretty easy to spot the mall ninjas, but you can get a lot of good info there too.

Also, try Brian Enos' website. It is for competitive shooters, but lots of good info there too.

 

[Commander Keen]

As far as carrying the weapon in the car, that is illegal without a CCL.
Carrying a striker fired weapon is perfectly safe (I carry a Glock 30 every day). Just remember one rule: Until you're ready to fire, keep your booger hook off the bang switch!

 

[V1K1NG0]

You've gotten some great advice (from people who have much more experience than me). Training and proper holster.

Here is what I did:
One thing I did to get comfortable carrying my semi-autos was load a snap cap in the chamber w/empty magazine. Carried it like that and did all the things that I believed might make it go off. After about a week of this I learned to trust it (guns internal safeties/proper holster).

Like SMS said it is an inanimate object, it won't do anything without you acting on it.

Another thing is to read the manual and learn how the internal safeties work and what makes your pistol function. If after all that you do not feel comfortable then you need to find something that you are.

 

[greyBeered]

Your fear is irrational unless you are not competent. That is the way your gun is designed to be carried.

That said, I'm not sure the majority of gun owners would meet most instructors' definition of "competent".

If you're uncomfortable with a round in the chamber, you are likely not competent yet and you should get professional training ASAP.

Michael Brown

+1 on the professional training (and there is some great training in Tulsa!). I think the most sobering moments during the two day pistol class I took were the three or four times I stepped to the line, absolutely positive my gun was dry, and racked the slide to have a live round pop out.

That comfortable feeling that you've got a dry gun without a round in the tube is a disaster waiting to happen.

The other alternative is to carry a revolver: which I do when I will be needing to mess witth my gun during the day, holstering and unholstering because I am going places that are restricted. Repeatedly sliding a hot semi-auto in and out of a holster, especially sitting in the front of a pickup truck, especially now that it is getting colder with more clothes and jackets in the way, is not something I'm comfortable with.

 

[Hawgman]

This is what I did to convince myself. Emptied my glock and made sure it was cocked. I held it about 3 to 4 feet above a carpeted floor and dropped it....repeatedly.....at different angles. Every few drops I would dry fire it to see if it would have discharged had there been one in the chamber. After 5 or 6 rounds of this the srtiker had never tripped. I know "you could have hurt your gun". The way I look at it, if it can't take several dropps on a carpeted floor I sure wouldn't trust my life with it. I still have that gun and put a couple hundred rounds through it every couple months.