So new to owning a weapon it is scary

[Rick_ICT]

Kehowell-

One thing that I've found helpful when trying to determine the best placement for my trigger finger on the trigger of a new gun is to practice dry firing with only my strong hand (the hand you primarily grip the gun and press the trigger with). I have found that using a two handed grip can minimize the sight deflection induced by my trigger press, making it harder to determine where my best "natural" (the one that doesn't automatically induce sight deflection) trigger finger position is located.

Grip the gun firmly in your strong hand and with the tip of your trigger finger on the trigger, practice dry firing and then re-cocking while slowly moving more and more of your trigger finger across the face of the trigger every few shots. At some point you may find that the gun goes from twitching left as the hammer falls to twitching right once you have too much finger across the trigger. Right in between, where the gun deflects neither right nor left, is the best spot for you to place your finger on the trigger. Make good note of it, and practice it that way every time you squeeze the trigger, until your trigger finger automatically lands there every time you press the trigger.

I wholeheartedly endorse the suggestion to try different backstraps, as they can have an impact on where your trigger finger and its joints naturally rest on the gun. Just be aware that different backstraps effect your entire grip. I've tried different combinations of grip panels on some guns and found "X" panels felt great in dry fire, but caused my grip to break in live fire (my weak hand separating from my strong hand/gun) or that they caused the gun to naturally point left or right of the bullseye for me.

Also endorse the drill of the week recommendation, especially the dot torture drill. Just start from a ready position rather that a holster if you cannot draw at your range (and until you get some instruction on drawing from a holster) and start at three yards. Once you can do the entire drill "clean" (no misses), move the target out to 4 yard and so on. I just use some painters tape to tape the target to the backer or a larger silhouette target if the range target carriers don't have backers.

My response to the "sissy loader" remark might have been along the lines of "So we should practice loading manually in case we are ever in an extended fire fight and exhaust all of our loaded magazines but don't have our sissy loader with us, we can still break out the box of ammo we carry in our back pocket and manually reload the empty magazines we've been judiciously retaining, so we can get back in the fight, right?". Odds are, your response was much more appropriate to the situation however.

[Jim Watson]

I hope it is not too soon to start thinking and talking about it, but...
Where do you go from here?

More training
I think Claude Werner in your area is a good source. A professor, not a drill sergeant. https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress....ng-events/urce.
Maybe Tom Givens will pass through Atlanta. http://rangemaster.com/
Does your drill sergeant offer another level?
I am sure the folks here can help.

Practice
Lots of drills listed here.
Do you have range access to do them?
Are you motivated to keep at solo practice and track your improvement?

And now that dirty word I threatened earlier:
Competition
Just to calm all the pros down, the popular action pistol shooting sports like USPSA, IDPA, and GADPA are not training. They do not have the repetition that builds skill and while tactics get a superficial nod from IDPA and GADPA, they are not really gunfighting techniques.
What they are is a combination of sport and a test of your marksmanship, gunhandling, and flexibility. You have to get the gunfighting tactics from gunfighters.
But you also get camaraderie, encouragement, and incentive to practice.

[kehowell]

I hope it is not too soon to start thinking and talking about it, but...
Where do you go from here?

More training
I think Claude Werner in your area is a good source. A professor, not a drill sergeant. https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress....ng-events/urce.
Maybe Tom Givens will pass through Atlanta. http://rangemaster.com/
Does your drill sergeant offer another level?
I am sure the folks here can help.

Practice
Lots of drills listed here.
Do you have range access to do them?
Are you motivated to keep at solo practice and track your improvement?

And now that dirty word I threatened earlier:
Competition
Just to calm all the pros down, the popular action pistol shooting sports like USPSA, IDPA, and GADPA are not training. They do not have the repetition that builds skill and while tactics get a superficial nod from IDPA and GADPA, they are not really gunfighting techniques.
What they are is a combination of sport and a test of your marksmanship, gunhandling, and flexibility. You have to get the gunfighting tactics from gunfighters.
But you also get camaraderie, encouragement, and incentive to practice.

Thanks Jim. Yes. I am motivated for solo practice. I find it easier to stay focused. The range I went to for training is not so large that I will get lost or feel that way. Tuesdays are Ladies Days so I will be able to become a member and do what I need to do. They do not allow drawing from a holster but some of that I can start using Snap Caps, etc and create my own drills. I watched some of Claude Werner's videos. My big concern is undoing a bad habit. We all develop them when we start learning something that we have never tried before. That is one of the reasons I wanted to approach this methodically. Fewer bad habits to break.

My former Marine Teddy Bear does teach other classes but they are more geared toward tactical and aimed to work with the professionals. Not sure my 65+ YO heart could handle another weekend with the big guy screaming at me and not sure he wants to have me in another class. I know that yesterday was a tough way to start but the way I see it, I came out bloodied but unbowed. The next instructor will seem like a real pussy-cat.

I was not sure about starting competition work at my age. Sounds intriguing but I would hate to have someone confuse me with a grandma coming to watch their grandchild shoot.

If I can gain the confidence I need to pick up and use a gun without running through the powerpoint presentation I may consider doing it.

When my husband saw my accuracy results from yesterday he quipped "Well, at least one of us will be able to sleep easy." He is 20+ years older than I and worried about me being by myself after he died, (should he go first). Yes, we do say die and avoid euphemisms. We don't pretend but we do prepare. He has been so supportive through all of this, encouraging me when I turned to look behind to see if I was making a mistake.

I finally told my son a week ago. Shocked would be the best description of his reaction and then I watched as pride took a stroll across his face and he began to grin. He has never figured out what I was going to get into next.

[Jim Watson]

I'm not but 71 so I don't know about the age thing.
I see many beginning match shooters of all ages and I think that with some work on the draw you would be above average already.

I bet your Son's reaction was a treasure.

[Stephanie B]

Four hours of training. I expected to work on stance, grip, sighting, accuracy etc. Well - we did that at the very beginning. Can't remember who recommended the mag loader but I am ever so grateful to all of you who did. When he saw me take it out he said "A sissy loader. Are you a sissy?" Me: "Yes, and you will have to deal with it." He grinned and moved on. He did ask me to practice loading by hand.

I'm trying to think of a reasonable self-defense scenario where I would shoot through two or three magazines and then have the time to load more rounds into a magazine before going back into a fight.

[HCM]

There is a time and place for inducing stress, yelling etc in training and a basic pistol class is NOT that time or place.

Even in LE training we are not yelling at trainees or otherwise trying to induce stress until they have progressed beyond basic marksmanship, weapons manipulation and qualification.

I would seek instruction elsewhere. Claude Werner, Tom Givens or P-F's own Chief Deputy Lee Weems would all be good choices.

[eyemahm]

Cleaning after each range session is a bit extreme, IMO. Assuming you're lubricating the P2000 properly (and I'm sure you are), a cleaning every......1000 rounds or so is all that's needed (on the conservative side). Your P2000 is a modern, polymer-framed defensive handgun, and excessive cleaning is not necessary for reliable function.

Re lube on the P2000 series:

It will run dry but may struggle if both dirty (1k+ rounds since last cleaning plus dirt/sand exposure) and dry. By dry, I mean no visible lube on critical surfaces (finger does not collect any when run across them).

The pistols will wear less if you keep them lubricated, with the two critical points being in the barrel hood /locking block region and the slide rails. If those two areas are kept lubricated (when they look dry, I add a drop or two to the frame rails and rub a few drops all over the barrel assembly), I would expect your pistol to shoot in excess of 3-4k rounds between cleanings without any appreciable increase in failures.

Keeping my pistols lubricated as above, I consider it an inefficient use of time if I clean them more frequently than every 1000-1500 rounds unless they're trapping alot of lint /getting sandy, etc.

PS this isn't meant to be an indictment of anyone's cleaning habits, though it seems to be similar to most here. Just meant as a data point.

[Drang]

There is a time and place for inducing stress, yelling etc in training and a basic pistol class is NOT that time or place.

Even in LE training we are not yelling at trainees or otherwise trying to induce stress until they have progressed beyond basic marksmanship, weapons manipulation and qualification.

I would seek instruction elsewhere. Claude Werner, Tom Givens or P-F's own Chief Deputy Lee Weems would all be good choices.

While it sounds like you got a lot out of this class, I must concur with HCM et. al.: A "Handgun 101" class should be all about alleviating the stress of shooting a handgun for folks who have likely never done so, not about inducing additional stress. I worry about this guy's impact on someone who wasn't as prepared as you were.
Also, I don't remember if you said, did he have any assistant instructors? What was the student to instructor ratio?

Range Week is the most low-stress week in Basic Training. That is, you generally only get yelled at if you do something unsafe and/or illegal. (Admittedly I went to basic 35+ years ago, I doubt that this is something that got harder after I retired, after all, it is axiomatic that the Army has gone down hill since then...)

As for cleaning your handgun, well, this is another area where the disputation reaches nearly religious levels. Somebody is always selling a new and improved gadget (no relation) or system to keep your guns cleaner, and while for the most part they work, for the most part the added improvements amount to snake oil.

The military makes a fetish of cleaning Uncle Sam's guns, and as a retired senior NCO I can tell you that a lot of it is wasted time and energy, and may indeed add to the risk of breaking or damaging guns, losing gun parts, and keeping people after hours even though the freaking manuals provide clear guidance on just how clean the things need to be.

A deep cleaning of your gun is almost never needed, unless you have been to a week-long course in the rain and mud and/or sand. Run the bore snake down the bore after a range session, refresh the lube ditto, avoid excess tinkering with fiddly bits.

[ReverendMeat]

Re: cleaning weapons in the military

You're "trained" to overclean your weapon in boot camp because there's a hole in the training schedule and it's either cleaning guns, playing games (and not the fun kind), or close order drill. If the DIs feel like they want a break, recruits clean weapons in silence with minimal supervision while the DIs take it easy.

[Kyle Reese]

Re: cleaning weapons in the military

You're "trained" to overclean your weapon in boot camp because there's a hole in the training schedule and it's either cleaning guns, playing games (and not the fun kind), or close order drill. If the DIs feel like they want a break, recruits clean weapons in silence with minimal supervision while the DIs take it easy.

Bingo.