I learned that from a moving vehicle (extreme shooting on the move) you need a weapon will a well defined breakpoint to do well. An undefined breakpoint meant you werent sure when the round would go off. At that speed in a confined space there was no way to hold on the target for long. So I decided then and there that the Sig P250′s long travel, reset and undefined breakpoint was very handicapping.

My big big complaint with most academy classes indoors (B&V is outdoors) is the cost per round for the frangible; at the end of 09 they were stocking it at 42 cents a round for 9mm ouch. In the fall of 08 it was .24 cents a round. Thats a 75% increase. I told them they need to get into some forward ammo contract lock ins with a supplier because it became clear I could afford the tuition or the ammo but not both. I really support lead free projectile and primer in ammo but the ammo companies have gotten into crazy price gouging. They seem to think that frangible should be as expensive as duty ammo because I guess they feel that the governments will pay whatever they ask; what is happening is the gubermints are just cutting back on training. There were a lot of crickets at the academy in the fall 09 except for 101 and 102 courses for all the newbies.

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Thanks for the answers.

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They did mention the dust and unfortunately we didn’t have masks, but our exposure was only for a couple rounds at a time.

Tony: I checked out the Buick O’Truth and it looks pretty accurate compared to what we experienced. I think the Taurus windshield was at more of an angle than the Buick (the Buick windshield seemed more upright). The only thing I am not sure of is/was the amount of deflection between the 9mm/.40S&W/.45ACP I didn’t take note of what happened when we shot, but the Buick O’truth results make sense.

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I’ve gotta do this. Shooting from a car while someone else drive have always been one of my shooting fansaies (blame hollywood and video games, not me).

(by the way, stupid question, but can you use any gun you want for this course. Let’s say I come to this course with a mousesgun or a revolver, what are they going to do ? Kick me out, laugh at me, give me another gun (most likely a sig) ?)

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Steve: If you were inside shooting out, the bullet would typically travel upward. So from the outside if you were shooting into the vehicle the bullet would tend to travel at a downward angle. Basically the angle it hits the windshield, that is the direction it will tend to travel.

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When I first went shooting at the range with a friend of mine, he immediately put my worries at ease by telling me that ‘You’re not a proper shooter until you’ve done an accidental discharge and received a vicious dressing down from the Range Officer’.

This was in stark contrast to the advice I received when I went hunting for the first (and last) time in which I was told ‘If you shoot yourself out here, there is just not enough physical time to get you to the hospital’.

Both pieces of advice have stuck with me for decades.

BTW I only went hunting once because I found it incredibly dull, I spent most of the day soaking wet and they wouldn’t let me smoke a cigarette.

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Someone: I honestly don’t remember if we did, for some reason it’s not standing out in my mind and I wrote the article a bit after I took the course. Sort of ironically, I shot 357Sig for the first time at the Defensive Shotgun class I took over this past weekend but it was at a conventional (ie boring) reactive plate.

Tony: I wish I had paid more attention (we covered a lot of stuff in a short span of time and I didn’t take notes). The impression I got was that ball ammo had more of a tendency to stay together than the JHP. Again I want to reiterate that it had the tendency to stay together but not all the time. The JHP we shot, when it did fragment, was so inconsistent, I wouldn’t want to use JHP around a car if I knew (there’s the catch) I would be shooting through vehicular glass. Didn’t use anything with a meplat from what I recall. The thing I noticed but didn’t mention originally, the jacketing from a lot of the rounds fired, ended up on the dashboard while most of the lead traveled through the windshield.

SpudGun: I highly doubt you would get thrown out, the instructors have pretty good senses of humor so as long as everyone is safe you’d be GTG.

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(Sorry Steve)

As someone who has shot up a few cars with buckshot, 9mm and 7.62 Combloc, it’s amazing just how much punishment a modern vehicle can take.

One thing I did learn is that a lot of the bullets would travel very easily through both sets of doors, not like in the movies at all.

I’d like to go on one of these courses, but I’d probably get thrown off for cracking jokes, especially if the other participants had moustaches. I don’t know what it is with firearms courses and hairy upper lips, but the two can’t seem to seperate.

Anyways, I enjoyed your post and glad you had a good time on the course, it does look like a lot of fun.

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The Box O’ Truth – The Buick O’ Truth
http://theboxotruth.com/docs/thebuickotruth.htm

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Great review of an exciting class. Makes me wish I lived in New Hampshire.

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