by Desstoni Johnson, owner of FAB Firearms Academy
June 22,2023
As a firearms instructor, I’ve encountered [entirely too many] students who purchase a gun, sign up for a gun licensing class, and then secure the gun at home and forget about it. Years go by, and once it’s time to renew their gun license, they’ve completely forgotten how to safely operate and fire their weapon.
That’s no good! Imagine their dismay when I inform them that I cannot, in good conscience, renew their license because they aren’t proficient operators and we must start over from scratch..
Shooting, like most other skills, is a perishable skill. This essentially means “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. Therefore, incorporating practice and training into your regular routine as a new gun owner or new carrier is critical for your safety and defense! An untrained gun owner is a threat to themselves and all those around them.
So what exactly is a good amount of time to spend training with your firearm each year? 10,000 hours? Once a month? Every weekend?
Realistically, you could be practicing with your firearm daily – because “training” does not always have to be physically going to the gun range. Right from the comfort of your own home, you can practice things like:
– Loading and unloading your magazines
– Disassembling and reassembling your firearm
– Cleaning your firearm
– Improving your grip and stance
– Aligning your sights
– Pressing your trigger evenly and steadily (while unloaded, of course). This is what we call “dry firing”.
– Drawing from your holster
and more.
You can visit the actual shooting range once you’re ready to work on live firing and learning to managing recoil. While hands-on training at a live range is important, you don’t have to spend $50+ on a trip to the range every single time you want to get some practice in. A lot of the fundamental shooting skills (grip, stance, sight alignment, etc.) can be worked on right at home!
Practicing the basics at home will also make your actual range day go a lot smoother since you aren’t spending so much time with menial tasks like struggling to load your magazine or remembering how you’re supposed to hold the darn thing.
We’ve now established that its very plausible to get some kind of practice in with your gun almost every day right at home, but the question still remains: How often should you go to the actual shooting range? The answer is as often as you can manage, whether you’re a newbie or a polished shooter.
When I first started shooting, I dedicated Mondays and Thursdays each week to going to the range. Monday was Ladies’ Night at my local range, and Thursday was just quiet. On Mondays, I would get free instruction at Ladies Night but it was always too busy and rambunctious to really focus, so I would get the information and go back on the quieter day (Thursday) to practice what I learned. Sometimes, I would even add in a few Saturday mornings.
Granted, I had a goal of becoming an instructor, so I was being a bit extra with it.
With my gun club, I have the ladies commit to going to the range at least once per month. Life can get busy, but there are about 720 hours in a month. If you’re working 160 of them and sleeping 240 of them, that still leaves you with 400 “free” hours – you can spare one to practice life-saving skills! You just have to prioritize it.
Until you’re confident enough in your skillset to go to the range solo, you can also book private lessons with certified instructors. You could go to the range every single day and not improve one bit if you don’t know what “right” looks like and aren’t practicing correctly. Having a firearms instructor with you to help coach you through any mishaps improves the quality of your training and produces better results than just winging it – trust me. I wasted 6 months trying to figure this stuff out on my own, but after learning about Ladies’ Night and getting consistent proper instruction, my shooting drastically improved within weeks.
Whatever routine works for you – once a week, once a month, once a quarter – commit to it and stick to it until you see the improvements you desire! And be sure to practice the basics at home in between, because “behind the scenes” is where most of the real work gets done anyway! Happy training!
https://fabfirearmsacademy.com/blog
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