Hi all,
I took the NRA range safety officer class at Sir Walter this past week. The instructor and facilities were first class- as was the cost and communication leading up to it. I will make Sir Walter my first choice for training!
But the NRA class material/content was pretty crap. I RO at a bunch of matches and this barely moved the needle in knowledge, despite 8 hours in the classroom. Everyone else in the class was experienced as well. The most interesting part was some amount of role-playing with dealing with a new shooter having an issue, making sure they weren't further startled, and how to take control of a weapon. Overall it was geared to the typical 'bunch of lanes/commence firing' type things.
My complaint with the class is that the course material was simply wrong, with different sections opposing each other and too much material with insignificant use cases (black powder matches, but not precision rifle). Apparently, the course material hasn't been updated in a while, but even basic things applying to all matches were wrong. The definitions of 'hot range/cold range' were inconsistent. The use of 'flags' as to if a bay was open was wrong. Examples of inane instruction, the test required an answer if that a gun malfunctioned, instead of 'safely transporting it to a gunsmith', required that a gunsmith come to the range and work on it there- none of the ranges I go to have a gunsmith waiting around. But the NRA stance is that a 'loaded gun cannot leave the range', which is interesting that a conceal carry holder and come and go from the range (loaded)- isn't in a holster 'safely transported'? Meanwhile, there were question like "where do you find out of smoking is allowed on the line?" and "which policy covers if someone can eat or drink on the range?".
I could go on but the real message is 'have a good standard operating procedure' which I support and will recommend to where I shoot.
I took the NRA range safety officer class at Sir Walter this past week. The instructor and facilities were first class- as was the cost and communication leading up to it. I will make Sir Walter my first choice for training!
But the NRA class material/content was pretty crap. I RO at a bunch of matches and this barely moved the needle in knowledge, despite 8 hours in the classroom. Everyone else in the class was experienced as well. The most interesting part was some amount of role-playing with dealing with a new shooter having an issue, making sure they weren't further startled, and how to take control of a weapon. Overall it was geared to the typical 'bunch of lanes/commence firing' type things.
My complaint with the class is that the course material was simply wrong, with different sections opposing each other and too much material with insignificant use cases (black powder matches, but not precision rifle). Apparently, the course material hasn't been updated in a while, but even basic things applying to all matches were wrong. The definitions of 'hot range/cold range' were inconsistent. The use of 'flags' as to if a bay was open was wrong. Examples of inane instruction, the test required an answer if that a gun malfunctioned, instead of 'safely transporting it to a gunsmith', required that a gunsmith come to the range and work on it there- none of the ranges I go to have a gunsmith waiting around. But the NRA stance is that a 'loaded gun cannot leave the range', which is interesting that a conceal carry holder and come and go from the range (loaded)- isn't in a holster 'safely transported'? Meanwhile, there were question like "where do you find out of smoking is allowed on the line?" and "which policy covers if someone can eat or drink on the range?".
I could go on but the real message is 'have a good standard operating procedure' which I support and will recommend to where I shoot.
