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A-R wrote:Practice at 15 yards on a target the size of or smaller than the 8 ring hit zone. If you can hit at 15 you'll easily hit the others at 3 & 7 yards.

Load you mag full. Rack one in the chamber, then drop the mag. Fire the chambered round concentrating on all the fundamentals - trigger squeeze, grip, stance, sight alignment, breathing etc. then manually rack the slide and do the EXACT same thing with a dry fire - concentrate on all the same fundamentals but LOOK for problems, flinches, especially concentrating on front sight movement as trigger breaks on empty chamber (remember minor trembling/movement is normal, you're looking for big flinches).

Then repeat this dry fire procedure 4 more time for a total of one live round and 5 dry fires. Then load mag, rack in another live round, drop mag and repeat the 1 live/5 dry sequence. Continue repeating until you've run through the entire magazine.

Do this first EVERY range visit. You will begin to notice your errors and learn how to correct them with this method because of the constant repetition. It will also reinforce discipline/muscle memory.

That sounds like a really useful exercise. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to try that next time out.

flechero wrote:Not to be cliche' but the chl test is pass/fail. The test you may someday face on the street will be much more serious than that. Train for the latter, and the former will take care of itself. Anyone who is prepared for a street confrontation will score well on the chl test. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Excellent point!

My goal with this original message was just to gather some ideas on how to improve. I don't anticipate any trouble *passing* the shooting test, but I am aiming for as high a score as I can get. If I had kept up with my training and dryfire, there's no reason to not get a perfect score. The test isn't that hard. I'm just a bit nervous as I've not had nearly the range time I should have had in the last couple years. Yes, I had a lot of travel and such, but that's just excuses. This has been a good lesson for me. Despite the travel and work, I need to get my butt to the range and dryfire and get more training. I need to find a shooting buddy and keep my skills as polished as they can get because you are right. If, God forbid, I ever had to pull the trigger to save my life or the life of someone else, it needs to be drilled into muscle memory to where I can do it correctly and accurately under stress.

This thread has given me a lot of good advice, some old and some new, and I am really appreciative. My practice (dry and live) has improved because of the things people have said, and I really can't say enough thank you's for all the good advice.

As we all know shooting is a perishable skill. I was unemployed for six months and to save money did not shoot much than attending the CHL Instructors shooting qualification it really showed. The only way to keep your skills up is to practice.

Sounds like you are already renewing however someone else reading the above posts might be confused. Yes, after Sept 1st you still have to renew prior to your renewal date however it will be done online with no shooting required. If you sign up to renew before Sept 1st you will still need to take the class and shoot.
Remember shooting is fun. When shooting for a CHL qualification it's important to have fun.

Same thing if you are planning to get your first CHL and attend the 4+ class. Do not do the State application before Sept 1st or you still need to do the 10 hour class. When the application is submitted before Sept 1st you are still under the old laws.

Just to finish the story, today's shooting test saw me get a 246/250. Without y'all's advice, I'm sure it would have been much lower. Thanks for the help.

newTexan wrote:Just to finish the story, today's shooting test saw me get a 246/250. Without y'all's advice, I'm sure it would have been much lower. Thanks for the help.

Nice, Congrats!

Way to finish off your last renewal qualification

newTexan wrote:Just to finish the story, today's shooting test saw me get a 246/250. Without y'all's advice, I'm sure it would have been much lower. Thanks for the help.

One more tip to keep your skills up..........


Have someone else load your mag. Have them slip in an empty casing at random intervals. (1 round, one empty; three rounds, one empty; etc.) Watch your front sight when the striker falls on the empty case. It should stay dead still. If it moves at all with no recoil............you are anticipating and over-compensating!

kg5ie wrote:

newTexan wrote:Just to finish the story, today's shooting test saw me get a 246/250. Without y'all's advice, I'm sure it would have been much lower. Thanks for the help.

One more tip to keep your skills up..........


Have someone else load you mag. Have them slip in an empty casing at random intervals. (1 round, one empty; three rounds, one empty; etc.) Watch your front sight when the striker falls on the empty case. It should stay dead still. If it moves at all with no recoil............you are anticipating and over-compensating!

Have you actually tried this? I suspect few semi-autos will feed an empty case. A snap-cap, however, would work.

sjfcontrol wrote:

kg5ie wrote:

newTexan wrote:Just to finish the story, today's shooting test saw me get a 246/250. Without y'all's advice, I'm sure it would have been much lower. Thanks for the help.

One more tip to keep your skills up..........


Have someone else load you mag. Have them slip in an empty casing at random intervals. (1 round, one empty; three rounds, one empty; etc.) Watch your front sight when the striker falls on the empty case. It should stay dead still. If it moves at all with no recoil............you are anticipating and over-compensating!

Have you actually tried this? I suspect few semi-autos will feed an empty case. A snap-cap, however, would work.

My Glock 31 feeds them fine. As you stated...on some semi's a snap-cap....or dummy round (dummybullet.com) might work better. No I don't work for them...I just use their products in my classes.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

Some good info here:

7 Habits of Highly Effective Shooters

For self-defense practice I like to dry fire against the TV. You can throw in a DVD with lots of bad guys and get "shoot/no-shoot" training for free.

There are online dry fire targets available for FREE as well: Rangemaster

I just took my renewal.

I am embarrassed to say this, especially in this particular venue, but I had not shot at all for probably three years and only three rounds kept me from a perfect score. I didn't even use the sights until I got to the 15 yard mark.

Easy is an understatement.