Congratulations, @Eric1! Glad to have you here! What was your favorite part of the class?
3 Likes
Hey Eric!!
Nice to see you here 
1 Like
Thanks Dawn. The course as a whole was solid, great interactions with cadre and they presented they classes in an excellent manner, also working with other like minded individuals taking the training was great.
3 Likes
Hi Zee, I believe you were in my class in Charleston if I am not mistaken. Good to see you here also!
3 Likes
yep, @Eric1 that was me!
what do you think the most important, or most interesting, thing you learned was?
1 Like
Most interesting & important was learning more about USCCA and the people behind it and confirming the quality that is within the organization.
3 Likes
Congratulations Zee! Currently NRA Certified but have been considering USCCA for a while now. If I’ve taken the online course through my elite membership am I eligible to go ahead and go to a class to get certified?
2 Likes
Thank you @Jeff4! 
I actually dont know if you can apply the course you’ve already taken or not! It’s a great question. @Dawn?
It’s an outstanding course, I highly recommend it.
1 Like
What ammo did you use? target or self defense. Personally, I been advised to shoot what you use in your carry gun. Looking for input.
2 Likes
@MilVet For the shooting qualification part, it doesn’t really matter what you use. You can shoot anything you like, including your carry gun or your range gun or whatever you feel comfortable shooting. I shot with my glock G21 .45, but in retrospect I probably should have shot the ruger P89 because I’m a little more accurate with it at distance. I used FMJ rounds, cheaper, but there’s no restrictions other than what the range allows. I’ll have to ask if theres a minimum caliber for qual… @Dawn?
When I’m training at the range, I shoot a lot of full metal jacket because of the price. But I shoot every type of self defense ammo I have through each gun I carry to make sure the gun functions correctly and to see if it feels or shoots any differently than the FMJ. We also shoot out what’s in the mags 4 times a year and replace it with fresh.
If I was finding a lot of difference between a defense load and the regular FMJ loads, which I really haven’t found, I might consider if that was a suitable defense round for that gun or not.
1 Like
Alright, thanks. I will be running my EDC XD Mod 2 45 subcompact.
2 Likes
I’m just going to toss this out there. Take it with a grain of salt if you wish.
There is very little difference in modern ammunition these days when it comes to the type of range a self defense encounter is going to happen in. Anything under 100 yards is going to be unaffected by a slight difference in casting.
It’s good practice to do as @Zee suggested and shoot out ammo you’ve had in your firearm for a few months (i do this semi-annually). But the difference in casting between Federal, Remington. Winchester or Hornady is unlikely to make a noticeable difference under 50 yards. If you go super cheap or load your own then you may encounter that problem.
Simply put, modern technology has pretty much eliminated this problem for the majority of us. It’s more worth your time to hit up a sale and shoot more than to be concerned with the brand of freedom seeds you’re buying.
2 Likes
We had my class in Lubbock, TX and had people literally from both coasts and the Great Lakes Region as well as all over Texas.
Talk about a diverse group!
Congrat’s Zee, it’s a very challenging instructor level course.
I highly recommend finding another instructor or TC you can co teach with for a few classes till it’s all very well ingrained. I learned early on in my NRA instructor advancement that doing so is a huge help.
If you want to do so and want to put some classes together up there let me know.
2 Likes
Thank you @WildRose
The USCCA instructors course is definitely not a walk-on. I was certified to teach rifle, pistol, shotgun through NRA about a dozen years ago and didn’t find those classes nearly as challenging. Don’t remember anyone not passing those… there were a couple in our big class at USCCA who really weren’t ready to teach and didn’t qualify.
I just found my teaching range yesterday and have to get my insurance in place this week. I do have someone I’m going to approach about co-teaching, And thank you, I do appreciate the offer. Over the 4th of July weekend I’m going to see if I can test-fly the course on my hubby and granddaughter. I have a couple friends in MI lined up to try it here as well.
1 Like
If you need more folks to help in Michigan I’d be down, probably could convince my wife to go too, every time we’ve had a day off together the weather has not been cooperative so I haven’t been able to teach her hands on yet.
2 Likes
Talk to a Training Counselor to sign up for the class. They will go through all of the training details. 
You can find a Training Counselor here:
3 Likes
Excellent! I’d be really happy to work with your wife as well. She’s not shot much?
1 Like
Never shot a handgun as of yet.
1 Like
Who were your TC’s/Instructors? I had Mark, Shawn, and Beth primarily but there were five or six total for our class since it was so large and we had them for most of a week since it was all the way through DSF1.
All were very good, Shawn and Beth make a particularly fantastic team.
2 Likes