The Tentacled Monkey

So Saturday I went out and took the Texas Concealed Handgun License (CHL) course at Evans Brothers Guns and Range in Huntington. If you like shooting and have thought about taking the class, do so. It is a very easy course in which people rarely fail. Casey, the part owner and instructor at Evans Brothers, makes the class as interesting as it possibly can be.

The state mandates that a CHL course must be a minimum of 10 hours long. This is a little too long for the material that needs to be covered but the overall experience is good. You must score at least a 70% on the exam (all multiple choice and true/false) and then a 175 on the shooting.

The target shooting is done with a large man-size target staged at 3, 7, & 15 yards. It is possible to score the necessary amount on the 3 yard target to pass. If you aren’t certain at how far three yards is, trust me it is very close.

I scored a 249 out of 250 points on the shooting and would have made perfect if I would have slowed down and not have been in a hurry, but oh well. Both exams are simply Pass/Fail so it really doesn’t matter.

As I wanted to have the ability to carry a semi-automatic pistol instead of just a revolver, I rented a gun from Casey at the range, something that most places will let you do. I happened to get lucky and was given a great Sig-Sauer P6 (known as a P225 here in the US) 9mm. The gun really agreed with me and I think it convinced me to carry it or a similar gun instead of the small J-Frame S&W I would have carried.

The application packet wil be mailed out tomorrow and I will keep everyone up to date on the status of it as such. I also plan on purchasing a new pistol ASAP and will let you know how that works out as well.

Right now I think I am torn between the Sig-Sauer P6, the Sig-Sauer P239, and the Walther PPS.

Sig P6

Sig P239

Walther PPS