It is my plan to blog my experiences as the 4 Day Defensive Handgun course the Mrs and I are going to be taking February 2-5 on the blog. Therefore I’ve created a new category on the blog for FrontSight related posts.

A week or so ago I added FrontSight to my auto link plugin so it will always become a link when I use the term. Hopefully this won’t be to annoying, but it is sure easier for me to not have to put the HTML around the name every time I use it.

Here some catch up posting to get us up to date of preparing for the trip.

FrontSight has a pretty cheap offer on your first class if you read all of the Free Gun Reports they have on their website. It is 50% to 70% off of your first course. And the reports actually contain good information, not just sales hype. I’m a better shooter because I read them. The Mrs started reading them and said the author sounded to arrogant and stopped reading.

They also give their life members certificates to that allow a non-member to a course for just the cost of the background check, $50. Some of the members decided to offset the cost of member ship by selling the certificates on EBay. I bought two of these for about the price I would have paid FS with their discount.

I got the certificates the first week of January. Which happened to also be the week the FrontSight Challenge TV program premiered. This made me worry a little the course would fill up and we wouldn’t be able to get in. So I overnighted the certs and applications to them that weekend.

The guy who sold me the certificates was great too. He included four pages of information to make the trip easier. Including how to get ammo cheaper than the FS pro shop. (Call Wal-Mart in Pahrump and have them order it for you), and which hotel was the best to stay in (Best Western, they have a fridge in the room and let you keep your firearms in the room, which some hotels won’t).

I called FS the middle of the week after I knew they’d gotten the certificates to make sure we were in. While they hadn’t processed the application, they said not to worry, as long as they got it two weeks before the course I was guaranteed to get in. I took this on faith and made flight reservations, because those need to be made three weeks in advance.

My low grade worry continued when I still hadn’t gotten the email confirmation a week later. I called again and Jon told me they’d be going out last weekend. I sighed a sigh of relief yesterday when I got the email. We were confirmed and I didn’t need to worry about it anymore.

They also have a list of gear you need for the class. Basically, shooting eye and ear protection, holster on primary side and magazine holder on secondary, and a flashlight. I was able to work a trade deal with Talon Arms to get me all the gear in return for doing some design work for them. This included prescription glasses for the Mrs.

So we have all our gear.

I do need to get something to hold the guns and comply with Continental Airlines and the TSA’s requirements for a locked hard case for the guns.

So that brings us up to date. I plan to make detailed posts on each step in the future. This will include traveling with two pistols on an airline, which should be interesting. I also hope to take pictures of everything.