NRA FIrst Steps and M1 Garand Clinic at Williamson Conservation and Sportsman Club

[thughes]

Williamson hosted an NRA First Steps Rifle Class focused on the M1 Garand today. We had a good turn out and a beautiful day for this event, no doubt provided by the ghosts of those who stormed the beaches exactly 71 years ago today fighting their way into Europe using the very same rifles we were holding in our hands.

For the price of Admission ($75) we got the NRA Rifle Orientation class, an M1 Garand clinic (care/feeding/maintenance), and participated in a 30 round course of fire CMP M1 Garand match (including the use of club rifles and all the ammunition required for the match). Pretty good freaking deal for the money! Dave, Don, and Charlie did a fantastic job running the class; we got some great pointers from seasoned Service Rifle shooters and everybody went away having learned something new. In addition to the new-found knowledge, we all went away with an NRA certificate of live fire training (for those needing such to get CCP restrictions lifted or apply for an out of state CCP) and a CMP certificate of participation (which allows us to become registered competitors of the CMP and buy products directly from the CMP store).

There are plans to run this class again in early October, anybody interested in the CMP Garand Match experience should definitely make the effort to attend.

Thanks again to the instructors and my fellow classmates, I had a great time today.


(Hey CC.....I'm keeping the Springfield)

[GUNSICK]

Sounds like you had a great time! Really good deal also, money well spent.

[LibertyOrDeath]

Early October huh? That sounds awesome. Is the class strictly with CMP's Garands or can you use your own?

[thughes]

I brought my own M1, as did a couple other guys. The club has a few loaners for those not lucky enough to have their own. Williamson has a CMP match the first Saturday of every month, GCL on the second Saturday, Attica and Springwater have theirs on the third Saturday. All of these are open to the public (no need to be a club member), if you're interested in shooting just PM me and I'll get you hooked up with the right folks. It's all good peeps at these matches and you're guaranteed to have a great time.