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Before everyone thinks that I failed, let me qualify my subject by saying I passed.

I was just curious to those who have taken CHL classes, whether new or renewals, and to instructors out there... How many people have failed the shooting proficiency? Did the instructor do a detailed analysis of score, or was it because of other reasons (such as a violation of safety rules)?

In my renewal class we heard about a woman who failed. As the story went, her husband, who had insisted she take the class, gave her a snub-nose .357 to use for her qualifying. Supposedly she came back to the range, and with a little instruction and a different firearm she had no problem passing.

I may have heard about some guy with a guide dog who had no problem passing the proficiency, and he even had to leave the dog outside the range area.

I personally know of two that tried all 3 times and failed. Both were quite elderly.
One I observed had an overwhelming tremor. He also had a fear of failure that consumed him.
otoh, I coached a fellow with a serious genetic tremor in his right hand, that did just fine.
He had legitimate concerns with his shaking, too.

My wife, using her preferred carry gun, a Walther PPK in .380ACP, came close to failing the first time, and that was after adequate practice. Part of the reason was her nervousness over taking the test and using that gun was a contributing factor.

When we went to the range shortly before our requal, I ran her through the course with the little gun, and she would have passed without a problem. Then I talked her into trying the same course of fire with my XD9.

When we requaled, using the XD9 she fired a perfect score, and decided to keep my XD, I haven't replaced it yet.

There was a woman at our requal who didn't pass the first time through, but it appeared to be more from pressure anxiety than anything else.

WEC wrote:Before everyone thinks that I failed, let me qualify my subject by saying I passed.

I was just curious to those who have taken CHL classes, whether new or renewals, and to instructors out there... How many people have failed the shooting proficiency? Did the instructor do a detailed analysis of score, or was it because of other reasons (such as a violation of safety rules)?

I'm not an instructor, but I'm friends with one of the guys at my range who is, and he says that since he became certified (something like 10 years ago), he has never personally seen anyone fail qualification. However, he knows of one person who legitimately failed all 3 tries because he was shaking too badly. It's hard to fail if you have even spent a single session becoming familiar with your qualifying weapon, but it does take some practice to get a perfect score.

In my class, there was one person who was really close. There was a guy doing his requal and he had a very nice, tight grouping right in the middle. You could tell he was experienced. I was supposed to count up his score and I noticed one hole that was waaay off and to the right. I looked at him and he said, "I think it was the lady next to me." We looked at her target and it was all over the place. She actually shot his target!

There was also a very elderly man who was shaking very bad, but he managed to pass. He actually qualified with a pistol he took off of a Nazi in WWII

Had a gentleman in my class who was functionally illiterate so he had to be given the written test verbally... but everyone shot just fine.

There was a man in my last renewal class that failed.I wasn't next to him so I can't be sure, but I suspect his problem was a violent trigger jerk since he was hitting the ground in front of the target.

I saw him and the instructor doing some 1 on 1 on the range the following week. I have no reason to believe he didn't eventually pass.

jimlongley wrote: There was a woman at our requal who didn't pass the first time through, but it appeared to be more from pressure anxiety than anything else.

She needs to get out to the range more and get some coaching. If the pressure from taking the proficiency test gave her that much anxiety, I doubt carrying a weapon would ever do her any good, and maybe just get her in a world of trouble should she ever have to fire and she hit an innocent person instead of the BG. Just my opinion.

I was nervous about it. I practice, but have Stargardt's Disease (a dry form of macular degeneration). I was worried about the really far shots due to the poor lighting of the indoor range using my 1911. I didn't get a perfect score, but I did really well. This time I'll use my P229 which has night sites. For real world applications, practicing is how I know my limitations. Everybody has limitations on how well they can shoot. . . some of you might be accurate to 150 feet while others can't hit the silhouette at 50. Practice is important for becoming better and for knowing your limitations. If you can't make the shot at the range, why would you try it in real life?

When I qualified for my CHL, we had some targets that looked like they had been shot by a shotgun, but no one did poorly enough to fail.

We also had one gentleman who had brought his revolver to qualify with and was talked into borrowing a range Glock 19 at the last minute to get the SA license. He had never fired not only this particular Glock, but any Glock before that morning. His grouping for the entire qualification could almost have been covered by an upright coke can. All 50 rounds in less than a 4" spread! With an unfamiliar pistol. I'm glad he's one of the good guys!

When I qualified nothing was scored till after all 50 shots were fired. They just counted the deductions. This cost me 8 points since the person to my right hit my target twice. I was shooting 40 hollow points which cut nice round holes. The person next to me was shooting wwb 9 which was leaving jagged holes. There were too many people on the firing line for only 1 instructor. The person on my left had a stovepipe and didn't get off 2 shots but the instructor didn't even notice and therefore no deduction.

Same here. No one ever counted anything. I think he figured if he didn't see you shooting the ground or your neighbor yelling for you to quit muzzle flashing him, you'd probably passed the test. But it was miserable. About 35F and on/off sprinkling rain. Fingers hurt trying to load magazines. Ughh.

At my last qualification there was a guy next to me whose gun kept having misfeeds that he did not know how to clear. He would ride the slide forward with his hand. At the point I had 20 rounds downrange he had something like 4 rounds downrange.

I don't think he got any more than 10 rounds downrange at the end of the shooting qualification.

during my first renewal many years ago the guy shooting next to me was doing headshots only at the first stage. The instructor noticed and asked him to quit and go to CoM shots. a few shots later, still in the skull, the instructor TOLD him to cease or be flunked. One shot later, the Einstein was escourted out and told to go else where for his renewal...


a few weeks ago, I took the 10 hour CHL newbie class at memorial shooting center with a buddy just for kicks
( i just submitted my 3rd renewal)
and we had 3 people flunk the shooting and another 4-5 that came back and reshot from earlier classes...

I cant imagine flunking that shooting course...