Monday, March 25, 2013

Training Logs - Do You Keep One?

If so, what do you include in it?

I've just recently started thinking about this.  In the past, it has crossed my mind that I should maybe track my training, but I was getting way too in-depth and making it far too difficult and taking all of the fun out of my range time.  I think I lasted maybe two weeks of trying to log each and every time I handled my gun.

I know that keeping a training log can be beneficial if I am ever involved in a shooting (which, like most people, I hope I never am), but how in-depth does it have to be?

I know people who log every single round they fire, what they were working on, the brand of ammo, the weather, which position they were shooting from, the wind (rate and direction), if their arthritis was acting up, if their hair was down or in a ponytail, what color underwear they were wearing, etc.  I can't do that - it takes all of the fun out of training.

We've been talking about professional development logs at work and what is involved in those.  So instead of adopting a "Training Log", I'll be doing a type of a professional development log, keeping track of:
  • all defense related classes (knife, carbine, handgun, etc)
  • dates of Defensive Pistol matches I've competed in, since I use them for training
  • all reading (articles, books, blogs) pertaining to defense
I'll have to do some back-tracking for some of this information.  For example, I don't remember the date of the first pistol class I took, or the first AR-15 class I took.  I just vaguely remember that my pistol class was the week before my first Defensive Pistol match nine or ten years ago and that my AR class was during a weekend when it was crazy hot (104+ all day long).  My more recent courses won't be too hard to dig up the dates, because I've blogged about them, so it's just a matter of digging through old posts.

What I probably will not do is keep track of my range time, as I look at that like I do my job at work; it's just what I do and not out of the ordinary, whereas classes and such are above and beyond what I would normally do at work.

What kind of training logs do you keep?

8 comments:

agirlandhergun said...

No, but I have been thinking I might start.

GunDiva said...

That's what I was thinking, too. I haven't in the past, but if it saves my butt in court some day, it might be worth it.

2A Mama said...

Sort of....with all the training I've been doing over the last few months, it's still fresh enough in my mind to have jotted it all down on paper.
But I've been thinking about including more detail, and putting it all in some sort of reference-able format.
For now, my Google calendar is my best friend. LOL

God, Gals, Guns, Grub said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
God, Gals, Guns, Grub said...

We keep a shooting log for all of our firearms... which encompasses all the actual shooting the gals and I do with each of our firearms... it may be off by a round or two here or there, but it helps with recalling training, maintenance, failure rates, etc...

I'm not sure the records will help or hurt in court... if I ever had a prosecutor question me after a self-defense shooting... they might use my training records against me... "Well, you're practicing three or four times a week, you built your own shooting range on your property, yo just couldn't wait to get out there and find a situation where you could "take someone out"...

We do have three-ring binders with all the training certificates and completion information for the gals and I... I'm an NRA Training Counselor, Instructor, and CRSO... and a 4H Shooting Sports Instructor... I keep records of all my training, certificates, etc specifically related to those areas... takes time, but my memory fades with age...

Some things can cut both ways...

Dann in Ohio

God, Gals, Guns, Grub said...

(I removed the earlier comment because I had more mis-spelled words than a dyslexic typist)

Dann in Ohio

Double Tap said...

I'm kind of thinking I don't really want to know how much I'm really shooting. It might work against me someday either in court or with the wife.

mathar1 said...

We are told at work to specifically NOT keep any training log as they can and will be used against you in the event of a shooting. They record qualification scores for legal purposes, but even they admit the qualification course is a waste of time.