Passing a qualification is a skill every firearms owner should put themselves through. Regardless of what type of shooting proficiency or qualification you have to pass, it induces a lot of stress. Most are timed. Some are shot from a distance and untimed. But what they all have in common is that you have to have performance on demand. It takes an automaticity of skills to pass a more difficult qualification like the FBI qualification. Many agencies have their own, but the FBI qual, as it’s called, its pretty recognized as requiring a certain skill set mastery to pass. As a facilitator with A Girl & A Gun, I have to pass this qual every 2 years on camera with no stoppages during filming. And we have to submit that video for someone to watch.

The FBI qual is shot at multiple yardages and different skills are used at each yardage. They must all be done in yardage order and every stage must be passed in order to pass the entire thing. Passing is getting hits on target in a certain place by a certain time limit. It’s a 50-round qualification. A passing score is 90. Or put another way, you can only have 5 hits outside the target lines. It can be very frustrating and takes training to be able to pass it. I recommend breaking it down stage by stage and making sure you have the skills for each stage individually. Then start putting it together. Buy some bulk FBI qual targets because you will go through them!

Develop each skill that it takes. A list of them are drawing from the holster, dominant hand only, support hand only, slide lock reload, elevation change and more while being mindful of the timeframe allotted. Once you have developed each skill it takes practice shooting them all together back to back. Each yardage is it’s only little mini pistol fight that takes a different skill set.

If you have to pass a shooting proficiency to get a License to Carry, for example, you are passing a qualification. Here in Texas, that involves different yardages and shots all have to be done within certain time which means a shot timer is introduced. A shot timer can really stress people out as now the timing gets really real and they may not pass. The FBI qual also uses a shot timer.

There are other versions of qualifications too. Tom Givens of Rangemaster has his own version that is slightly different that the FBI qual but still uses 50 rounds. If you can pass that one, you can pass the FBI qual and vice versa. I personally like Tom’s qual better. There is also a great 40-round skill assessment done under time as well. Law enforcement agencies also use their own version of a qual. Most are more similar to the Texas License to Carry proficiency test.

An example of an untimed qualification is the NRA Pistol Instructor Qualification. The NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting is all about shooting fundamentals. So, instructors in this discipline are expected to have decent fundamentals! This qual is untimed but done at 15 yards/45 feet! Most people aren’t used to shooting at this distance, so it can be quite a challenge both physically as well as mentally! I like to tell my students that everyone is a ninja shooter at 3 yards. But, if you don’t have the proper fundamentals, the farther back you go, the more pronounced your lack becomes. Hence the 45′ distance for this qualification. The required target is an 8″ circle with faint 1″ grid marks and a black NRA logo in the center. From far away you can only see the bold letters but cant read them. It gives you a place to aim. But, here’s the kicker. Even though it’s an 8″ circle, you have to get at least 16 shots out of 20 in a 6″ group and all inside the line. So, it messes with your mind a bit. As an NRA Training Counselor minting new instructors, I can tell you, a pretty large percentage can’t pass it the first time! If you have the proper fundamentals, your target will be passing every time. There’s no time limit to take your 20 shots, but if you don’t have good fundamentals, it doesn’t matter how long you take. In my experience, those that pass easily, do so in a reasonable amount of time. Not too fast, but not too slow either.

Below you can see a compressed video of me shooting and passing the FBI qualification. I said i needed 40 shots in the video, but I needed 45. The cover photo for this post is my NRA Instructor Qualification at Training Counselor Camp last March. Both qualifications were done with my trusty gun of choice, the Glock 19.

I recommend anyone carrying a firearm for self-defense put themselves under pressure every chance you get! It’s good for the mind and skills. When you are faced with that horrible moment on the worst day of your life, whether or not you prevail will depend on your training. Don’t rest on the laurels of passing your LTC test. It’s a very minimal standard. If you don’t train often and hard, you simply won’t have the skills and automaticity of them that you will need. Get out there with an instructor and train and train and train some more. Then try to pass a decently challenging qualification. There are many more out there that are very challenging and fun to work on. The Casino Drill is awesome, the Faster Drill is amazingly hard. These are just a few to get you started.