(Updated) Weekly defensive shooting program right on target/with Video

Gunfire rang out on either side of my own shooting stall, the side boards vibrating from the blasts.

My own pipsqueak .22-caliber Browning Buckmark barked too but the sound was that a chihuahua makes and not some fearsome pit bull heard from an adjacent .45-caliber auto or even from the 9mm-caliber pistol on the opposite side of me.

The thing was, however, the use of the Buckmark target pistol was the tune-up to what would come later in the twice-weekly defensive shooting program held Tuesdays and Thursdays at Atwell’s Police and Fire Equipment shooting range, 207 Chestnut St., Painesville.

The brainchild of local gunsmith, fast-draw artist and all-things firearms expert Ron Paul Duning of Willowick, the program is designed to help handgun owners feel more comfortable with their defensive sidearms.

Such familiarity would prove vital - possibly even life saving - in the (heaven forbid) case where a person needs to draw and fire a weapon at a threatening foe.
Duning holds court and cleverly refreshes the shooting format with the winter, spring and summer shooting sessions.

If that were not enough, Duning also mixes up the format even more. When a shooter becomes familiar with one target then Duning insists that a smaller target be employed. In this way the shooter is ever increasingly challenged.

Of course when I “advance” from my Browning .22-cailber to either my .380-caliber concealed carry/home protection Bersa Thunder pistol I’ll return back to using the larger targets.

But as I improve, the targets will once again shrink until I end up using my Taurus version of the Colt Model 1911 .45-caliber pistol.

The program is not only a fun way to spend an evening but also a great way to keep the shooting eye straight on the bull’s-eye or mugger-image paper target.

For further information, contact Duning at 216-956-4874; ronpaulgun@peoplepc.com; or visit his business at 38342 Western Parkway #6, Willoughby, across from the city’s Lost Nation Airport.

There also is a video about the program that can be found on The News-Herald’s web site at www.news-herald.com, “videos.”

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com