New Quest: Getting My PAL!

GoodDoomguy

GoodDoomguy

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
25   0   0
Hi good fellows! I will officially begin applying for my PAL today! You guys have no idea how hard this decision came to. Well the decision is easy, but convincing my other half is the difficult part, mission-impossible difficulty if I may.

After days of negotiation (weeks if I include the dinner table probing talks), my fiancée finally agreed to let me proceed getting my PAL last night! Her concern was that because we're planning to have a baby in a few years, she doesn't want them hurt by firearm mishaps at home. She felt better when I told her a gun safe is required for gun owners; she thought firearms are stored under beds and/or in closets with ammunition.

So since I live in Delta, BC, I’m going to take the CFSC/CRFSC at Silvercore, and I do have a few questions:

1. Is Silvercore a good place for the Safety Courses? Do you guys recommend it? I did some online homework and they look professional and fun. Has anyone here taken courses offered by Silvercore? How was it?
2. Do I only have to bring government issued IDs and writing material to the courses? I spoke on the phone with a nice lady, Amber, from Silvercore, and that’s all I’m told to bring. Just want to make sure because I don’t want to miss bringing anything to the courses.
3. How should I prepare for the courses? Should I pre-study? And if so, where can I find the material? I found some guides on the internet, but they’re a few years old, are these still the material taught today?
4. Are the exams difficult? Besides what’s learned from the two day course, are there additional material I should study? If I do not pass the exams, do I have to do the courses all over again?
5. I’ll be going to the courses next weekend, what should I do in the meantime?

Thank you guys for reading, that’s all the questions I have for now. If you have the time and knowledge, please help answer a few of my noob questions? Thanks in advance!
 
1. Did my PAL/RPAL with Silvercore several years ago along with CORE. Very professional, would recommend them.
2. DL is adequate. Notebook and pen for keeners.
3. Don't get drunk the night before, makes the day very long :). Didn't prep for any of the courses. Pace is fairly slow for anyone with any common sense (like don't leave loaded firearms under the bed, duh.).
4. ~70% to pass. Friend and I were in the high 90%, common sense prevails. If you don't pass the first time either you did not take the don't get drunk night before advice or perhaps firearms aren't for you.
5. Enjoy a nice cold beer, gonna be hot this weekend (but not the night before).

As for being hand pecked by the girlfriend/fiancée, likely soon to be wife, you are doomed. At least she seems to respond to logic so there is hope yet. Get her shooting, folks at POCO Range are friendly but anal on safety so she'll like that (expect to get yell at many time for finger off trigger when not in shooting position).
I always offer the ladies to try out my handguns, in particular 686 (357Mag) with light, med and full load.


Are you also doing RPAL? Day 1 PAL, Day 2 RPAL.
 
Last edited:
lyman54 - I really hope not... Why you say that? :confused:

burnaby - Thank you for the tips! Yes no drinking and common sense, got it! As for my future wife (we getting married mid September this year) well hope she understands. Don't know if she'll be up for going down the range with me. She doesn't like loud noises. She doesn't even go pubs or clubs because of the noise, I think for her ears anything above 30 decibels is too much haha.
 
^^ agree all the way with 'burnaby'.

And you are absolutely going to need to get her out shooting. See if one of the ranges over there has a ladies group that she can talk to or send her over to Victoria Women Shooter's facebook page and she can see that there is a large community of women with families and children that safely enjoy the sport. :) Knowing how to handle a firearm is the best way to avoid an accident and she needs to know that too so she isn't terrified of them.

The course isn't too onerous and if you have a good instructor shouldn't be too boring either! Have fun with your new soon-to-be obsession. :)
 
Too many sad stories of girlfriend that don't like guns that becomes wife and then ex-wife that makes nasty phone calls to police when not happy.

Good thing you will not be one of those statistics by getting your better half to join up with you. My daughter also don't like noises and associated concussions; hates fireworks. First trip she had to double up with earplugs and earmuff which blocks the sound but still felt the boom. After an hour had to take a rest in the lunch room. Took several hours to be acclimatize before enjoying the shoot.

Lots of ladies at POCO. Wed one lady shooting 308 rifle to my left, another younger lady being taught to shoot variety of firearms.
GoodDoomguy said:
lyman54 - I really hope not... Why you say that? :confused:

burnaby - Thank you for the tips! Yes no drinking and common sense, got it! As for my future wife (we getting married mid September this year) well hope she understands. Don't know if she'll be up for going down the range with me. She doesn't like loud noises. She doesn't even go pubs or clubs because of the noise, I think for her ears anything above 30 decibels is too much haha.
Click to expand...
 
Dana_0_o - Thank you, was planning to take her down range but figure I'll go down first. I'm afraid to take her on her first trip there and see lots of longhaired tattooed bearded muscle guys shooting .50 Browning MGs (not that I have anything against any of the above, but to a 24 year young Asian girl that's enough to freak the heck outta her).
 
GoodDoomguy said:
Dana_0_o - Thank you, was planning to take her down range but figure I'll go down first. I'm afraid to take her on her first trip there and see lots of longhaired tattooed bearded muscle guys shooting .50 Browning MGs (not that I have anything against any of the above, but to a 24 year young Asian girl that's enough to freak the heck outta her).
Click to expand...

Probably freak me out too...
 
6MT - Thanks sir, missed your post there!

Innavedaw - LoL. But it's not usually like that down range correct?
 
Last edited:
I recently took the two day course with Silvercore, and can vouch for it (waiting for my PAL/RPAL right now). I agree with everything 'burnaby' said. All I took was a DL, notepad, pen, and snacks. The course was interesting, and the instructor was great. If you pay attention and take the notes they tell you too, the tests are easy. Good luck!
 
Wild perceive notions, good thing you are not an anti. Reality is most are older guy. Also see a fair share of small female many of which are good shooters.
GoodDoomguy said:
...I'm afraid to take her on her first trip there and see lots of longhaired tattooed bearded muscle guys shooting .50 Browning MGs (not that I have anything against any of the above, but to a 24 year young Asian girl that's enough to freak the heck outta her).
Click to expand...
 
Do they still have the 10% of your next course if you sign up while attending any course. Signed up and got 10% off my CORE course.
BlueSkyDreams said:
I recently took the two day course with Silvercore, and can vouch for it (waiting for my PAL/RPAL right now). I agree with everything 'burnaby' said. All I took was a DL, notepad, pen, and snacks. The course was interesting, and the instructor was great. If you pay attention and take the notes they tell you too, the tests are easy. Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
Hi Burnaby,

Yes they do. However, the way they explained it to me, you had to fill out a feedback form and specify any courses you are interested in. I did that, and a lady called me a few days later, but I could only get the 10% off if I signed up within a week of her call. So if you did the course a while ago, you may not qualify, unless you already signed up for a specific course offering. Maybe the rules were different when you did it?

I wanted to take their Shotgun 1 course, but the next offering is in November, so I didn't commit. They offer lots of the safety courses. They have a variety of other cool looking courses but those don't get offered very frequently it seems.
 
lyman54 - No offense taken buddy :) Just curious because after reading your post I was thinking if owning guns will increase divorce chances? I wish not :(

BlueSkyDreams - Thanks! That makes me less nervous. Looking forward going down there next weekend!

burnaby - Cool to hear. I don't mind seeing experienced gunners, and certainly don't mind seeing females, whom I respect. I believe many good Russian snipers during WWII were females. And yes I think it's a combined course, so PAL day 1 and RPAL day 2 correct.
 
Silvercore is great, you won't be disappointed. They make being stuck in a classroom for two days fun for the most part and more importantly they'll give you all the info you need to pass the course. Wife and I took the pal/rpal class through them as well as the core hunter, I just did their level 1 handgun class and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

You cover the pal/rpal material and hands on safety part of the class over the first and part of the second day, second half of the second day is the multiple choice written tests (seperate tests for pal & rpal) as well as practical safe firearms handling. Instructors will ask you to pick up PROVE safe, identify ammo (dummy rounds) and load/unload. Fun stuff, enjoy it.

Oh and don't worry about the bearded tattooed guys you might see/meet at the range, we don't all bite lol.
 
Butcherbill said:
Silvercore is great, you won't be disappointed. They make being stuck in a classroom for two days fun for the most part and more importantly they'll give you all the info you need to pass the course. Wife and I took the pal/rpal class through them as well as the core hunter, I just did their level 1 handgun class and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

You cover the pal/rpal material and hands on safety part of the class over the first and part of the second day, second half of the second day is the multiple choice written tests (seperate tests for pal & rpal) as well as practical safe firearms handling. Instructors will ask you to pick up PROVE safe, identify ammo (dummy rounds) and load/unload. Fun stuff, enjoy it.

Oh and don't worry about the bearded tattooed guys you might see/meet at the range, we don't all bite lol.
Click to expand...

LoL thanks for the wealth of info Butcherbill, much obliged! Silvercore's courses do sound fun indeed, can't wait to head down there. And haha some of my friends whom I hangout with fit the description, I'm perfectly at home with you guys lol. Just don't wanna scare my fiancée. But then again she's a smart girl (that's one of the reason I gone out with her back in university; she's top of her class for 3 consecutive years) so I think she'll come to. Always worth a try, getting your girl to love firearms.
 
YAY! Passed my written and practical exams for Non-restricted and Restricted today!! Now just got to take a firearms license photo, get a few signatures, fill some info and mail it off!! Cheers!!

P.S. A big thank you to the Silvercore guys! All three guys are super fun to talk to, and all are great instructors! Never had so much fun in a class, hope to see you guys again real soon after my honeymoon!!
 
Last edited:
make sure you send it with a tracking number at minimum, or with a signature, $15 or $16 to see excatly when they get it is better then sitting around wondering for a few weeks :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom