FTQ is a notation for Failure to Qualify.
I've been planning to get back into IDPA, and maybe USPSA shooting; and my local range requires you have what they call a "holster qualification" before they let you do holster drills.
Of course they charge you $15 for "instruction time"; which consists of the instructor running you through a series of draw drills and malfunction drills with an empty gun, and a 10 rd qualifying shoot. There is no instruction, he does it cold, without telling you how he wants it done, and you are graded pass fail with no feedback until you are done.
The whole series consists of multiple four point draws (which I don't do, I don't like the 4 point draw), with a malfunction drill and a reload drill on every draw.
The drills were as follows:
Tap Rack Bang (TRB)
Rip Tap Rack Bang (RRB)
Rip Rack Rack Bang (FTE drill)
Tac reload
Speed reload
10 rds rapid fire from the ready, all in the black (a 5" circle); on a 25 yard slowfire target (B-16) at 7 yards
Of course they have you do them with an empty gun, so the reload and malfunction drills end up with a locked slide you have to release, which throws you off on the drills.
Again, I don't do the drills the way they wanted me to. I do them, I just do them differently. I slap the back of the slide firmly to make sure the extractor has seated before I rack for example.
Basically it's a scam, the thing takes all of 5 minutes for your $15, and unless you are an active IDPA/USPSA shooter who has run through the qual at least once before, you are going to fail it. Once you fail, they say "come back in four or five days and we'll do it again" ... for another $15.
I'm a CCW holder who just re-qualified, a Gunsite grad, and a veteran. I can draw and fire from a holster safely, and I fail to see what malfunction drills have to do with the ability to draw from a holster without shooting yourself, which is supposedly what it's for.
The guy ran through the drills as fast as I could possibly do them, firing the commands at me as soon as I was back in the holster. He went through each drill about four times, and he threw in a couple of surprises on me, that weren't on the list of drills.
Honestly the guy had a shitty attitude from the beginning. He knows I used to be AF, and I think he wanted to take me down a peg.
Well I was pretty stressed to begin with, and pissed off about his attitude, and I blew it. I screwed up on a couple of the malfunction drills, and I put one round outside the scoring area.
Oh, and during onf of the reloads I wedged my palm in between the base plate and the gun, and I got a nice 1/2" acorss blood blister.
I asked to redo the qual right away, now that I had run through it once I knew I could pass; and I only put one round outside the black, I know I can put them all in the black pretty easily. He said, no; I would have to come back in a few days and do it again, for another $15 of course.
Oh, and the actual draw and reholster drills? He said they were fine.
