Firearms Training

In 2023 I started taking firearms training courses with the goal of becoming an instructor. I have enjoyed shooting sports since high school. I was a target rifle shooter in high school and college, and I have long followed the shooting sports events in the Olympics. Now, in retirement, I am again shooting rifles competitively. But this is the first time that I have taken formal classes with the intention of becoming an instructor. It's been great!

The National Rifle Association (NRA) offers extensive training programs in firearms safety, rifle, pistol, shotgun, and self-defense. Click here to see their training catalog.

My goal is to complete six courses in the following three sequences of two courses each:

• Basic Rifle, Instructor Rifle
• Basic Shotgun, Instructor Shotgun
• Basic Range Safety Officer, Chief Range Safety Officer

The first course in each sequence is a prerequisite for the second course, and the second course qualifies a person to teach the first course. The first two sequences are required by Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts of America) to be a merit badge counselor for the Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting merit badges. That was my initial motivation for pursuing firearms training.

In 2023 I completed five of the six courses listed above, all but the Instructor Shotgun course. I plan to take that course in 2024.

I took two of the five courses in Vermont, and I traveled to neighboring states for the other three courses. It's been fun to visit other clubs and meet the instructors.

Here are the five courses that I completed this year:

1. NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course

Taken at the Sportsman’s Club of Franklin County in St. Albans, Vermont, in April 2023. The trainer was John Jacob.

2. NRA Instructor Rifle Shooting Course

Taken at the Hudson Falls Fish & Game Club in Hudson Falls, New York, in June 2023. This course included basic instructor training (BIT). The trainer was Bill Cole (with assistants).

3. NRA Basic Shotgun Shooting Course

Taken at the Pemigewasset Valley Fish & Game Club in Holderness, New Hampshire, in September 2023. The trainer was Jack Potter (with assistants).

4. NRA Basic Range Safety Officer Course

Taken at the Harvard Sportsmen’s Club in Harvard, Massachusetts, in September 2023. The trainer was Tim Bradbury (with assistants).

5. NRA Chief Range Safety Officer Course

Taken at the North Country Sportsmen’s Club in Williston, Vermont, in October 2023. This course included basic instructor training (BIT). The trainer was John Jacob.

I am now authorized to teach the NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course (cert) and the NRA Basic Range Safety Officer Course (cert). The first course where I will be an instructor will be an NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the Underhill Rod & Gun Club. I will be teaching that course with assistants. A new adventure!

Are you interested in taking a firearms training course? Click here to search for upcoming courses. (If you are interested in the course that I am teaching on June 22, you can easily find it at that link. Select "NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course" and search in Vermont. Or click here for the direct link.)

Above I mentioned shooting sports in the Olympics. These include biathlon in the Winter Olympics and several rifle, pistol, and shotgun events in the Summer Olympics. (The target at the top of this post is the 10-meter air rifle target used in the Summer Olympics.) The specific competitions change over time. For information about shooting sports at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, see this Wikipedia article.

I previously blogged here and here about my competitive rifle shooting adventures in college. The post at the first link includes information about shooting sports at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Cameo Shooting and Education Complex

The Cameo Shooting and Education Complex (CSEC) near Grand Junction, Colorado, is impressive:

This nearly 2,000-acre facility opened in 2018 after years of planning. CSEC is operated by Colorado Parks & Wildlife, part of Colorado state government. A range safety officer gave me a tour today. I took the following photo from near one of the sporting clays courses, looking down on the main complex:

This drone photo from online shows the main complex better:

Some of the facilities at CSEC:

• The Action Shooting Pavilion at the main complex includes 20 bays for pistol and rifle shooting up to 200 yards. There is also an archery bay and a picnic pavilion.

• Options for shotgun shooting include two sporting clays courses and 5-stand.

• There are four 3D archery courses.

• The Long Range Precision (LRP) range has 35 targets with flashing electronic hit indicators at distances from 100 to 2,000 yards. That's more than a mile!

• The 850-acre Terrain Park includes a mountain bike biathlon course.

The photo below shows the building that includes the store and range office where shooters check in:

This photo shows the picnic pavilion with several bays of the Action Shooting Pavilion in the background:

This photo shows benches in Bay 6, a 100-yard rifle range, in the Action Shooting Pavilion:

Currently, all ranges are outdoors. CSEC has plans for an indoor range and classrooms.

CSEC is open to the public. It operates essentially as a Colorado state park with a fee schedule.

Many user groups are active at CSEC, providing education and training and competitions. My tour guide today especially mentioned A Girl & A Gun which held its annual national conference at CSEC in April 2023 with 600 attendees. Attendance at next year's national conference in April 2024 is capped at 700, and it is already sold out.

See the CSEC website for more information including the history of how this shooting and education complex came to be built.

The name "Cameo" comes from the former town of Cameo where the facility is located. The town was once home to a coal mine and a coal-fired power plant, all gone now. The town was named for a cameo-like formation on one of the mountain ridges visible to the south.