Hi All,

A little about me:  
40 year old male.  Good physical fitness levels, but nothing crazy.  Able to run 3.5 miles in 45 minutes.   So I know my fitness needs work, as that's the FIRST step toward surviving any encounter.  And I'm actively working on that by jogging daily and riding my bicycle.

I have no military or LE experience,  but I have grown up shooting shotguns, hunting rifles, and handguns, and feel pretty comfortable around them.  
I am a noobie to the AR15 platform.  I did take 4 private lessons from an ex-Marine on maintenance, presentation of the weapon and basic marksmanship, and I shoot sandbagged at targets, but that's my experience with the platform.

I know that short of bootcamp, my skills won't approach anything near the basic skills of an infantryman.  However, I would like to have more familiarity with the platform.  Like how to move and shoot, transition targets, defensive drills I can do, how to improve my accuracy and speed up shot times, how to use cover and lighting, etc.  Basically, sort of a mini-boot, if such a thing exists.  

I'd like to stay in the Southwestern US, as it's hard for me to get much time off.

My rationale for this is that civil unrest is increasing across the nation with BLM and Antifa and Proud Boy rioters.  If an armed group comes to my neighborhood, I want to have confidence that I'd at least have a fighting chance of holding my own. NOT to go out and be Mr. Lone Survivor taking on the hordes alone, as that'd be a great way to get shot.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something like this?

Thanks
Beagle

Pistols with Larry Mudgett first. I think he’s in Utah now. Then rifle shooting. I don’t say that to dismiss your goal—it’s just the order that has made the most sense to me and the best instructor in the country for someone’s first class.

Front Sight.

Though tbh, your fitness isn't as good as you think.  That's like an 11 minute mile.  No idea on other metrics, so maybe running isn't your best benchmark?

Have you just gone on Google?  Tons of firearm course places nowadays.

Go to local instructors near you for basic/entry-level training.  Getting some sort of base knowledge will help if you decide to go to a higher level training course from a national level instructors, or if you decide to travel for the training.  NRA certifications are very basic and people tend to cling to them too tightly as a form of ultimate credibility, but the curriculum is somewhat static enough that you will get acceptable training from someone with that certification.

Strongly disagree. First class with the best instructor you can afford to travel to. Don’t learn bad habits at the beginning.

Haley
Kagwerks
Sage dynamics
Many others

Never underestimate running basic drills on your own time with some help. One of the best transition/reload/immediate action drills you can do:
-Have somebody load your rifle mags with an unknown amount between 5-20.
-Have said person load them on you randomly
-Work 3 shot drills.

Gunfighter Carbine 1 & 2 from Fieldcraft Survival.

Gun classes are nothing but a series of drills that someone else comes up with.

-Safety Brief
- Check zero. (Maybe)

- Static drills from the 3 yard line.
- Static drills from the 15 yard line.
-Reloads
-Static drills from the 25 yard line.
-Malfunctions
-Static drills from the 50.
-Maybe a trip to the 100
-Speed drills up close
-Target transitions.
-Moving and shooting.
-Barricades
-“qual course”

Pay me $800 for 2 days and please exit through the gift shop.

Double tap.

I tend to squawk alot on green eye tactical, but if you get a chance check out the tac rifle course or the rifle zero course. Its more time spent knowing your weapon and ballistics and less about malfunction reloads and shooting around makeshift barricades. Actually understanding your bullet trajectory amd an indepth look at how you set up your zero will pay dividends in the long run.

You'll be critiqued on each and every shot you make, what happened and asked if you can recall why. You'll be instructed on barrel lengths and effects on velocity, ammo, and how to use a ballistic calculator to judge your best zero for you, and then confirmed with actual application meaning rounds down range


Run of the mill local courses can help sharpen your mechanical skills. Moving around objects and shooting can jump start an awakening to physical fitness, and shake rust off if you dont get to shoot and move much. Shake out new gear, or apply new ideas and techniques to see for yourself if they work and/or work for you. Closer, less money on gas and lodging, and courses themselves are usually cheaper.

That assumes that there is no quality instructing below the national level in his area.  There are plenty of instructors and training groups at a local/regional level throughout the country that are offering a good product, and they’re doing it at a fraction of what it costs to travel to a big name instructor or training site/academy.  I tend to recommend that people go to a lower level instructor first to see if they actually even like doing the training in the first place. For that matter, a lot of more basic training skills are pretty universal and very few national instructors are going to offer something that a lower tier instructor don’t already offer.  In the case of the OP, I think that going to a national level instructor would be just fine.  However, as new to the training as I think he is, I think there’s benefit to him going to an intermediate level of instruction local to him, particularly since the current cost and availability of ammo is going to dramatically raise the cost of training.  I agree that some local instructors are cringeworthy, but a little bit of research can go a long way.

Bad habits are always going to happen, regardless of where someone goes.  There are national level instructors that a lot of people like that I strongly believe are perpetuating bad habits, so bad habits aren’t something exclusive to local trainers.  The key is for the student to get a wide range of experience to determine what they like.  And for that matter, bad habits that are quickly developed can be quickly cured and aren’t critical.  It’s impossible for new shooters to no develop bad habits, and for that matter, the concept of bad habits is highly subjective to who is evaluating them (save habits related to safety issues, or anything posted by toolbags like Voda).

You have a valid point,
standing in a line for 1 or 2 days shooting a single target (not worth what some places are charging)  
Market is flooded with tactical instructors, however there is quality training out there to be had.
As with anything one should research

Haley D5 course in Nunn. 09/2021.

Think it's full though.

I'll also endorse a good local trainer.


I have done both local and some national "big name" schools/instructors (Sig Sauer, Pat Rogers, Blackwater USA, etc --- > I enjoyed them all) and have found that you can do just as good locally.

The key is to find someone local that is good; as the additional expense of transpo and lodging make traveling for training daunting.


A local instructor that can teach you the basics of marksmanship and gun-handling ie: the various types of reloads, malfunction clearances, etc will put you light years ahead of
the average AR owner. All at the fraction of the cost of traveling to a school.

One of the keys to training is that training for a day or 2 or 3 days will never be the end all, be all.

If you don't practice what you learned your skills will diminish over time.

The fundamentals need to be re-enforced over time.  Re-enforcing the fundamentals can be done with dryfire at home.  Committing to taking one course annually is a nice goal.  That way you can gauge what has changed with your shooting ability over the last year and have some motivation to practice in between.

Committing to shooting once per month is even better.  If 90% of your practice should be dryfire, you need 10% livefire to evaluate/confirm your dryfire practice.

My best students train once per month which not only contributes to reaching higher goals, but over time builds the necessary repetitions for putting everything into long term memory.

Thanks to all for responses