Training From Beginner to Advanced
Instructors
Chris
Chris is a Deputy Marshal with Otterbein Police Department and holds numerous instructor certifications including Rangemaster Advanced Instructor, Pistol Instructor through Defense Training International, Red Dot Pistol Instructor through Modern Samurai Project, and a Certified Graduate of Active Self Protection Instructor cohort. In addition to teaching at Applied Ballistics, Chris runs his own training company called "Practical Guardian" and is a board member of the Tippecanoe County Conservation Club. He travels around the country regularly continuing to train. Chris has been a member of the Applied Ballistics team since 2015.
Dan
With a lifelong background in martial arts, Dan has built his career around discipline, resilience, and practical skills. He served for four years with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and spent seven years in security, gaining firsthand experience in real-world safety and protection. Today, he’s a certified USCCA Firearms Instructor with a passion for helping people build confidence through education in firearms use, self-defense, and fitness.
Outside of Applied Ballistics, Dan is the owner of Premeditated Health and Performance, where he coaches unconventional strength training using kettlebells, steel maces, and other tools designed to develop both grit and performance. As a competitor in strength sports, he practices what he teaches, bringing together physical training, tactical knowledge, and a love for building stronger, safer communities.
Trainings
Firearms Training
Applied Ballistics is your headquarters for Firearm Education. Whether you are an experienced shooter, or a novice, we have the course for you. We offer a wide range of curriculum including, but not limited to:
Introduction to Shooting
Handgun Marksmanship Fundamentals
Introduction to Defensive Pistol
At Applied Ballistics, we believe in safety first. All of our classes are conducted on site by qualified firearm instructors with full credentials and years of experience.
We encourage students to use their own firearm and ammunition during most classes (Introduction to Shooting only uses Applied Ballistics equipment). However, rental guns are available upon request with purchase of ammunition.
Introduction to Shooting Class
Cost: $60/Person
Class Level: Beginner
Class Type: Classroom/Live Fire
Class Length: 3 hours
Prerequisites: None
Student Provided Equipment: None (we provide everything)
This will be the first in a series of entries that will describe our new class layout for shooters looking to develop their skillset with a handgun.
First I want to highlight our most popular course, which happens to also be our most basic. Introduction to Shooting is a class for the true beginner. This class spends the first hour in the classroom where we discuss gun safety, the common reasons people seek training, and basic handgun shooting technique. We start at the beginning and work our way through how to handle a gun safely, how to hold it, how to load it, how to stand, and how to use the sights and trigger properly.
Spending this time in the classroom gives us a chance to demonstrate the techniques we are teaching to students who may have never held a gun before. We have students that are nervous starting out and we understand that. We strive to move slowly and help students gain the confidence needed to feel comfortable and safe when they first handle a firearm.
This isn’t to say that the class offers nothing for someone who has some experience. We often have couples take this class where one person is completely new and the other has been shooting for years or even decades. If the more experienced party has never had any formal training they invariably come away with new knowledge. Shooting is like any other physical skill, you don’t know what you don’t know. Our professional training staff can expose people who have been around guns their entire lives to techniques they have never encountered, even in a beginner class.
The Range
Once we finish in the classroom we move to the range. We conduct this portion of the class when the range is closed so that we are not distracted by other shooters. We start with some basic handling of the firearms used in this class. We teach students how to approach a firearm that is in an unknown condition and confirm it is unloaded and safe to handle. We then walk them through what is known as dry handling. We go through the motions of firing the handguns but without ammunition, which allows students to get a feel for the operation of the handgun without the noise and recoil of live fire.
After the dry handling we move on to live fire. In the live fire session we begin with loading and shooting one shot at a time under close supervision. As students become more comfortable and demonstrate they understand the safety principles of using the handgun we move on to longer stings.
What Does the Student Need?
One of the most common questions about a class is: what does a student need to take the course? For Introduction to Shooting the short answer is: nothing but a desire to learn.
For the Introduction to Shooting class we provide literally everything. We provide the gun, the ammo, the eye and ear protection, the targets, and most importantly the knowledge. We start shooters in this class with a handgun that is easy to use in the small .22LR caliber. We use this equipment because it is low noise, low recoil, and user friendly. It is a great way to start, using the lower powered .22LR round allows us to introduces a beginner with little or no experience to live fire without creating bad habits that can form with excessive recoil and noise. For this reason, students cannot bring their own guns for this class. Everyone starts with the same gun. If you want a class that teaches you to use your own gun, our Handgun Marksmanship Fundamentals class would be more appropriate.
Handgun Marksmanship Fundamentals
Cost: $60/Person
Class Level: Beginner
Class Length: 2 hours
Prerequisites: Intro to Shooting Recommended
Student Provided Equipment: The student will be expected to have a reliable handgun and serviceable ammunition. A semi-automatic or a revolver is acceptable and any common handgun caliber is acceptable (no rifle caliber handguns). No holster is needed but we recommend at least two magazines or revolver loading devices (speed loaders, speed strips, moon clips, etc).
Round Count: 75-100
Equipment
This is the first class in our lineup that the student will provide their own gun and ammunition. We encourage shooters to take this class with whatever handgun they intend to use regularly. This is a good class to get comfortable with your particular handgun and learn to use it effectively. Any reliable handgun, semi-auto or revolver, is welcome. Just about any common handgun caliber is acceptable. Rifle caliber handguns are not permitted.
Shooting for this class will be done from the shooting table in the standard lanes so no holster or magazine carrier is required. We do recommend having at least two magazines or revolver loading devices for this class so that time isn’t wasted loading on the firing line but one will suffice.
The Range
Our classes always begin with a safety brief. Once on the range we will start with a refresher on things like grip and stance. We find that most shooters have some wrinkles in this area that need to be adjusted and a little work here will often produce significant improvement. We will start shooting at close range and gradually work our way to longer ranges. During these drills the instructors will evaluate students’ techniques and results and provide feedback to help assist the student in refining their skills and correcting any bad habits that may be detrimental to accuracy.
The round count for this class is 75 to 100 rounds. We will do a fair amount of dry practice during the range session and in between live fire session to reinforce good habits and help shooters make the proper techniques ingrained. The goal is good repetition to make the shooter’s habit the proper technique. We will use live fire to confirm results. Shooters will have some latitude in the number of rounds fired as we understand that ammo cost is a significant factor. It is possible to shoot more than 100 rounds if that student wants to, so it is never a bad idea to bring extra.
The Skills Evaluation
This is the first class where we will have a skills evaluation at the end. The evaluation for this course will be a simple bullseye course of fire. It is scored and based on that score we can determine if the student should focus on continuing marksmanship training or if they are ready to move on to the next level. This evaluation isn’t something to get nervous about, it is simply a tool used by our instructors to help students evaluate their own performance so they are not getting bored or getting overwhelmed.
Handgun Marksmanship Fundamentals is a class that covers exactly what the title implies. It is a class for a pistol shooter that wants to improve their accuracy with a handgun.
Shooting a handgun isn’t difficult. Shooting a handgun well is very difficult. The majority of handgun owners are not very accurate with their handguns. Shooting a handgun accurately presents a challenge that requires a larger degree of skill than most tasks a person undertakes. We won’t presume to turn a student into a champion bullseye shooter in a single short class, but we will help the average shooter improve their basic marksmanship considerably.
The Marksmanship Fundamentals class works on the foundations of accurate shooting. We will show students the most effective means to ensure that they can operate a handgun with practical marksmanship. This is a skill required before any other skills can be mastered. If a student can’t reliably hit what they are shooting at, the rest isn’t important.
Introduction to Defensive Pistol
Cost: $80/Person
Class Level: Beginner
Class Type: Live Fire
Class Length: Approximately 2 hours
Prerequisites: Handgun Marksmanship Fundamentals Recommended
Student Provided Equipment: The student will be expected to have a reliable handgun and serviceable ammunition. A semi-automatic or a revolver is acceptable and any common handgun caliber is acceptable (no rifle caliber handguns). No holster is needed but we recommend at least two magazines or revolver loading devices (speed loaders, speed strips, moon clips, etc).
Round Count: 130-150
Introduction to Defensive pistol is our beginner class that takes students from a focus on accuracy to a focus on balancing speed and accuracy. When a handgun is being used for self defense the most critical skill a person needs is being able to make fast accurate hits at typical defensive shooting distances. Perfect hits and small groups are great, but in the context of self defense a person must learn to balance good enough accuracy with fast enough performance.
The drills we shoot in this class are all designed with this balance in mind. We will work on rapidly acquiring sights, pressing the trigger quickly without upsetting the sights, and controlling recoil to make follow up shots faster.
Equipment
Students will need to supply a handgun and ammunition for this class. We strongly encourage students to take this class with whatever handgun they intend to use for protection, either in the home or for carry. For this reason, we recommend using a defensive caliber handgun (at least a .380 but 9mm is better). You can take this class with a .22LR handgun, but we do not recommend the .22LR caliber for self defense.
All shooting in this introduction class will be done from the low ready inside the shooting stalls. No holster is needed. A magazine carrier isn’t needed but at least two magazines or revolver loading devices are needed to keep the pace of the class moving on schedule.
The Range
Our classes always begin with a safety brief. Once on the range we will start with a refresher and warm up on marksmanship fundamentals. After that we will dive straight into drills designed to improve speed. After some time is spent on the techniques that will support faster shooting, we introduce a timer so that students can evaluate their performance and gauge improvement against a standard.
The round count for this class is 130 to 150 rounds. We will do a fair amount of dry practice during the live fire sessions to reinforce good habits and help shooters make the proper techniques ingrained. The goal is good repetition to make the shooter’s habit the proper technique. We will use live fire to confirm results. Shooters will have some latitude in the number of rounds fired as we understand that ammo cost is a significant factor.
The Skills Evaluation
At the end of this class we will have a skills evaluation that will include time pressure. Time pressure is new to most shooters, even those with experience, if they have not engaged in competitive shooting or defensive pistol training. The standards for this test will not be excessively difficult, as this is a beginner level defensive pistol course. They are merely a gauge for whether the student is ready to advance to our next class, Defensive Pistol 1 – Fundamentals.
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