What makes CONDITION ORANGE training best for you?
PRIVATE - Because CONDITION ORANGE classes are held in your home or other spaces you are familiar with, your class will be laid back and stress-free. You will never have to worry about the crazy guy monopolizing the class time. Unless you take your class with that one uncle. You will be able to learn without ever looking foolish.
ONE-ON-ONE ATTAINTION – CONDITION ORANGE classes are private, attended by you and/or some family and friends. Because of the small size of the classes, you can ask those questions you may feel uncomfortable asking in a public class. You will have full access to your instructor during and after your class.
SAFETY – CONDITION ORANGE has technology that can be used inside your home without using live ammunition. Everything you can do at a live range, and even more, can been done safely without fear of accidents. This way you can learn how to handle a gun before you must ever do it for real, at the range or otherwise.
LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE – When learning a new skill, it takes repetition to ingrain your movements into muscle-memory. CONDITION ORANGE can personalize your classes and can be taught at a pace you learn at best. Then these lessons can be repeated as many times as you need, either during class or repeated in future classes. Because you will be in a relaxed class paced for you, you will be able to build neural pathways in a safe and stress-free manner.
CERTIFIED AND EXPERIENCED INSTRUCTORS – CONDITION ORANGE instructors have been training shooters for many years. Not only civilian shooters but police officers for several Colorado police agencies.
COST – A public handgun class will run about $200 for an 8-hour class. Plus, $200-$400 for ammo. Plus, the gas money and time to and from the class location. And, if you do not have a class near your location, you may need to pay about $200 a night for a place to eat and sleep. That public class will cost you a total of $400-$800. If you want to take a private class, you will be looking at double or triple that. There are 1-on-1 classes for $1000 and hour. With CONDITION ORANGE, you will be getting a self-paced private class close to the cost of a public class or even less.
TIME – CONDITION ORANGE classes can be scheduled in full 8-hour blocks or broken down into smaller lengths of time like 1, 2 or 4 hours. You can pick a time that best suits your schedule. And because the class is held in your space, you will not have to take the time to drive to the class or drive home.
In conclusion, why should you pick CONDITION ORANGE? You will use ammo-less technology in a private class to be held in a location of your choice with professional, experienced and friendly instructors. You will be able to learn in a safe and self-paced environment that can be customized any way needed to help you learn new skills, then give you as many repetitions you need to make it stick. All of this can be at a time that fits anyone’s schedule and at a cost that can fit anyone’s budget. And best of all, no spent brass to pick up!
While it may seem strange, the best way to learn how to dry-fire is under the watchful eye of a professional instructor. Without an instructor’s critique you may simply be ingraining bad habits. - Paul Markel
The Importance of Dry-Fire Training
You would not expect to pick up a guitar and after only a few hours of instruction and be able to play like Jimmy Hendrix, or go to one cooking class and expect to run a kitchen like Gordon Ransmey, yet millions of Americans are doing something like this right now. In 2024 there were 21.46 million people issued a Concealed Carry permit in the United States. There are also 29 unrestricted states that allow residents to carry concealed without a permit. In those states it is estimated that 44 million people carry a concealed weapon for protection regularly. That means that over 65 million Americans are lawfully carry a firearm for self protection daily. Yet, less than half fire the gun more than once a year and even less than that get further training after their first Concealed Carry Class. Yes, you can cook something after your first class but could you cook to save your life? Then why do so many people think that it only takes one class to save your life or the lives of family and friends. Yes, I’m sure they can use the gun but would they be mentally and physically ready for the most traumatic moment of their life? These people give lots of reasons for not putting in the practice. It cost too much… I don’t have time… I can’t practice the way I want at private ranges… What if I told you that I have answers to all those excuses and more? I am going to talk about a training method that every serious instructor and firearms expert swears by and should fill 80-90% of your training and practice time. Let’s talk about Dry Fire Training.
What is Dry Fire Training?
Dry Fire Training uses an empty firearm or other training aid like a SIRT laser training gun. By using this training method you are able to learn and hone many skills like trigger control, sight alignment, grip and muzzle control from virtually anywhere, even from your very own home, safely and for little to no cost.
Before we go any further, let’s talk about safety. Anytime you are handling a firearm, real or otherwise, there are four universal safety rules you must follow.
#1 - Treat all guns as if they are loaded.
#2 - Never let the muzzle of the gun cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
#3 - Keep your finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard until your sights are on the target and you are ready to shoot.
#4 - Identify your target and what is beyond.
If you follow these rules and insist that others around you also follow the rules, the likelihood of an accident is greatly reduced.
Perishable Skills.
Shooting is a perishable skill...Kinda. Like a bike, you don’t really forget how to shoot, but it only takes a couple of weeks before your muscle memory starts to regress. This regression, unlike being rusty at your rad bike skills, could be a detriment at the moment of truth. What exactly is muscle memory? “The ability to reproduce a particular movement without conscious thought, acquired as a result of frequent repetition of that movement. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency.” Shooting is all about muscle memory. Pulling the trigger, Gripping the gun, lining up the sights… Once you can do these things without thinking about it, using muscle memory, then your shots will come faster and more accurately. With dry fire training, you can get thousands of repetitions for much less time and money than you can get at a private range.
Time and Money
Speaking of time and money, the average cost for an hour of shooting at a private range is about $50 per person. That one hour of shooting will take about 3 hours out of your day and you will get about 50-100 reps/rounds shot. If you want to practice once a week, you will easily spend well over 150 hours a year, spending more than $2500 and get 2000-3000 reps at the range. But if you use dry fire training with your own firearm for that same once a week, you can get tens of thousands of reps in the same amount of time you would spend at work for one week for next to nothing in cost. Wow! In one fatal swoop the first two excuses have been eliminated.
Practice your own way
What about the other excuse of not being able to practice the way you want at private ranges? It is true that most ranges will not allow quick strings of multiple shots, drawing from a holster, shooting while you are moving. Without going to a professional class, most shooters will never do more than bullseye shooting. In the average self defense incident, the shooter will fire multiple rounds in only a few seconds while moving. And the target will not be standing motionless waiting for you to line up your sights for that perfect shot either. These are dynamic adrenaline filled moments that will require decisive actions. With Dry Fire training you can practice tactics in a safe and calm environment as often as it takes to make these skills effortless without braking range rules or spending hundreds of dollars on a professional multi-day class.
Condition Orange
With CONDITION ORANGE training, you will get an experienced instructor coming to you, helping you identify gaps in your firearms skills. They will then help you fix these gaps as well as provide you with more skills to fill out that firearms self defense tool belt, and leave you with ways to keep your new skills honed with drills you can practice at home, all at a much better price!
Conclusion
Am I telling law abiding gun owners that they never need to go to the range? That they never need to learn how to manage recoil or condition themselves to the loud explosion happening just a few inches from their hand every time they pull the trigger? Of course not. Putting rounds through your gun is the only way to truly learn and understand shooting. But with Dry Fire training, you can put in more practice time perfecting the fundamentals and tactics of shooting so that you can maximize your marksmanship practice with your limited time at the range. So, the next time you are at the range and your friends are asking how you have gotten so much better, you can tell them dry fire and CONDITION ORANGE.