Jackson Hole Shooting Experience has a handful of pillars on which we have built our reputation. These include a focus on fun, a focus on bringing family and friends together and helping them bond and of great importance; safety. Because we created our own category in the shooting market, we are not necessarily comparable to basic shooting instruction schools, tactical academies and we are definitely not in the same category as Las Vegas style machine gun rental experiences. We invented Luxury Entertainment Shooting Experiences.
Our style of providing experiences and training is not military-style training. We do not curse at, or in front of our students. We do not swagger or strut, rather we smile and encourage others, always speaking well of others in the industry. We are not attempting to communicate that we are “tacti-cool or tough.” We do not provide post-doctorate level tactical shooting instruction. We are excited to help other enjoy shooting in a comfortable and relaxed environment! Having decided upon this direction, we understood that some of our neighbors in Jackson, Wy and beyond wanted a different style of instruction. Our clients asked for High Speed Low Drag realistic tactical training, and we delivered.
Enter Sonny Puzikas. Sonny is a celebrity shooting instructor, martial artist and actor that has a very different style from what we offer. Sonny has “been there and done that.” He has studied and participated in violence and his focus is very unlike ours at JH Shooting Experience. Sonny has a passion for helping people prepare for a violent encounter, and he believes this is best done by training hard and realistically. Train with Sonny and you will be bruised, sore, you might draw blood, you might be choked out and you might have bullets whizzing beside your head.
As you examine your training and recreational needs, it is likely that you and your neighbor’s needs, goals and risk preferences will differ. The great news is that capitalism will always provide solutions. For example, a person who has a highly probable threat of extreme physical violence being initiated against them, will likely want a more intense training regimen than a 7-year-old and his mother that seek only to plink at cans in the back pasture of their farm with a 22.
If the violent gang member that you sent to prison for 20 years, who has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has spent the last 20 years preparing to kill you and now has nothing to lose, is about to be released, and he is commenting that you have less than 30 days left to live, you need serious training that will prepare you as best possible for the likely upcoming encounter. A luxury shooting experience with us, an NRA Basic pistol class or a cheap option like a class at Front Sight with 50 students in the same class is not what you ultimately need.
In this extreme example, you need reality-based hard-core training. just as a person that wants to ski down Everest can not abide by the safety rules on the children’s green slope, so ought the serious student of violence step outside of “square range” safety rules. There is a higher risk when skiing off 100 foot cliffs, and there is a higher risk when shooting live fire with people in front of, beside and behind you while all of you are running and somersaulting at full speed.
It is more likely that the extreme skier will be injured in training and there is a greater likelihood that the extreme tactical shooter will be injured in reality based training. Some of us will choose to be safer on the range and less safe in the event of a violent attack. Some extreme skiers will train only on the bunny hill and will not have learned from 20 foot cliffs before they are faced with a 100 foot cliff.
Russians are known for extreme training as shown in the above and below videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqvcdXZknE
I have observed Sonny performing higher risk training in his videos, and also at a less extreme and “safer” level in person, and it is not a style of training or safety-management style that our firm chooses to use. His specialty is serious training for the person with a higher risk tolerance and a need to truly be best prepared to counter violence with violence. My point in the following video is that if you want realistic training, and you truly want to prepare yourself for a fight, Sonny provides just that, and while the risk is higher, he manages safety well.
For those of you that want serious training and are willing to engage in a higher risk activity, Sonny is a great option. For those of you that are firearms trainers, be certain to discuss beforehand what range rules are and be sure you are on the same page. Make sure your students have full disclosure that they will be in extreme training situations, make sure they know they might be choked out, have people shooting past them, be hit with simunition rounds be kicked, punched etc.
This training is not for the beginner or average shooter. Your students should take many classes beforehand and be comfortable with each-other’s skills. They should tell you in writing what their physical limitations are and what they are and are not comfortable with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQIBbfAlA-A
So, Range Safety Sonny Puzikas -vs- Shepard Humphries styles? We have very different training styles and philosophies, yet we respect each-other’s style and acknowledge that they each have their place. Should you seek out basic shooting instruction, intermediate level, advanced level or reality-based advanced level training? It depends on what YOUR needs are. I encourage you to evaluate with eyes wide open and that you are comfortable with your risk tolerances and that they match your needs.
