We take great strides to be available for your questions, comments or suggestions. If you don’t find what you need here, or just like to talk to a real person, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

The easiest method is to call or text Bobby Whittington at 580-585-1237. You can also contact us online.

Another option is to send us a post or message on the FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Badlands-Tactical-Training-Facility/333728684754?ref=hl

Also, a lot of these FAQ’s deal with gear and equipment selection and although we try to help you be equipped with the best possible equipment to enhance YOUR training time and money, we do understand that you may not be able to meet all the recommendations. We don’t want anybody to not be able to train and learn due to a lack of equipment. Therefore, often times we have equipment which can be loaned out for use during classes including weapons, spotting scopes, armor, helmets, etc. So if you are worried about equipment requirements, please contact us and see if we can help!

We train all persons who are legally eligible to own firearms. We are also happy to instruct youth shooters with a legal guardian present. Most of our students are responsibly armed private citizens, although we frequently train law enforcement and military shooters and teams as well. We do, however, reserve the right to refuse training to anyone, who in the opinion of the instructors, may present a danger to other students, themselves, or society.

New this year many of our classes do have prerequisites, they can be seen on the course description pages. One of the issues we have run into in the past was the need to provide information about safety, the SAAFE System, as well as mental conditioning, 5 Arenas of Combat, to all our students. But not to have those sections in every class to the point returning students got bored or didn’t gain any value. For this reason, pistol and carbine classes now require successful completion of a Foundational (for pistol this includes several classes, see course listings for complete list) class that distributed this information. Don’t worry if you’ve already had SAFFE and 5 Arenas, you have met the prerequisite. We also recognize that there is a benefit to exploring what other schools have to offer, but in order to be successful in the Core, Dynamic and specific technique classes, we need all students to be on the same page as to why we do what we do at Badlands Tactical.

In order to fully appreciate and enhance your training experience at Badlands, we recommend you bring a high quality spotting scope and solid tripod. We understand that this is a hefty investment and realize that it might not be possible to buy the very best. However, a quality spotting scope will make your experience much more enjoyable and let you spend your time training instead of fighting with your gear.

A spotting scope needs to be in the 20-60X magnification range and preferably have a 60-80 mm objective lens. More power is not always better! We also prefer a straight eyepiece rather than an angled one, because it allows the spotter to be in the proper position related to the shooter.

We recommend match grade ammunition that is capable of at least 1 MOA accuracy at 100 yards. Handloads brought to class should also meet this requirement.

Recommendations;  Federal Gold Metal Match, Black Hills.

As you know, there are a multitude of options in the precision rifle community.  Something we have noticed in our years of doing this is that almost every gun will outshoot almost every shooter, every time.  That said, there are many affordable rifles on the market which will perform very well for you. The Remington 700, the Ruger Precision Rifle, the Winchester Model 70, the Savage 110/112 series, the Howa 1500 are all affordable and reliable.

Man this is confusing, so many options. Our stance on this is that we need to learn the basics and how to employ them before we worry about the gadgets. Therefore we recommend either a fixed power or lower power adjustable scope, with the max power being no more that 15-18X.  It is important that your scope has quality mechanical components as we will be twisting on the elevation and windage knobs a whole bunch. We will teach both Milradian and Minute of Angle scope adjustments in the classes. For ease of learning, we recommend that the scope adjustments match the reticles in the rifle. IE MOA reticle and MOA adjustments, MIL reticle /Mil adjustments. A first focal plane (FFP)scope is a nice tool, but not a requirement.

It is imperative that your mounting system is of good quality. We recommend one piece picatinny rail type bases. Preferably with a 15-20 moa cant built in. Quality or tactical type rings which lock solidly on the pic-rail are also recommended.

We would recommend most scopes by Leupold, Super Sniper, Nightforce, Trijicon, Nikon, or Vortex.

Yes, for all of our pistol classes, and any class which you may carry or use a pistol, a holster is mandatory.

Our recommendation for a holster will always be a strong side, belt type holster, supported by a SOLID leather belt.  For some classes you may want to explore using your IWB or thigh holster, but for the majority of our classes, we find that the strong side belt holster is the easiest, and securest option available.

For a basic class, this type of holster is mandatory, again, at the basic level we are more interested in teaching fundamentals and safety than we are in learning to manipulate a specific holster.

The level of retention is up to you, we recommend at least a single retention device such as a thumb snap or SERPA style release.

We would like to stress the importance of a solid leather belt to support the holster, a loose or fabric belt will usually not support a pistol in a holster tight enough to the body to allow for either security of the weapon, or to facilitate an effective draw.  The only exception would be in the case of a “riggers” type belt with Cordura or a similar material sewn into a solid backing to form a stiff belt.

A system to hold at least one magazine at the belt line is mandatory for all pistol classes.  To facilitate a better training experience, the more magazines you can bring the better.  This allows a better flow of time on the firing line as there is less time spent loading magazines, and more time shooting and learning.

We would prefer you be able to hold at least two, and possibly three magazines at the ready on the belt line at all times, and the rest can be readily accessible.

On the use of magazine loaders such as the LULA.  We strongly suggest you bring a loading tool to help load magazines.  This isn’t an issue of how cool you are, it’s an issue of time management.  Loading 750-1000 rounds over a couple of days is going to tear up your hands at some point, torn up hands take away from your ability to stay focused on the fundamentals, and thus take away from your training investment.  Bring a loader…

This question depends on your experience level.  If you are coming to a basic class and have no pistol experience at all, we recommend a full-size, striker fired pistol such as the M&P, XD, or Glock.  The reason for this is that at the basic level, we want to spend more time learning the fundamentals of marksmanship and safety than learning how to manipulate a complicated pistol.

If you have quite a bit of pistol experience, then bring what you are comfortable shooting, preferably a pistol you have shot before and you know is reliable.