Rifle 3

I attended Pistol Classes 1 & 2 plus Rifle Classes 1-3 all in one week so I’m just going to spam this review across all 5 site pages. The Good: - There was much useful information. Possibly too much doing all these classes at once in my case. Much was like martial arts instruction. Easy to note down, hard to put into practice instantly. I struggled in part due to my grossly outdated Army training. More adept shooters or those quick on the uptake will likely be fine. - The instructors Paul Perkerson and Sam Houston were excellent instructors, playing a “good cop/bad cop” type interaction with the students. - The two provided incredibly professional, highly knowledgable and highly proficient instruction. The offered no instruction mere opinion. They backed every instructional statement with facts, logic, or at least prior real world experience. They often said “This is not what I accept as a good technique but I know real world professionals who do it and excel.” I didn’t hear them once say “I don’t know.” But I’m absolutely sure if they didn’t know they’d happily tell us. - To my Big Army eye, they ran the range incredibly informally. Yet for that, it remained quite safe for students and instructors alike throughout. - They provided a superb balance between treating students like adults but at the same time not letting them get slack on safety. Both were funny and personable but not so funny or so personable as to lose track of their mission or allow students to become unfocused. - The students with me were overall excellent company and willing to help with skills, information and gear. - Overall, despite me being on the struggle bus, it was a fun experience. Not so Good: - Some of the gear linked in the course requirements is really an implied requirement. For example, I didn’t need a WPS belt. One of the best students just ran his holster off his leather belt. I also didn’t need a full retention holster. I got a SafariLand holster cops to keep crooks from stealing their gun. Its multiple locks plagued me during every quick draw segment. Any kydex-type holster that covers the trigger guard will do. I’ll add that the magazine carriers had two settings: Hold the magazine so tight you had to muscle it out or fall out if you breathe hard. No in between. Maybe they wear in but I gave mine and the WPS away to the guy with the leather belt. - WPS provided no real info on the range until the very last minute via email. And that just a time to show up and an address that wasn’t quite exact. The range was really super developed and had its own website with all the information anyone could reasonably want. The link could’ve been sent at least a week prior. - Warning, this is an unfair critique: So much was taught in such a little amount of time students couldn’t always learn it all properly. Follow on instruction built on those skills so students got acclimated to just fudging the foundational skills they hadn’t honed to practice the new ones. This proved frustrating for both students and instructors. Though I don’t know what can be done to fix it. That said, most of the training can be replicated in your home. So if you have a decent memory and/or take good notes you can pick it all up eventually with practice. Addenda: Much of the pistol class is a subliminal Glock advertisement. You can get way with a Beretta or 1911 but it’s easier to just bring a Glock or Glock clone. Part of the class is Glock style trigger management which will help. Running iron sights on your pistol is OK. But if you can afford it and get decent using them, a red dot is a good addition. As for rifles, it’s best to bring a an actual AR-15 style rifle and not a ban state compliant version. Bring one with as short a barrel as you can get away with and no added junk such as lights, lasers, bayonets, etc. Or do add all that but expect a good arm work out holding it up at various ready positions. LPVOs proved awkward, heavy, and not needed at the ranges we fired at. Just bring a red dot. Make sure whatever optic you bring is very solidly attached. If you can afford to buy enough magazines to load all the ammo required, do so. Or get a handy device to load what magazines you have. If it’s going to be dry or hot wear a canteen you can sip on. Breaks are kind of rare and short but the sun never lets up. Knee pads are important. I didn’t want to buy a new set of pants for the WPS insert versions. So I got away with using hex padded sports knee cuffs and so long as I didn’t drive my knee on to a rock, they worked. If you foresee yourself doing more vigorous kneeling, buy real knee pads. This review is from early 2025. Things may be different when you read it.

Josh and Sam were excellent instructors. This course was a blast (figuratively/literally). The pace of the course is perfect, light warm-up following by moving and shooting. If you are interested in increasing your shooting abilities, I highly recommend this course.

I just finished the Warrior Poet Society Rifle 1-3 courses taught by Paul P and Sam H. The courses exceeded my expectations in many ways. I have been a WPSN subscriber for over a year, and have watched these courses multiple times, so I was familiar with the content and generally knew what to expect. I also did a reasonable amount of prep work to be ready for the courses. This certainly helped, and gave me a leg-up on the actual hands-on course. Having said that, the in-person course was even more full-featured, valuable, enlightening, and better than I was expecting. I was very impressed with the knowledge and skills of Paul and Sam, and they are the "real deal". Their knowledge and firearms performance skills are excellent, and were very complimentary to each other. I came away more knowledgeable and with more awareness of what I need to work on, where I should improve, and how I can be a better prepared warrior and defender of freedom. Thanks WPSN! You guys rock!

These comments are for the entire week (Pistol 1&2, Rifle 1,2&3) I spent with Paul and (the other) Josh. Paul is the absolute real deal and I am very glad I was able to train with him. Josh is also an awesome instructor and will soon have his own classes that will be undoubtedly worth taking. As a relative beginner, I was learning as fast as I could. They were reasonably patient with my progress, though pushing me hard. Their lessons finally started to gel toward the end in Rifle 3 as the exercises showed exactly how improvements in basic skills drive almost all future skills. I know I have a few more IQ points to regain with weapons in my hands, but safely going from unconscious incompetence to at least conscious incompetence on much of what we were training was just what I wanted and needed. Looking forward to training with both of them again. Thank you guys.

So… like any good American you have this thing called an AR-15 and we all know how to use them right? Don’t think so fast! Rifle 1 is the perfect introduction this weapon and how to effectively use it in home defense. Paul, Sam and Josh are incredible. I learned so much from these guys and had a blast doing it. From sighting in your weapon for close range combat to a manual of arms for maneuvering you gun around obstacles….this class has everything you need to defend your home with a rifle. We have all this cool gear in our “Tacticool” lives, but how often do we get out there with experts to show us how to “really” use them. I can’t recommend this class enough for anyone that wants to defend their homestead. Thank you Paul, Sam and Josh for an amazing experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul, Josh, Sam and Luke are top tier instructors! I highly recommend these courses to anyone who is interested in beginning or looking to expand their skills and knowledge with firearms. I learned a lot and look forward to practicing the famous "Lovell Shuffle". I'm looking forward to my next sessions with WPS. Well done guys!

Another great class with Paul and Rocco! A lot of drills and “running and gunning” made this my favorite class to date. Lace up your running shoes or boots and get ready to apply everything you’ve learned in Rifle 1 & 2. Highly recommend this class!

Just finished taking pistol 1&2 and rifle 1,2&3 with Paul & Josh and all I can say is what an amazing week. Not only the skills that was taught with both pistol and rifle but the way they teach is so easy to understand. Paul is great at what he does and would highly recommend any class he teaches. I wasn't expecting Josh to be there but what a treat to have him there. Josh is a great instructor and when you get Paul and Josh together they make the class so entertaining and fun at the same time they are teaching you all the fundamentals and advanced skills to become a better protector. If you're holding off on taking these classes like I was just because you want "John Lovell" as an instructor I'm here to say Paul and Josh were absolutely great. I would like to train with the man himself John Lovell also but I would train anything Paul and Josh teach and feel just as warm and tingly inside as I would with John Lovell. Don't wait just sign up and do it you will not regret it !!

Rifle 3 is a must for anyone that is serious about being a capable citizen, ready to protect and defend if/when evil visits you. Sam and Josh made a great team instructing and guiding us thru the new skills and techniques. Then into the drills, the awesome drills. Challenging, but not impossible. They allowed you to push yourself as hard as you wanted, as long as you were operating safely, but even if you didn't want to go hard, it was still challenging with controlled stress inoculation that reveals your weaknesses and challenging your mind, body, and spirit. MEN...find the class on their schedule nearest to you and start budgeting for the fee and ammo asap. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

I took this class a few months ago and it was well worth the time and money. I had originally only signed up for day 1 & 2 but decided if I was going to make the trip then might as well stay for day 3. I am more than glad I stayed for the third day. Positional transitions/changes, types of reloads, handgun transitions, moving drills, unconventional positions etc. The drills really helped to reinforce what was learned over the previous two days. It was all super helpful. Watching online and then trying to go to the range and do drills is good, but being there with a full day of Paul and Sam sharing all their years of experience was very helpful and informative. I highly recommend this class to anyone and if they come back to Tennessee I'll probably take the course again as a refresher. Bring a notepad.