Posted by Dutch Merrick | Live Fire Learning | Southern California
Let me tell you what I hear most often from new students before they arrive.
If you’re preparing for your first time shooting lesson in Southern California,
this post is written specifically for you.
Not in these exact words, usually. It comes out as questions. “What should I
wear?” “Do I need to bring anything?” “Is there anything I should know
beforehand?” But underneath all of those reasonable, practical questions is
the real one, the one almost nobody comes right out and asks:
What is actually going to happen when I get there?
It’s a fair question. And the fact that you’re asking it — even quietly, even
just to yourself — tells me something important about where you are right now.
You’ve decided to do this. That took something. Now the mind is doing what
minds do: filling the unknown with worst-case versions of events that haven’t
happened yet.
So let me just tell you exactly what happens. No surprises. That’s the whole
point of this.
You arrive. It’s quieter than you expected.
Live Fire Learning takes place at a private range. Not a public facility where
strangers are lined up shoulder to shoulder, where you can hear the person
three lanes over and wonder what they’re doing and whether you’re doing it
wrong. Just your class, your instructor, and the range.
That matters more than most people realize until they experience it. Learning
anything new requires a certain amount of psychological safety — the ability
to ask what feels like a basic question without embarrassment, to go slowly
without feeling like you’re holding someone up. You can’t do that in a crowd.
Here, there is no crowd.
We talk before anything else.
Before you touch a firearm, we talk. We cover how everything works — the
mechanics, the safety systems, what each part does and why. We explain what
will happen before it happens. We answer every question, and I mean that
literally: there are no basic questions here. The question that feels too
simple to ask is usually the most important one.
This part of the day is where something interesting tends to happen. Students
who arrived tense start to relax. Not because I’ve said anything
particularly reassuring, but because the unknown is becoming known. The
thing that had power over them was never the firearm itself. It was the gap
between what they knew and what they didn’t. We start closing that gap before
anyone has picked anything up.
You handle the firearm. Unloaded, first.
When we move to handling, we start with an unloaded firearm. You hold it.
You get used to the weight, the feel, the reality of it as a physical object
rather than an abstract source of anxiety. We work through safe handling
together, step by step. Nothing is rushed.
Most students tell me that this is the moment the fear starts to shift. Not
disappear — shift. It moves from something large and vague into something
specific and manageable. Specific things can be learned. Vague fears cannot.
Before we fire, we stop. And we breathe.
This is the part of the day that surprises people most.
When we leave the classroom and walk to the range, we don’t go straight to
the firing line. We sit down together first, and we do a guided meditation.
I know how that might sound to some people. But stay with me.
Shooting is a mental discipline as much as a physical one. What you bring to
the firing line — the tension in your shoulders, the noise in your head, the
accumulated anxiety of the day and the week and the years of telling yourself
this wasn’t for you — that travels with you unless you address it directly.
The guided meditation is how we address it. We get grounded. We get centered.
We quiet the mental noise and form the mind for what’s about to happen.
It takes just a few minutes. And in those few minutes, something shifts in
most people that no amount of instruction can produce on its own. The body
settles. The breath slows. The range stops being an intimidating place and
becomes simply the place where you are, right now, ready to learn something.
I’ve been doing this long enough to know the difference between a student
who fires their first round tense and reactive, and one who fires it present
and grounded. The meditation is why our students are the second kind.
You start small. On purpose.
We begin with a Ruger 22/45.
If that model name means nothing to you yet, here’s what matters: it was
designed from the ground up as the ideal training companion for the 1911 —
the legendary American pistol you’ll encounter later in the day. Same grip
angle, same intuitive feel in the hand, same natural point of aim. The
Ruger 22/45 is, in every meaningful sense, a 1911 in training clothes.
It fires a .22 caliber round — light, relatively quiet, with minimal
recoil — which means on your first shots you can focus entirely on the
fundamentals: your stance, your grip, your breath, your sight picture.
There’s nothing fighting you. It’s a match-grade pistol, exceptionally
accurate, and it was chosen for this role with real intention.
I’ve also made one small but deliberate modification to this particular
pistol. The slide release — the lever that chambers the first round and
that you’ll operate on every pistol you shoot today — has been replaced
with a larger, red anodized version. Bright, visible, impossible to miss.
On most pistols, the slide release is a small and somewhat obscure control
that new shooters often struggle to locate and operate with confidence.
On this gun, it’s right there. You learn the motion correctly, from the
very first repetition, and that learning transfers directly to every other
pistol you’ll handle as the day unfolds.
It’s a small thing. It changes everything about how quickly someone new to
firearms finds their footing.
The targets we start with are another example. They’re not standard range
paper targets. Each one is a large white sheet with a bold red star at the center —
deliberately reminiscent of the carnival targets you grew up trying to shoot
at the county fair with a BB gun. You know the ones. The star that was
nearly impossible to shoot out, with guns that seemed rigged against you,
with a prize perpetually just out of reach.
Here, the star is simply there to be hit. No trick guns. No rigged sights.
No prize withheld. Just you, a firearm that’s been set up to help you
succeed, and the quiet satisfaction of putting a hole through the center of
something you’ve been aiming at since childhood.
These details — the modified slide release, the carnival star, and dozens
of others woven through the day — come from thirty years spent as a prop
master in film and television. A prop master considers every single element
of how something is presented, experienced, and understood. Every detail is
deliberate. Nothing is there by accident or default. That same eye — the
one that spent three decades making sure everything on a film set was
exactly right before the cameras rolled — has been applied to every aspect
of this program. The result is a shooting experience that has been thought
through in ways that most ranges simply never consider.
The goal, always, is to make learning as clear, as comfortable, and as
genuinely enjoyable as possible. You’ll feel that from the moment you
arrive.
From there, we work our way up through the calibers — each one building on
what came before, each one a little more to manage, each one met with a
little more of the confidence that’s been accumulating since you walked in.
By the time you’re handling something with more weight and more presence,
you’re not the same person who arrived. You’ve already done this. Several
times. The progression is deliberate, and it works.
The tasting.
After building the fundamentals, we move to what I call our Legends series.
Eight pistols. Laid out in front of you. Not a random collection — a
deliberate one. These are the tried and true classics, the firearms that
have defined the craft and proven themselves across decades of real-world
service.
The Beretta 92F — sidearm of choice for militaries and law enforcement
around the world, and one of the most recognizable pistols ever made. The
Glock 17 — arguably the most widely carried modern pistol on the planet.
The Sig Sauer P226 — trusted by Navy SEALs and special operations forces.
The H&K USP — German precision engineering in your hand. The Smith & Wesson
Model 686 in .357 Magnum — a revolver of genuine legend, and yes, the
Magnum lives up to its name. The Sig P365 — the modern compact that changed
how people think about carrying.
And then there are the two that deserve a moment of their own.
The Colt .45 Auto — the legendary American sidearm, the gun that shipped
with American soldiers in two World Wars, chambered in the powerful caliber
it was designed for from day one. There is a reason this pistol has been
in continuous service for over a century. Pick it up and you’ll understand
it immediately.
Alongside it: a 1911 in .22. The same iconic platform — same lines, same
feel, same unmistakable profile in the hand — with a lighter spring and the
gentler recoil of a .22 caliber round. For newer shooters, younger students,
or anyone of smaller stature, it’s a perfect introduction to one of history’s
great pistols. All the character, exactly the right amount of firepower.
And for anyone who picks it up and thinks I could shoot this all day —
know that the full-power version is sitting right next to it, waiting for
when you’re ready.
Revolvers and semi-automatics. Different actions, different calibers,
different weights and personalities and histories.
We call what happens next the tasting.
You pick each one up. You fire it. You make a note on the simple sheet we
give you — just your honest reaction. How it felt in your hand. What you
noticed. Whether something clicked or didn’t.
There’s no right answer and no gun you’re supposed to like over another.
The note sheet isn’t a test. It’s a way of paying attention to something most
people have never had the chance to pay attention to before: their own instinctive
response to a firearm.
What almost always happens is this: somewhere in those eight pistols, there’s
one that fits differently. Sits in the hand a little more naturally. Speaks
to something you didn’t know you were listening for. Students often can’t
explain it exactly. They just know. This one.
You find yours.
When the tasting is done and you’ve found the pistol that feels like it
belongs in your hand, that’s what we shoot for the rest of the day.
Not sampling anymore. Not rotating through options. Just you and the firearm
you chose, building something with it, developing a feel that is genuinely
yours.
There’s a significant difference between firing eight different guns and
really learning one. By the end of the day you’re not just someone who has
sampled a range of pistols. You’re someone who can shoot this one with
real intention, real familiarity, and real confidence.
Then, the match.
The day ends with something I’ve always loved: a low-key, no-pressure
fun-match.
Nothing intimidating. Just a structured series of targets and challenges that
takes everything you’ve built through the day — the fundamentals, the
breathing, the relationship you’ve developed with your chosen firearm —
and asks you to bring it all together.
It’s competitive only in the way a game among friends is competitive. The
point isn’t to win. The point is to discover what you’re actually capable
of after a full day of moving toward this moment.
Most students surprise themselves.
You leave differently than you arrived.
I’ve taught a lot of students over the years. Complete beginners, people who
came in with shaking hands and tight shoulders, people who were nervous
about this. I’ve watched hundreds of people walk off this range having fired
a gun for the first time in their lives.
Almost without exception, the expression on the way out is the same. It’s
not excitement, exactly. It’s something quieter. Something that looks a lot
like: oh. That’s what it actually is.
The thing they feared for years — the thing that had, in some real sense,
controlled how they moved through the world — turns out to be something they
can understand. Handle. Control.
That’s what the first day is. Not a test. Not a performance. Just the
beginning of knowing something you didn’t know before.
Ready for your first shooting lesson in Southern California?
Live Fire Learning is for everyone. We have welcomed complete beginners of
all ages and backgrounds — including young people, from thirteen years old
and occasionally younger, always with a parent or guardian present. For
younger students, we keep a dedicated selection of .22 caliber pistols
sized and weighted for smaller hands, and the tasting is tailored
accordingly. Finding a firearm that fits a young person’s hand and feels
right to them is one of the most meaningful things that happens at this
range. Teaching responsibility, confidence, and respect from an early age
matters more than almost anything else we discuss in the classroom.
Whether you’re coming alone, bringing a teenager, or arriving as a family —
we accommodate all ages thoughtfully, and we meet every student exactly
where they are.
Private and small-group instruction at our private Southern California
range. Everything included — nothing to bring, no experience required,
no judgment.
That said, if you own a pistol and want to shoot it, learn it, or simply
get more comfortable with it, bring it. We welcome personal firearms at
the range and are happy to work with you on the gun you actually own.
And if you’re a new gun owner who took possession of a firearm, put it
somewhere safe, and haven’t touched it since — you’re not alone, and
there’s no embarrassment in it. We can help you service and lubricate it,
show you how it comes apart and goes back together, and send you home
knowing the gun in your drawer the way you should. That’s part of what
we do here too.
Your first day starts at livefirelearning.us.
Dutch Merrick is a Southern California firearms instructor and a 30-year veteran of the film and television industry. He holds California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) certifications as a Pistol, Rifle, and Shotgun Instructor, and carries the same triple-discipline instructor certification from the NRA. He is a CRPA-certified Range Safety Officer (RSO) and holds Automatic Weapons and Dangerous Weapons Permit issued by the California Department of Justice. A past President of IATSE Local 44, the Hollywood prop department union, Dutch has guided hundreds of first-time students to become calm, confident, and in control at the range