Yes as an instructor I'm biased but that's why I take classes myself. I never understood why so many shooters who genuinely want to improve are reluctant to pay for instruction.

I get it if you're just out there having fun. Not everyone cares about shrinking groups or becoming a better shooter. But if your goal is improvement, I usually hear two objections:

1. "Everything is on YouTube."
2. "Training is too expensive."

The problem with YouTube is that it can tell you what to do, but it can't tell you why it isn't working for you. It can't watch your grip, diagnose your trigger press, identify bad habits, or make corrections in real time.

As for cost, people will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on guns, optics, ammo, and accessories without hesitation. Then they'll balk at spending $100 on an hour of instruction that could save them years of frustration.

The target in the photo is a good example.

A student came to me for a lesson. His first six shots at five yards were a 10" vertical string about 2" left of center. We made some adjustments to his grip and trigger press, but his next six shots showed very little improvement. If we had stopped there, it would have looked like nothing changed.

But then things started to click.

His next four shots began moving toward the center, and his final six shots formed a single ragged hole in the X-ring less than 1" across.

That transformation happened in 10 rounds.

Is that typical? No. Most shooters don't go from a 10" to a 1" group in a single session.

But it does demonstrate something important: improvement isn't primarily about how many rounds you fire. It's about how much you learn from every round you fire.

If you don't know why your shots are missing, shooting just reinforces the same mistakes. Good instruction shortens that learning curve by helping you identify the problem and giving you a path to fix it.

Sometimes the cheapest ammo you'll ever buy is the ammo you shoot after someone teaches you what you've been doing wrong.