Firearms at the Lake

Firearms at the Lake

A 2½-Day Defensive Handgun Training Retreat

September 11–13, 2026 | Double Springs, Alabama

What is Firearms at the Lake?

Firearms at the Lake is an immersive 2½-day training retreat designed to build a deep foundation in defensive handgun ownership and use.

It is intended both for newer shooters and experienced gun owners who may have learned to shoot—but never received a comprehensive foundation in how handguns work, how to handle them safely, and how to develop effective defensive shooting skills.

Students and instructors train, eat and stay together on-site, allowing us to combine in-depth classroom instruction, hands-on practice, live fire and individual coaching in a way that is difficult to accomplish in a conventional one-day firearms class.

This is much more than a shooting class.

What We’ll Cover

We begin with the handgun itself and build from there:

• Firearms Safety & Hazards — not just memorizing safety rules, but understanding how and why people have unintended discharges and how to avoid predictable failure points.

• Pistol Operations — ammunition, pistol components, operating systems, safeties, magazines, triggers, sights, recoil and how semi-automatic pistols actually work.

• Pistol Handling — safely loading, unloading and verifying firearm condition; operating controls; magazine handling; and developing an effective grip.

• Malfunctions — understanding common failures and learning practical immediate-action procedures.

• Defensive Pistolcraft — accuracy, recoil management, visual processing, speed, drawing, movement, distance, cover and other skills appropriate to the students’ progress.

Classroom instruction includes extensive demonstrations, examples and real-world video. Hands-on work allows students to develop skills before applying them with live ammunition.

From Understanding to Performance

Weather permitting, Saturday and Sunday afternoons will be devoted primarily to live-fire training at a nearby private range.

We start with something deceptively simple:

Can you put the rounds where you want them?

Students establish an accuracy baseline at realistic handgun distances. We then break shooting down into component skills, including grip, recoil management and learning to visually track the pistol through recoil.

Then we return to the target.

Students frequently discover that they can shoot both faster and more accurately once they understand what the pistol is doing and stop trying to fight it.

From there we introduce time pressure and progressively more demanding shooting problems.

This isn’t a collection of drills to complete. The drills are diagnostic tools.

Chris and Jay will assess the group and individual shooters throughout the weekend and adjust the training based upon what students actually need.

The objective is not simply to shoot more.

It’s to understand what you’re doing, identify what limits your performance, and learn how to improve it.

Defensive Context

Good marksmanship is only part of defensive handgun proficiency.

We’ll connect shooting ability to the larger defensive problem through concepts including Time – Space – Power, realistic engagement distances, shot accountability, visual processing, drawing and ready positions, movement, cover and the consequences of every round fired.

As student ability permits, additional complexity can be introduced through movement, time pressure, decision-making and other problems that require more than simply standing still and shooting paper.

The Lake Experience

Students and instructors stay together at a private lake property near Double Springs, Alabama, with live-fire training conducted at a nearby private range.

The weekend includes:

• On-site lodging and shared meals
• Classroom and hands-on training
• Private range access
• High instructor-to-student ratio
• Evening discussion and community time

The schedule remains flexible to accommodate weather and student progress.

This is a training house, not a hotel.

Who Is This For?

Firearms at the Lake is a strong fit if you:

• Recently purchased a handgun and want to learn to use it properly
• Own or carry a handgun but never received a thorough foundation
• Have taken basic firearms classes but want to understand the why behind what you were taught
• Already shoot reasonably well but want objective assessment and coaching
• Want to become a safer, more knowledgeable and more capable armed citizen

You don’t need to be an advanced shooter.

You do need to arrive ready to learn, participate and be coached.

Enrollment is intentionally limited to preserve coaching quality.

Understand your gun. Learn to run it. Learn to shoot it. Learn to improve.

🔗 Combatives at the Lake 2026 – Official Event Page - Firearms Concierge, LLC