Just as the title says, does anyone have any experience with CORE in Baker, FL? My family lives about 50 miles away, so I thought about taking their precision rifle beginner course. Anyone have any experience with it? Thanks in advance.
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Training Courses Any experience at CORE in Baker, FL?
- Thread starter Tiger83
- Start date
I have not taken a course there, not that I couldn't use it. Excellent facility, Brian Morgan runs a 1st class top notch shooting facility. Everyone affiliated with him are professional. You will definitely enjoy yourself 110 percent.
Don Dunlap
Don Dunlap
Thank you. I was impressed with his bio and figured that anything he was affiliated with would be nothing less than top notch.
Tiger83,
I drove over from Jacksonville in December and took their Intro to Precision Rifle course. Here is my take:
I showed up as a complete beginner, having never fired a rifle before including the Ruger Precision Rifle I came with. I had attempted to show up with all the right gear and knowing as much as I could about my rifle so as to be able to get as much as I could out of the class. I definitely could have done better in both areas. I just ran out of time.
The course was scheduled to be with Bryan Morgan but also when I got there Ryan Castle was co-instructing too. I don’t know if that is standard, or if Ryan joined as the class size necessitated the extra instructor. Both guys were excellent instructors with a very good, easy teaching demeanor. They handled the class size well spending whatever time with people individually as needed. I can’t remember now, maybe there was around 16-18 people in the class. Personally I thought there were maybe 2-3 too many people in the class. I also thought there were definitely numerous people in the class that really didn’t belong in an intro level course but that turned out to be for my benefit as a lot of them were able to listen to the instruction and then do their own thing while as for example, when we went out to the zeroing range Bryan was able to sit down with me and handle getting my scope sighted in (re-adjusting scope mount, cheek weld, turret zero stop, etc.). If everyone had needed this help the class would have been really, really slow. I’d also say though that no one was allowed to dominate the class so as to stop a beginner like me from getting as much out of it as I could so that was good. Like I said, both were excellent instructors and I‘d easily recommend them to anyone. They did seem to be proponents of a mixed experience class too, as you notice they don’t have an “Intermediate” class offered.
The two day class moved at a good pace although on Sunday we were hit with some nasty rain which messed the day and plans up a bit. We didn’t end up doing anything with moving targets because of the rain and trying to get other stuff covered that was planned in the schedule around the rain. We had classroom instruction intermingled with trips out to the shooting areas. I think first day we had class, and then trip out to the zeroing range. Then lunch. Then class, then trip to data gathering short range, then class to finish it out. Second day we had class, then out to the shooting tower (goes out to like 850 yards or so), then class, lunch, class, back out to shooting tower, then over to the two story shot house for improvised position instruction and shooting , and then back to the classroom to finish the day. It was a pretty good mix, although personally I would have enjoyed shooting more and going through the concepts up in the shooting tower rather than spending the time we did in the shot house doing the improvised position material (“Building a solid position with front support(barricades)”. That is just my personal preference as I think most of the people enjoyed the position building material and shooting from the two story shot house. Up in the Tower is where I thought there were maybe 2-3 too many people in the class. It was pretty crowded, but I guess still manageable. I would have liked a little more coverage of wind reading while we were in the Tower, versus discussing it primarily in the class room.
Gear – I definitely could have done better. There isn’t much in local stores and I was tired of buying shit unseen online. I didn’t have a shooting mat which would have been nice to have up in the shot tower and on the zeroing range (on the data gathering range I used someone else’s). I also bought some bad, super stiff Casey’s (or is it Caldwell’s) rear support bag. It was awful and I had a hard time getting it to position right for the shots. I didn’t know what to buy at the time. When I got back from the class I returned the bag and bought a small bag from Sand Sock Gear which was so much better and wish I had had for the class. They had some extras there that you could ask to borrow, but I didn’t know this until the very end of class, which was irritating. Try and bring a ballistic calculator and they can give you input on how to use it plus it will come in handy up in the Tower. I only had one on my tablet and I didn’t feel like letting it get wet so I didn’t bother with it. Of course I should have brought it into the classroom portion and just jotted numbers down for later use. I brought way too many different brands of Creedmoor ammo. Should have only brought one, or two at most. When you are on the data gathering portion they will attach a chrono to your rifle. So if you don’t normally have access to one this could be a good time to try to take advantage of gathering that data for your calculator and maybe on one or two different cartridges. Also, I should have had my rifle set up better before getting there with regard to the cheek placement so as to get a more easy ocular view with the scope. I had a hard time with that as a beginner.
Facilities were very nice. My only complaint about the facilities was in the Tower. All the way at one end they had up near the roof the distance out to the targets. We had a lot of people up there and it would have been nice if these distances were also listed at the opposite end of the platform so we could see too. One suggestion would be they could put those distances on a slide in the course materials and we could bring it out with our gear to the Tower platform. Now that I think about it I was going to email that to them when I got back but forgot. You stated you are only 50 miles from there so you are probably much more familiar with the area than me. The road in from the county road is pretty rough. I didn’t have a very easy time in my Corolla. It was rocking! Make sure to bring a lunch if you want one as there isn’t time or anywhere very close by. Not much to Crestview either.
So overall there were a few annoyances, most of my own making. But I left having confidence to go forward using my gear and continuing shooting. I’d definitely recommend taking a class with either Bryan or Ryan at CORE. If I lived 50 miles away like you I would look into being a member
I drove over from Jacksonville in December and took their Intro to Precision Rifle course. Here is my take:
I showed up as a complete beginner, having never fired a rifle before including the Ruger Precision Rifle I came with. I had attempted to show up with all the right gear and knowing as much as I could about my rifle so as to be able to get as much as I could out of the class. I definitely could have done better in both areas. I just ran out of time.
The course was scheduled to be with Bryan Morgan but also when I got there Ryan Castle was co-instructing too. I don’t know if that is standard, or if Ryan joined as the class size necessitated the extra instructor. Both guys were excellent instructors with a very good, easy teaching demeanor. They handled the class size well spending whatever time with people individually as needed. I can’t remember now, maybe there was around 16-18 people in the class. Personally I thought there were maybe 2-3 too many people in the class. I also thought there were definitely numerous people in the class that really didn’t belong in an intro level course but that turned out to be for my benefit as a lot of them were able to listen to the instruction and then do their own thing while as for example, when we went out to the zeroing range Bryan was able to sit down with me and handle getting my scope sighted in (re-adjusting scope mount, cheek weld, turret zero stop, etc.). If everyone had needed this help the class would have been really, really slow. I’d also say though that no one was allowed to dominate the class so as to stop a beginner like me from getting as much out of it as I could so that was good. Like I said, both were excellent instructors and I‘d easily recommend them to anyone. They did seem to be proponents of a mixed experience class too, as you notice they don’t have an “Intermediate” class offered.
The two day class moved at a good pace although on Sunday we were hit with some nasty rain which messed the day and plans up a bit. We didn’t end up doing anything with moving targets because of the rain and trying to get other stuff covered that was planned in the schedule around the rain. We had classroom instruction intermingled with trips out to the shooting areas. I think first day we had class, and then trip out to the zeroing range. Then lunch. Then class, then trip to data gathering short range, then class to finish it out. Second day we had class, then out to the shooting tower (goes out to like 850 yards or so), then class, lunch, class, back out to shooting tower, then over to the two story shot house for improvised position instruction and shooting , and then back to the classroom to finish the day. It was a pretty good mix, although personally I would have enjoyed shooting more and going through the concepts up in the shooting tower rather than spending the time we did in the shot house doing the improvised position material (“Building a solid position with front support(barricades)”. That is just my personal preference as I think most of the people enjoyed the position building material and shooting from the two story shot house. Up in the Tower is where I thought there were maybe 2-3 too many people in the class. It was pretty crowded, but I guess still manageable. I would have liked a little more coverage of wind reading while we were in the Tower, versus discussing it primarily in the class room.
Gear – I definitely could have done better. There isn’t much in local stores and I was tired of buying shit unseen online. I didn’t have a shooting mat which would have been nice to have up in the shot tower and on the zeroing range (on the data gathering range I used someone else’s). I also bought some bad, super stiff Casey’s (or is it Caldwell’s) rear support bag. It was awful and I had a hard time getting it to position right for the shots. I didn’t know what to buy at the time. When I got back from the class I returned the bag and bought a small bag from Sand Sock Gear which was so much better and wish I had had for the class. They had some extras there that you could ask to borrow, but I didn’t know this until the very end of class, which was irritating. Try and bring a ballistic calculator and they can give you input on how to use it plus it will come in handy up in the Tower. I only had one on my tablet and I didn’t feel like letting it get wet so I didn’t bother with it. Of course I should have brought it into the classroom portion and just jotted numbers down for later use. I brought way too many different brands of Creedmoor ammo. Should have only brought one, or two at most. When you are on the data gathering portion they will attach a chrono to your rifle. So if you don’t normally have access to one this could be a good time to try to take advantage of gathering that data for your calculator and maybe on one or two different cartridges. Also, I should have had my rifle set up better before getting there with regard to the cheek placement so as to get a more easy ocular view with the scope. I had a hard time with that as a beginner.
Facilities were very nice. My only complaint about the facilities was in the Tower. All the way at one end they had up near the roof the distance out to the targets. We had a lot of people up there and it would have been nice if these distances were also listed at the opposite end of the platform so we could see too. One suggestion would be they could put those distances on a slide in the course materials and we could bring it out with our gear to the Tower platform. Now that I think about it I was going to email that to them when I got back but forgot. You stated you are only 50 miles from there so you are probably much more familiar with the area than me. The road in from the county road is pretty rough. I didn’t have a very easy time in my Corolla. It was rocking! Make sure to bring a lunch if you want one as there isn’t time or anywhere very close by. Not much to Crestview either.
So overall there were a few annoyances, most of my own making. But I left having confidence to go forward using my gear and continuing shooting. I’d definitely recommend taking a class with either Bryan or Ryan at CORE. If I lived 50 miles away like you I would look into being a member
Thanks for the heads-up especially on some of the gear. My family lives about 50 miles away, but I live around 150-175 miles away. Otherwise, I would definitely be a member. Hopefully, when my wife finishes law school, we can move back home and I'll become one. If you had the chance, would you return for the advanced class?
Yes, I would go back for the Advanced class. Being a beginner I would definitely not take those two classes back to back. If you are experienced then I would think it would be worthwhile. Myself, I'd like to try a couple of other places and approaches out with different material covered first before I were to take this class though. I'd like to try to find a follow up class to the Intro that I took in December that focuses more on growing the fundamentals rather than covering any type of Stage/Event/Timed/PRS shooting. I'm looking at a wind reading class in NC, an intermediate class down by Okeechobee, and also some classes out in NM (Whittington Center and also Thundebeast), and some in TX, TN, & MI too. Just need the time off, LOL.
If you are able to get to an intermediate type class, please let me know how it was. Im an experienced hunter, but rarely shoot past 300 yards due to my location. Im sure a good intermediate course would e helpful to me after I take the beginner's course at CORE.
I'm moving to that area in four years, and absolutely plan on being a member.
It looks like disneyland to people like us.
It looks like disneyland to people like us.
I haven't trained at core.
I was taking a flight out to Idaho recently to visit a friend and help him move.
Had a connecting flight through DFW.
Happened to look up and see Brian Morgan walking down the concourse.
I've seen him at matches but haven't engaged him in conversation.
Bullshitted with him for half an hour while waiting to board.
Very personable and knowledgeable about his business.
Wouldn't hesitate to take training from his facility.
R
I was taking a flight out to Idaho recently to visit a friend and help him move.
Had a connecting flight through DFW.
Happened to look up and see Brian Morgan walking down the concourse.
I've seen him at matches but haven't engaged him in conversation.
Bullshitted with him for half an hour while waiting to board.
Very personable and knowledgeable about his business.
Wouldn't hesitate to take training from his facility.
R
I've had great experiences at CORE. Great facilities and instructors. They have worked with plenty of beginners. It is worth the trip, you will have a good time!
