ABOUT US AND OUR FACILITY

Elite Arms Training is a firearms training facility located in south Mississippi. We are 30 minutes north of Gulfport and 40 minutes south of Hattiesburg. Our range construction was completed two weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck our area in 2005. The range sustained heavy damage and had to be rebuilt. The training facility is about 2 acres in size within 124 acres of planted pine and hardwood branches. It has been through continual improvements and we now have turning targets, moving targets, steel poppers, plates, and the usual static targets. The classroom is a very comfortable 600 square foot, air-conditioned building with a bathroom and small kitchen.

Jack Ragsdale and his wife, Judy, both retired police sergeants from Tampa, Florida, founded the facility. They taught firearms training to Tampa's 1000-member police department for 20 years. Jack also taught street survival courses and is credited with implementing the use of "Simunitions" into his department's firearms training program. It was the Ragsdales' love of firearms competition and desire to continue teaching that led them to create Elite Arms Training.

While there are many qualified shooting schools across the country, the Ragsdales have used their experiences to make Elite Arms Training significantly different from the rest. The school aims to attract the professional individuals who own firearms for personal and work-place protection. During their years in police work, the Ragsdales learned that many of these same professionals do not possess the level of confidence or skill they need to safely own and deploy their firearms, if necessary. They knew from their own personal participation in firearms schools, that most individuals do not learn best in a large group atmosphere where how many rounds you fired can become more important than what you learn. Knowing these things led the Ragsdales to design Elite Arms Training for the professional who desires individualized attention in a mastery-oriented environment.

At Elite Arms Training, classes are deliberately kept small, no more than six students per class, to keep the instructor-student ratio at a highly productive level and to increase the time participants spend actively engaged in hands-on drills.