Self Defense

"I had the unique opportunity to attend ARC's weapons training course recently in 2023, taught by Michael Caughran. As a retired Police Captain, 31 years of service and during my career also a range master for 10 years, I was pleasantly surprised with the depth of understanding and professionalism taught by their cadre of instructors. Michael is an excellent firearms instructor with the most current practices when using a handgun. He easily communicated with the novice as well as the most seasoned student. During my years as a range master I also attended many training courses in all kinds of weapon usage and safety. In my opinion Michael's ARC weapons training course ranks among the best I have attended and participated in. Michael taught me new and valuable techniques in target acquisition, and weapon safety. This course is hands on. I recommend ARC to anyone from beginner to professional to take advantage of these excellent courses ARC provides."

"I had the opportunity to train with Michael for a full day of shooting rifles and pistols. Michael’s talent and enthusiasm for instructing made the day both productive and very fun. He is clear, concise, and does an excellent job of tailoring his teaching to the individual. I left feeling more confident in the basics as well as some more advanced shooting skills.
As someone who has received firearms training through both the military and private civilian courses I can say that Michael is a great instructor to work with regardless of skill level or experience. Expect humor and good conversation."

"Michael Caughran is a great instructor! Whether you are a first time shooter or a long time enjoyer of shooting and tactics, he can tailor his training to you and what you want to work on!"

"I went into today thinking I was checking another thing off my todo list. It turned out that I was completely wrong. It was so much more than that. Thank you Michael for the instruction and coaching."

"It’s a perishable skill to use your weapon. I’ve done multiple courses here over the last year and a half and every time I learn something new, something different. It’s valuable, worth the money and I highly recommend it!" 

"I got a lot out of the classroom portion of Combatives level 1. I really appreciated the way Michael drew from resources, not just his experiences but also pulled information that he had learned from different experts in the field. I took a ton of notes, which means I felt like it was really productive!"

"This survival course is really awesome! I really enjoyed it! It was great to get my feet wet with this whole survival thing. I do have aspirations as a pilot. It was really cool to see all the different things that go into survival, not just the basic things we think about, like making fires and getting food. But we don’t always think about shelter considerations, staying warm and dry or how to filter water. It was really cool to learn all the in-depth things that go into making really effective survival. It was really fun! "

"Parents of two, two and under, my husband and I took this class to educate ourselves as to how to better protect ourselves. Michael and his wife are excellent to work with. They are flexible, attentive, and engaging. Michael speaks clearly and articulately, takes plenty of time for questions, and makes every effort to teach the concepts in a clear and concise manner adaptable to any student. The principles are so much more than ideas but dependable skills, easy to commit to muscle memory! We are so thankful for the class and really appreciated it as an excellent foundation for discussing and creating a game plan for otherwise unknown situations! We would love to take more of these classes and are excited at all we learned! Huge thanks!  "

"My wife unleashed a 7 or 8 strike attack on me last night in rapid succession... I was blown away at how efficient and effective it would have been if she was going full speed without holding back! I am extremely grateful to you for giving her the knowledge and confidence to pick up so much defensive potential in such a short time. She is now a force to be reckoned with, even at 70 years old! (She's also a little scary... I'll have to be on my best behavior!)

And just for the record, she's still doing it. Every time I approach her I get eye scraped, neck chopped, elbowed, hammer fisted, kneed (in several places), and foot stomped. I am very thankful she's only practicing!

Hard to believe she initially didn't want to take the class because she thought she'd be embarrassed.... "