Rifle - Skills & Standards is where every rifle shooter starts with us. You'll work presentation from the low ready, sling positions, standing, kneeling, prone and barricade, recoil management, your connection to the rifle, what your eyes are actually doing through a string, and reloads. We also cover how to properly zero a rifle — not just confirming yours, but understanding what that zero is doing for you at the distances you shoot.
Running underneath all of it is shot calling — reading hit location, sight behavior and timing closely enough to tie an outcome back to its cause. That's the difference between knowing you missed and knowing why.
You'll shoot the same assessment twice: once at the start of the day, before any coaching, and again at the end. The first run is an honest baseline. The second tells you what actually moved.
Distance is range dependent. The course runs at 25 yards and up, using reduced-size targets to work the accountability of a longer shot on a shorter range. This is a rifle course start to finish — rifle-to-pistol transitions are not part of it.
This is a one-day course built to be complete on its own: you leave with a real, measured baseline. It's also the entry point for Rifle - Applied Performance, which assumes this standard is already in place.
You'll leave with more than a day of range time: your notes from the class, your individual performance data, and a training program built from both to keep the standard climbing. Registration also opens your Standards app access a month before class, with ten dry-fire sessions waiting whenever you sign up, and keeps it open for two weeks afterward — so you arrive prepared and keep the work pointed at the right thing once you're home.
Civilian, law enforcement, or military: anyone who wants their rifle skills measured against a real standard instead of a feeling. No prior Criterion One course is required — this is the starting point — but it is not a class for brand-new shooters.
You should already handle a rifle safely, and you should be able to pass the self-test for this course: prone or seated, support allowed, five shots at 25 yards, all inside a 3-inch circle, with your rifle zeroed before class. Untimed — shoot it on your own range and see where you are. If you're not there yet, that's a number to train toward, not a door closing. Start in the Standards app, get to the gate, and this class takes you past it.
Skills & Standards courses are built around one question: can you apply the fundamental skill to the standard, on demand, under the timer? You're scored against defined criteria for accuracy and speed, not just coached through drills and sent home.
The score isn't the point. What the numbers are for is finding the one part of your process that's costing you the most, so the work you do afterward is aimed at the cause instead of the symptom.
Everything you need for the day. Exact ammunition quantity is confirmed when you register.