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I've taken the 350 at Gunsite after taking many classes at Thunder Ranch when it was in TX.

First of all, TR is full through 2006 and part-way into 2007. So while I can't speak too highly of Clint & Heidi, it won't fit into your 2006 plan. I haven't been to the Oregon site yet, but I'm sure the new location hasn't diminished the quality of instruction at TR.

OTOH, I'm sure Gunsite has lots of spots in lots of classes. When I took the 350 there I have to say I was disappointed. Timers, marked distances, El Prez drills all seemed quite contrived. In addition, we shot in dry washes at fairly long distances and shot targets at up to 80+ yds. My eyes aren't 20/20 and I couldn't even find some of the targets. My instructors were border patrol agents, and I'm sure these were very useful skills for agents; I just found they weren't that useful to ME.

But there's a Gunsite "aura," that is worth experiencing once. There are lots of really wise old hands there and you can learn a lot by just hanging around.

In the last year I've taken a class from John Farnam in the Houston area and one from Tom Givens in Baton Rouge. Both were great classes in shooting, in fighting, and in thinking, and I highly recommend both of tehse guys as instructors.

And I'm signed up to take a class from Gabe Suarez on 3/23-3/24 at Impact Zone. Never trained with Gabe, but I'm looking forward to it.

-Wayne