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Are there any training courses by nationally-known firearms trainers offered in the (upper) midwest? Guys like Massad Ayoob, Tom Givens, John Farnam, or Spencer Keepers. Even a days drive would be better than the desert Southwest or the East Coast.

John Murphy (FPF Training) should be returning to MN (Ahlmans) on July 16 & 17, 2022.

Tim Herron's schedule already shows he will be back in Iowa again next year and I wouldn't be surprised if he returns to MN also.

I put up a similar question a while ago, and got a few replies. Unfortunately, here in flyover land, we're still a bit out of the loop, it seems. There used to be a Farnham class in Monticello, and I took ECQC in Morristown, but I think it's hosting as much as teachers that keep us from getting national talent up here. You have to carefully select locals and be willing to drive in the five state area (in practice this usually means WI and IA). Good luck, and I hope we see more too.

Off the top of my head I can’t list anything for the rest of this year that are open enrollment. Everything I’m aware of is LE/MIL only. Firearms training up here is generally seasonal and we’re at the tail end of what would normally be the training season. That said, national level instructors have cut way back on their training due to a myriad of reasons, primarily related to COVID and the current ammo shortage. Even if this were normal times, by now you’d likely not be able to find anything as the final courses tend to be in Sept/Oct and much of it would be booked full by now. You may find someone pop up here and there in the winter at an indoor range, but it’s rare that it will be open enrollment.

Minnesota has historically been a problematic state for hosting national level firearms instructors for open enrollment courses. We don’t have a major firearms training facility here that routinely hosts a myriad of training. Instead, you have a select number of people sporadically hosting someone at local ranges around the state. In most cases it was the same instructor, so you don’t get a lot of variety.

The best thing to do is to start planning for 2022. Do your research on instructors and see which ones interest you, and then periodically check their websites throughout the winter to see if they have something popping up around the area for 2022. There is a good chance that the ammo supply will continue to stabilize and prices will drop, and if that happens, you’ll probably see more training pop up late winter/early spring.

Thank you all for your insights. I will be planning for 2022.

Bob Vogel June 18 & 19 at East Grand Forks
Tim Herron August 13 & 14 Redwood Falls
John Murphy (FPF Training) at Ahlmans July 16 & 17

Scot Jedlinski has a class at Ahlmans in May, but it is already sold out.