Making Shooters Better

Making Shooters Better is where real shooter stories turn into smarter training and preparation for everyone. Each episode dives into the journeys, wins, and lessons of competitors, instructors, and innovators from across the firearms world. Hosted by Terry Vaughan —former British Royal Marine Commando, Top Shot competitor, and firearms instructor—this show delivers more than talk. You’ll get the mindset, methods, and motivation to train sharper and perform better, on and off the range!

Making Shooters Better is a education podcast hosted by Terry Vaughan, with 42 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Terry Vaughan hosts Making Shooters Better, a education show with 42 episodes published.

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  Episode #43

  Before You Carry a Gun, Make These Decisions

  Sep 24, 20261h 34mS1

  EPISODE SUMMARY After decades of teaching defensive firearms and tactics, John and Vicki Farnam argue that becoming harder to kill has far less to do with simply becoming better at shooting. We explore preparation as a way of life, recognizing and avoiding danger, the difference between force and violence, why instructors must adapt to their students, what happens psychologically when avoidance is no longer possible, and why some of the greatest victories in defensive training end without a shot ever being fired. EPISODE DESCRIPTION The hardest decision in a gunfight may need to be made years before the gunfight ever happens. John and Vicki Farnam have spent decades teaching armed citizens, law enforcement officers, and instructors around the world. But their philosophy of preparedness reaches far beyond marksmanship. In this episode of Making Shooters Better , former British Royal Marines Commando Terry Vaughan will ask John and Vicki to examine what it really means to be prepared. Why does John believe avoidance deserves more training than confrontation? Why does Vicki begin by asking students whether they truly believe they are worth protecting? Can observation actually be trained? What separates healthy vigilance from paranoia? Why can technically competent shooters still be dangerously unprepared? And what happens when all the avoidance, awareness, judgment, and preparation in the world still leaves you with one unavoidable decision? Vicki also shares the remarkable story of the 700-pound wild hog that charged her, the shot she ultimately had to take at roughly three feet, and what the experience taught her about the purpose of training under pressure. We also explore how firearms instruction itself can fail students when instructors teach the technique they know rather than the person standing in front of them, including lessons Vicki learned while helping instructors better communicate with female shooters. And perhaps most importantly, John explains why hearing from a former student who walked away, kept quiet, chose different friends, or simply decided not to go somewhere can mean more to him than hearing about a shooting his training helped someone survive. Because the ultimate purpose of defensive training isn't winning gunfights. It's making better decisions before one ever begins.

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  Episode #42

  Your Gear Isn’t the Problem: The Skills That Actually Matter in a Gunfight

  Sep 17, 20261h 18mS1

  Summary Wayne Dobbs has spent nearly five decades teaching people how to shoot, but his message is not really about shooting. It is about the gap between owning good equipment and actually being prepared to use it well. From grip and presentation to red dots, reloads, decision-making, and mental readiness, Wayne challenges some of the habits shooters cling to most tightly. Along the way, he explains why fundamentals matter more under pressure, why some impressive range skills may have limited defensive value, and why the most important tool in a fight is still the one between your ears. Episode Description What if the biggest thing holding back your shooting isn’t your gun, your optic, or your ammo? Wayne Dobbs has spent 46 years training shooters and 25 years in law enforcement, and he has some strong opinions about what actually matters when performance stops being theoretical. In this episode, Wayne breaks down why grip is so often misunderstood, how poor presentation can make a red dot slower instead of faster, why shooters may be overtraining certain skills, and what mental preparedness really looks like before a defensive encounter ever begins. This conversation goes well beyond technique. It is about building a repeatable process, understanding what your gear can and cannot do, and preparing for the moment when your expectations collide with reality.

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  Episode #41

  Proficiency Is Not Preparedness: Training for the Life You Actually Live

  Sep 10, 20261h 31mS1

  What happens when everything you've practiced works perfectly on the range, but the real world changes the rules? Tatiana Whitlock, National Director of Training for A Girl & A Gun Women's Shooting League, joins Terry Vaughan to explore the uncomfortable but essential gap between firearm proficiency and genuine preparedness. Tatiana began shooting as an adult and quickly discovered that mastering marksmanship was only the beginning. Her pursuit of defensive training eventually exposed a much bigger challenge: learning how to apply technical skills inside unpredictable environments involving movement, judgment, family members, changing conditions, and consequences that cannot be reset with another run of the drill. In this episode, Terry and Tatiana explore what she calls "training in context," including why shooters should train for the bodies they have and the lives they actually lead rather than some imaginary version of themselves. Tatiana also explains why skill development must evolve as we age, recover from injury, change lifestyles, become parents, change vehicles, move homes, or simply discover that the shooter we remember being isn't necessarily the shooter standing on the range today. The conversation takes an especially powerful turn when Tatiana shares an attempted home invasion she experienced while her children were inside the house. That event forced her to reconsider concealed carry entirely. Her conclusion: the firearm may belong to one person, but preparedness must involve the entire family. They discuss how families can build awareness and emergency responses without creating fear, why gamifying situational awareness can make children active participants in their own safety, and why a concealed carrier cannot afford to manage both a threat and an unprepared family simultaneously. They also examine the responsibility of firearms instructors: adapting technique to the individual rather than forcing every student into the same physical mold, teaching students to process information rather than simply perform drills, and creating training experiences that expose limitations without destroying confidence. Because the goal isn't merely to produce someone who shoots well under familiar conditions. It's to develop someone who can think, adapt, recognize, decide, and perform when those conditions disappear. In this episode: What "training in context" really means The difference between firearm proficiency and real-world capability Why fundamentals are universal but their application is personal How aging, injury, parenthood, and lifestyle changes affect defensive skills Why shooters need training that occasionally humbles them The danger of confusing range performance with preparedness Why concealed carry is a family skill Preparing spouses and children without creating fear Developing situational awareness through games and everyday experiences Why instructors must adapt techniques to individual students Training the brain to recognize, process, communicate, and respond Why the best defensive training prepares you for uncertainty rather than rehearsing a perfect script Tatiana's message is ultimately simple but demanding: Proficiency with a firearm is not the same as preparedness. Train for the life you actually live, because that is where your skills may someday have to work.

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  Episode #40

  The First 30 Seconds: Why Active Shooter Response Must Change

  Sep 3, 20261h 18mS1

  What actually happens in the first 30 seconds of an active shooter attack? According to Ed Monk, that question should sit at the center of every active shooter response plan. Ed is a retired Army officer, law enforcement officer, firearms trainer, author of First 30 Seconds , and a longtime researcher of active shooter events. His work challenges some of the most widely accepted assumptions about how schools, churches, businesses, and public facilities prepare for mass violence. In this episode, Ed explains why active shooter events are fundamentally a time problem , with victims potentially being shot every few seconds before law enforcement has even been notified. He challenges traditional lockdown policies and the familiar Run-Hide-Fight model, arguing that waiting for outside help can carry an enormous human cost. We also explore why people often fail to immediately recognize the sound of gunfire, the psychological barriers that prevent ordinary people from acting, and why someone already at the scene may be the only person capable of stopping an attack quickly enough to dramatically reduce casualties. For armed responders, Ed goes even deeper. He explains why active shooter response is very different from the typical close-range defensive encounter most shooters train for, why every shooter needs to understand the limits of their own accuracy, and why in a crowded public space there are no true “misses,” only intended and unintended hits. He also introduces the mental battle he calls “the monkey” , the overwhelming pressure to shoot faster than your actual ability allows. This is not a comfortable conversation. It is a conversation about what happens when prevention has failed, innocent people are being murdered, and someone has to act. For anyone responsible for protecting a school, church, workplace, public venue, or family, this may be one of the most important episodes of Making Shooters Better yet.

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  Episode #39

  Stop Trying to Pull the Trigger Faster: How Elite Shooters Improve Their Speed

  Aug 27, 20261h 12mS1

  What happens when two elite competitive shooters reach the top through completely different paths? Randi Rogers began shooting at just 11 years old alongside her grandparents in Cowboy Action Shooting, competing under the unforgettable alias “Holy Terror.” Shooting became almost second nature, and over the next 28 years she accumulated more than 85 world and national titles across nine different shooting disciplines. Gordon Carrell's journey couldn't have looked more different. After years of football, pole vaulting, rock climbing, hiking, hunting, and other athletic pursuits, Gordon entered competitive handgun shooting in his mid-thirties. He quickly began applying lessons from athletics, physical education, movement, mental performance, and eventually detailed performance analysis to figure out exactly where shooters gain or lose time. Together, their contrasting approaches create a fascinating lesson in how shooting skill is actually developed. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, we dig into why many shooters misunderstand speed. Gordon explains that meaningful improvements often aren't found by pulling the trigger faster, but by eliminating unnecessary movement, hesitation, inefficient transitions, poor positioning, and tiny pauses between actions. Randi adds another piece: eliminate mistakes. Missing targets, poorly planned reloads, forgetting stage elements, and failing to analyze previous performances can cost far more time than fractions of a second gained through raw shooting speed. Her experience across multiple disciplines also illustrates just how much shooters can learn simply by carefully watching other competitors. We also explore the mental side of competition. Gordon shares the lesson he learned from legendary shooter Rob Leatham about conserving mental energy during long matches, along with his own method for reframing nervousness as preparation rather than something negative. Randi takes a different approach. When she reaches the line, she narrows everything down to one simple internal cue: “Sights. Sights. Sights.” Different mental strategies. Same objective: get the conscious mind out of the way and allow trained skills to perform. Then comes one of the most valuable training discussions of the episode. Gordon argues that many shooters practice what they're already good at because success feels good. His philosophy is almost the opposite: practice should deliberately push you beyond your existing comfort zone, then analyze why each repetition succeeded or failed. Instead of hoping you've improved, create baselines. Measure your draw. Measure your transitions. Measure your splits. Record your movement. Study your video. Then compare what you actually did against what you're capable of doing. As Gordon puts it, practice makes permanent. Poor repetitions simply make poor habits more durable. Randi provides the perfect counterbalance. Her ability to watch a movement and reproduce it almost instinctively comes from decades of observing other shooters, beginning with her grandfather. It's a reminder that improvement doesn't happen only when we're pulling the trigger. Watching, visualizing, analyzing, and mentally rehearsing can all become part of training. And then there's the minor complication that these two champions happen to be married. We get into competition between spouses, learning when to coach each other, and the surprisingly useful rule they've developed whenever one begins talking about a problem: “Do you want me to listen, or do you want me to offer advice?” Possibly the most marriage-saving shooting technique ever discussed on this podcast. Ultimately, this episode isn't really about trophies. It's about deliberate improvement. Whether you're a competitive shooter, defensive shooter, instructor, or simply someone trying to become more capable with a firearm, Randi and Gordon offer a remarkably practical blueprint: Train consistently. Work on weaknesses. Get outside your comfort zone. Measure performance. Analyze what happened. And never confuse doing more repetitions with actually getting better. Because sometimes the fastest way to become a better shooter is to slow down long enough to figure out what's costing you time.

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