Kraken Knife

Jim and the crew made me feel welcome and comfortable. I’ve been shooting a long time but the additional instruction and one on one attention is truly where this training shines. A high level professional and yet down to earth approach makes shootings and beginners welcome and creates a great learning environment. Bring the kids or the buddies to any of SPI’s events with confidence!!

I’ve taken several classes by Jim Erwin. He has something for everyone and all skill levels. Excellent instructor and very personable. I truly enjoy his classes. Being a veteran myself, I have had instruction by many professionals and have taken many classes and courses over many years. Jim is an excellent instructor and has an easy to understand approach to learning. He doesn’t come with the attitude or demeanor of someone that has done a lot of “stuff” and thinks they’re better than you or talk down to you. He’s obviously tip of the spear and elite of the elite. Part of that 1% that have done what he’s done, skillset and knowledge. I’ve seen him explain things simply to someone that has minimal experience and a bit nervous, to talking to people that have been there and done that. Being a veteran, it doesn’t bother me about someone yelling at me during training, but at my age now, I usual prefer not to deal with that. Jim Erwin is excellent in this department. Takes safety seriously but doesn’t talk down to you or try to make you feel stupid. This makes for a better training environment. Even after many years of training, I still am able to learn something new from Jim and even that “aha” moment where something has been explained before but I never truly understand and Jim is able to explain it in a relevant way that I get it. He can make the training as easy as you want and as hard as you want depending on skill level, while continuing to challenge you. Never stop training. Easier to stay ready than to get ready. Thanks for your instruction and service Mr. Erwin.

I recently became interested in “long range” shooting and built a rifle just in time to take this class. All the instructors made the class entertaining, comfortable and gave a terrific foundation for distance shooting. Taking this class was well worth it. I was intimidated and overwhelmed with getting into this discipline but I’m now far more confident in taking on this endeavor on my own. We all received personalized coaching and assistance from all of the instructors. Everyone was professional, personable and extremely knowledgeable. They are passionate about firearm related activities and it really shows.

I am an experienced shooter and have done 80+ days of live class training at various schools over the past 12+ years. I thought this was going to be simple review class. We had a class of 4. Five minutes into the class Jim comes over and makes a change to my grip. It was uncomfortable as I had a bad habit to break. It was very effective when I changed it to his way and it showed on the paper. I now need to go back to the very beginning on my mechanics and build this into my muscle memory with 1000’s of dry reps and slow live reps in the future. It was that impactful. He gave me a faster, more efficient way of doing tac reloads which I now need to do lots of reps to burn in. He was teaching type 3 malfunctions and I asked him why he did not lock the slide back. He advised me I was doing the old method and showed me a much quicker way without locking the slide back. I’ll need to burn that into muscle memory as well. I did not go to class expecting to make big changes to the way I’ve done things for years this last weekend. I need to go work on my skills and do another class later so we can find something else I can improve as well. He was definitely a wealth of knowledge on how to survive the worst day of your life. It was more than I expected.

Jim was a great instructor. He made the class entertaining and enjoyable. He and his wife were very helpful throughout the day answering questions and at the range. We had a large class and they managed all 26 of us very well! We’d definitely take another class from him the future and highly recommend him for anyone interested in getting their CCW.