Early on a warm summer morning, a drive through an overhead ranch gate bearing the name Hagerman Wings Farm announces a unique property on the outskirts of Hagerman, Idaho. A much smaller sign reads Shaw Shooting. Both signs are simple and unassuming, but Shaw Shooting is clearly not just a simple gun range—it’s an elite training facility geared toward honing the skill sets of the top U.S. military and law enforcement agencies. This premiere training ground for Special Operation Forces worldwide is right here in Idaho, surrounded by the cornfields of Hagerman and resting beneath the layered mesas of ancient fossil beds.
Houston Shaw, the owner, founder, and lead instructor of Shaw Shooting, stands ready for arrivals. On this perfectly sunny afternoon, he greets one of the nation’s top federal law enforcement teams, which will spend the week sharpening its firearms skills.
The team is here to complete one of the five-day class sessions that are the bread and butter of Shaw Shooting. Special Operation Forces from various branches of the U.S. and international military come to Houston Shaw and his team of instructors to train and bond at this world-class facility.
The Shaws also work closely with the Ducks Unlimited. Much of their property has a conservation overlay, and they are constantly restoring habitats, preserving waterfowl and wetlands, and respecting wildlife (and people).
Houston Shaw, 36, has mastered an expertise and skill level with firearms that seems only to be equaled or surpassed by his business acumen and work ethic. Competing at national and international shooting competitions at just 11, Houston consistently won or placed at a world-class level by the time he was 22. Being a two-time National Speed Shooting Champion, he is a bit of a protégé as the son of John Shaw, who dominated the competitive shooting scene throughout the 1980s—winning most major shooting competitions in the world.
John Shaw initially recognized that his self-taught shooting tactics and techniques could be used to train U.S. military warfighters. This led to his creation of the Mid-South Institute of Self-Defense Shooting in 1981, which was considered one of the finest shooting schools in the world for over 40 years.
Shaw Shooting in Hagerman, created by Houston Shaw in 2012, uses that same template (created by his father at Mid-South), building upon it with specific situational courses and luxury accommodations to encourage gathering and teamwork less than a couple hours southwest of Ketchum. Houston grew up in the Wood River Valley after his father brought the family to Idaho to retire in 1997 (though Mid-South was still operational), so Houston knows the area well.
“Very few people can shoot at a world-class level and also translate those shooting techniques to Alpha War Fighters,” said Houston, who understands that this skill takes time to perfect.
“The process is similar to a comedian fine-tuning a set by performing nightly,” he added, noting that it takes constant reworking and exact timing to get everything right. Driven by his commitment to excellence, Houston created his curriculum using the Shaw Fundamentals from Mid-South. In the first three years of operation, the schedule at Shaw Shooting was filled with businessmen and concealed weapons permit holders seeking civilian training. However, during Shaw Shooting’s fourth year of operation, the local 124th Air Support Operations Squadron from the Idaho National Guard spent two weeks training with Houston and his team, and the success of that training program and positive word of mouth led to Shaw Shooting becoming a creditable training option for the U.S. military. Shaw Shooting is now booked solid for their entire season (mid-February to mid-October) and primarily trains elite military, special operation units, and federal/state-level law enforcement.
Shaw Shooting offers an incomparable level of instruction to private citizens as well. Civilians can run the same courses as elite military teams and learn some of the same skills from the best of the best.
So why do these teams need, or want, to train at a “civilian” school? Shaw Shooting offers world-class and in-depth instruction without some of the restrictions the military faces regarding regulations and policy. In an effort to combat complacency and constantly optimize efficacy, the U.S. military is an extremely fluid operation, which means that positions change often within the U.S. Armed Forces and firearms trainers change or are transferred to different units.
Additionally, the world changes, scenarios change, and firearms technology constantly evolves. There is always room for improvement, and even though a team has a leader and a trainer, that trainer often needs new and better training to keep up with changing technology and best uses or new and ever-evolving situational practice for real-world scenarios.
Shaw Shooting provides the details, technology, and practice ground for higher-level and advanced shooting skills to help prepare teams and complement the myriad other skills that their positions demand. Firearms mastery is just one piece of that skill set, and when the two dozen members of the federal law enforcement team show up at Shaw Shooting, just a few of them may already have high-level shooting skills. This course will allow the elite shooters to further enhance their skills while the rest of them level up.
For the members of the federal law enforcement team and the other teams at Shaw Shooting, training weeks are typically structured into two blocks. The first block consists of teaching students techniques on speed, accuracy, and weapons manipulation utilizing paper ranges. The second block involves rotating students through the Shaw’s various steel courses of fire. Each student will spend an hour at each of the 20 separate steel ranges on the property. Tombstone, Adam’s Alley, Pistol Car Façade, River Range, Coliseum 1 and Coliseum 2 are just some of the names of these intricate set-ups built within the diverse property landscape. A steel range is an arrangement of self-resetting pneumatic steel targets (operated by air under pressure). Each range mimics or reflects real-life threat scenarios an elite team might face domestically or internationally in the execution of their mission—such as extracting hostages out of vehicle traffic or convoys or locating a dangerous target hiding within civilian populations.
At each range, shooters work on critical elements required to stay alive and complete their mission, such as speed and accuracy, reloads, draws and transitions, body position, target movement, positional barricades or vehicle cover, target identification, and timed stress.
Shaw Shooting offers teams an all-in-one, varied, and extensive training experience. Units lodge and recreate together on the property-bonding before deployment or downshifting upon return.
Competition is natural and encouraged, with each range featuring a board that displays the best scores and times to date on that particular course. Of course, they’re all erasable whiteboards because as soon as a new record is set, that becomes the time and score to beat. Houston creates each new range based on the course evaluations from the teams following their time at Shaw Shooting. Night shoots were added to the “curriculum” based on these evaluations, and plans are being made to build “villages” to practice more specific hostage rescue scenarios and CQB—Close Quarters Battle.
The strength of Houston’s leadership is tangible and visible, even from afar. He interacts with his operations manager, instructors and grounds teams, maintenance men and construction workers throughout the day. There is a tremendous amount of skill required to prioritize safety while learning combat shooting skills using live ammunition—especially in training courses designed to replicate the chaos and unpredictability of real-life hostage crisis situations or battle operations.
Houston runs everything with precision and incredible detail to ensure smooth, effective, and efficient training exercises. He is kind, soft-spoken and humble, empowering those around him and only speaking when necessary. His father—whom Houston calls “The Wise Old Owl”—is also a man of few words. It is clear that father and son are equal leaders and collaborators, with both Shaws embodying the concept that insecurity is loud and confidence is quiet.