General Information
This year marks our 48th year of consecutive instruction. The chief instructor, Bill Rogers, is a former FBI Agent, police instructor, successful inventor with over 60 patents, and is well known in the shooting industry. Rogers has been a world ranked IPSC shooter, a state trap champion, and has over 50 years of shooting competition experience and over 48 years teaching shooting. Rogers has invented many of the holsters and equipment used by police and military worldwide. He also invented the target system and the method of instruction used at the school.
The School’s Instructors, Adam Smith, David Campbell, Kyle Armstrong, Billy Lumpkin, Francis Fay and Zachary Wells bring many years of instruction and real world experience to the school.
Adam is a SWAT commander and firearms instructor for the local Sheriff’s office.
David is a firearms instructor and a technical range expert.
Kyle is a Law Enforcement Officer with diverse experience and capabilities in Police Special Operations. He is an active SWAT Team Member, certified SWAT Master Instructor, Police Sniper Instructor, and Tactical Rappel Master.
Billy Lumpkin is a retired Navy SEAL Officer with almost 24 years Active Duty service as an operator and instructor with numerous worldwide deployments, currently trains SWAT/SRT teams in the U.S. and consultant for a Global Security Firm. During his career he attained almost all special individual qualifications offered in the SPECOPs community including, SEAL Scout/Sniper, Free Fall Jump Master, Close Quarters Combat Range Officer-In-Charge and trained over 50 SEAL Task Units preparing them for their combat deployments teaching them the same shooting techniques he learned at Roger’s Shooting School.
Francis Fay is our newest instructor. Francis has over 40 years of real-world experience as both a military special force operator and a law enforcement officer. Francis, has had two careers. For over 20 years he was a US Navy SEAL followed by over 20 years as an Alaska State Trooper. During his career in the Navy, he was attached to the prestigious SEAL Team 6. Some of his duties, besides being an operator, were Firearms Instructor, Range Officer, Armored Weapons Instructor, Dive Master, and HALO/HAHO Jump Master with over 3800 jumps. As an Alaska State Trooper, Francis was an aircraft pilot, Large Vessel Operator and Instructor, Weapons Armorer, Range Officer, and of course Firearms Instructor. During his SEAL career Francis attended the Rogers Shooting School several times and qualified Advanced with pistol, shotgun, and submachine gun.
Zachary Wells is our youngest recruit. He is the grandson of Bill Rogers and has had the opportunity to grow up around the range and the shooting philosophy. He has qualified with Advanced ratings in all of the classes offered at the school. He most recently shot a "Possible", 125x125 points on the Rogers Test during a class demo.
The Rogers Shooting School is located in the beautiful mountains of north Georgia near the town of Ellijay. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from the Atlanta Airport. Please see the page on Directions. Nearby there are numerous rivers, lakes, hiking, and biking trails for the outdoor enthusiast. Please see the page on Philosophy to understand more about how we teach, the Pricing page for costs and available services, and the Signup page for available classes scheduled. We list our open individual classes around December 15 as well as price changes for the entire year. If we have a group cancel during the year, we may add an “individual” class to the schedule during the year. There is no need to call us before December 15 for an individual class schedule because it is usually not finalized before that date. If you are a Group and want to organize a class, by all means contact us any time for scheduling. Please read the page Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us or signing up for a class.
Our school normally operates from March through November. We offer three-day rifle classes and five-day handgun classes for groups as well as individuals. We offer training for organized units that contract with us through the Group program. We also offer open or “Individual” classes during the year, usually associated with the best time of year, weather wise. The rifle classes can start on Wednesday evening and end on Saturday or start on Sunday and end on Wednesday. All classes start with a mandatory lecture and safety briefing after final registration on the first evening of the start of the class. The 5 day handgun classes end around noon on the following Friday. They include a night shoot. The minimum group size is twelve students or the equivalent in tuition if a smaller group wants a custom class. We are capable of teaching handgun, submachine gun, Rifle-carbine, and shotgun. For groups we can offer a shotgun or M-4 9MM program taught concurrently with the handgun program. Please see our Rifle Class page for additional information. There is the ability to customize the program for a group to include instruction in several areas. If you would like to contact us in regards to a custom class for a group, please E-mail us. Throughout the year we offer classes for individuals in our Advanced Handgun Class with either a carbine or shotgun program taught concurrently. We also offer a three-day Urban Rifle course. We offer a Basic/Intermediate Handgun Class for novice shooters or those that do not have advanced shooting skills. Please visit our page on Classes for further information.
For a brief outline of important facts please review frequently asked questions, FAQ.