South Carolina Concealed Weapons Permit SC CWP


Defensive Shotgun

"Paladin's Personal Protection In The Home is superb! Their training for situational awareness, mindset, and how to properly set up your house are high points." — P.W. (Firearms Industry Professional)

Learning to shoot a home defense shotgun from a limited viewport in Paladin Services' Defensive Shotgun class.Class Length: 8 hours (one day)
Class Description
Class Schedule
How to Apply


Our Defensive Shotgun class gives good people a realistic way to protect their lives, their homes, and their families with a readily available shotgun. We prefer simple, reliable, relatively short and lightweight 12 Gauge or 20 Gauge shotguns for home defense. What we like isn't expensive and isn't inclined to gadgetry. Their overwhelming effectiveness comes not from mechanical complexity but from the shooters' training.  Almost any working 12 Gauge or 20 Gauge shotgun will do if you know what to do and how to do it. That's where we come in. We train you and we do it under realistic conditions. We'll lend you a shotgun if you want.

This class is complete in one day. We hold our Defensive Shotgun classes in the greater Columbia, South Carolina, area but you don't have to be a South Carolina resident to take our Defensive Shotgun class or any of our other classes. We welcome residents of every state. Email us now to attend a Defensive Shotgun training class.

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Class Description

Small women can handle a home defense shotgun effectively in our Defensive Shotgun class.Defensive Shotgun starts with a review of the rules for shotgun safety: as always safety is our foremost concern. We explain special safety considerations for storing and using shotguns. Then we examine some common myths that can get you killed or arrested.

A well chosen shotgun in competent hands is the ideal defensive weapon for a person who can think and is willing to do so. The shotgun is not a magic wand nor an instrument for producing magical sounds. A shotgun can save lives when its user understands how the shotgun works and can use it effectively. Real home invaders are not frightened away by the sound of a shotgun being loaded or the wife of a politician blasting into the around her well-protected residence. But like others they are absolutely terrified by a capable defensive shotgun user of any age, any race or color, and either sex employing this remarkably flexible weapon to good effect.

Our students include ordinary women,  the elderly of both genders, and the handicapped as well as men in the prime of life and of various capabilties. A defensive shotgun in the hands of a well trained person is an equalizer.

We help you understand and use essential considerations such as:

  1. how to choose your shotgun for your own defensive purposes: what works, what doesn't, and what can get you into trouble;
  2. how to choose the right shotgun ammunition for your situation;
  3. how to hold your shotgun to control its actual recoil and reduce its perceived recoil;
  4. how to pattern your shotgun at key defensive distances;
  5. how to load and reload your defensive shotgun with the right ammunition for the threat and the distance;
  6. how to run your defensive shotgun, handle stoppages and common malfunctions;
  7. how to hit static targets and moving targets with a defensive shotgun;
  8. how to work with a potential hostage situation in your home: what you can do if a home invader grabs a loved one as a hostage;
  9. how to use cover and concealment with your defensive shotgun;
  10. how to remain a responsible ciitizen within the law—the judicious use of deadly force
A defensive shotgun with a reactive steel hostage target in our facility.In our classroom we teach you what can save your life, your family, and your home in the real world.

In our well-equipped shooting bay we teach you how to do what you need to do. We help you to apply those techniques and address your specific needs. 

As always we take you as you are—as a civilian and a good person with a life of your own to lead—and we teach you to win. We provide individual instruction and give individual attention within the context of a class. You don't need to be a warrior, an athlete, or expert shooter or a marksman to take this class. You don't even need any shotgun experience. We work with real people in real situations and steer clear of fantasies. You can take this Defensive Shotgun class more than once if you want. You also can take our Personal Protection classes for added value and even greater perspectives.


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Class Schedule

Here are currently scheduled Defensive Shotgun classes. We schedule Defensive Shotgun classes in the greater Columbia, SC, area a few times every year. Email us if you want to take a Defensive Shotgun class even if you prefer a class not yet on our schedule. We add classes from time to time as demand and circumstances permit. 

How to Apply

Email us now to attend a Defensive Shotgun class. Please be sure to include your telephone number(s) so we can call to prequalify you for the class, determine your needs, assist you, and answer your questions.


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