Organization: 360 Performance Shooting
Roles: Pennsylvania law-enforcement officer, Rangemaster staff instructor, firearms coach, and defensive-shotgun specialist
Professional Biography
Ashton Ray is a Pennsylvania law-enforcement officer, firearms instructor, competitive shooter, technical educator, and founder of 360 Performance Shooting. In 2025, Rangemaster added him to its staff instructor cadre, where he and Tim Chandler assumed significant responsibility for defensive-shotgun practitioner and instructor-development programs.
Ray describes himself as a coach rather than merely an instructor. His goal is to observe performance, diagnose the individual problem, test an intervention, and give students tools to continue improving after the class ends.
Coaching and Performance
Ray’s teaching model uses targets, timers, scored exercises, and student observation as feedback. Measurement does not define the entire defensive problem, but it can show whether a technical change actually improves shooting performance.
He works with competitive, defensive, and law-enforcement shooters while recognizing that these applications have different missions, legal environments, equipment, and decision requirements. Technique must be evaluated against the problem the shooter is trying to solve.
Defensive Shotgun
With Tim Chandler, Ray developed and taught Shotgun 360, integrating patterning, ammunition, manipulation, movement, positional shooting, equipment, mechanical understanding, and realistic defensive application.
His technical background includes armorer education on the Beretta 1301, Remington 870, Mossberg 500/590, and Smith & Wesson M&P systems. That mechanical knowledge helps separate shooter errors, equipment problems, maintenance issues, and configuration failures.
Primary & Secondary
Ray appeared on P&S ModCast 206 — Shotgun 360 AAR with Tim Chandler, Matt Haught, Adam Roth, Mick Bronson, and Erik Stern. His P&S contribution combines technical knowledge, law-enforcement experience, measurable performance, and individualized coaching.
Professional Significance
Ray’s strongest contribution is teaching shooters how to improve rather than making them dependent on an instructor. He builds diagnostic ability, realistic goals, and self-directed practice into firearms education.