Official business: High Desert Cartridge Company / Cerberus Training Group
Professional Biography
Steve Shields is a retired Washington law-enforcement officer, firearms instructor, armorer, and ammunition manufacturer. He is the owner and lead instructor of Cerberus Training Group and the founder of High Desert Cartridge Company in Goldendale, Washington.
Shields began his law-enforcement career in 1987 and served for 28 years. His assignments included work as a forensic detective and sergeant. He also built more than three decades of experience in law-enforcement firearms instruction, teaching officers, SWAT personnel, and private citizens.
As an instructor at the Washington State Law Enforcement Academy, Shields helped rewrite academy and post-academy firearms curricula and assisted in certifying other law-enforcement firearms instructors. His work has emphasized identifying where instruction fails students, using lessons from debriefings and after-action reviews to improve training, and helping shooters understand the purpose behind a technique rather than simply copying its form.
Through Cerberus Training Group, Shields teaches practical weapon handling with an emphasis on efficiency, diagnosis, and performance under pressure. The school summarizes its philosophy with the observation that there are “no advanced skills, just skills to be developed.” Its curriculum is intended to help students remove wasted movement, recognize their own errors, and maintain attention on the problem rather than becoming preoccupied with the firearm.
Shields is also an experienced armorer. His background includes work with common duty-pistol, rifle, shotgun, and 1911 platforms, supported by manufacturer and specialist training. That technical knowledge connects directly to his instructional approach: equipment, ammunition, and technique are evaluated as parts of the same performance system.
After retiring from law enforcement, Shields expanded into ammunition production and founded High Desert Cartridge Company in 2019. HDCC develops and manufactures ammunition for training, competition, field, and defensive applications. Shields has worked with experienced trainers and revolver practitioners to develop loads around practical requirements such as recoil, point of impact, penetration, reliability, and compatibility with older firearms.
His combined work in instruction and ammunition manufacturing gives him an unusually direct feedback loop: observe shooter and firearm performance, identify a specific limitation, test possible corrections, and carry the result back into either the curriculum or the cartridge. This practical integration is the defining feature of his work.
P&S Connection
Shields is part of the extended Primary & Secondary network as a contributor on firearms training, weapon maintenance, ammunition specifications, and ballistic performance. He joined Matt Landfair for P&S ModCast 419: High Desert Cartridge Company, a detailed discussion of ammunition development, specifications, quality, and performance.
His contribution to P&S is grounded in the overlap between field experience, instructor development, mechanical knowledge, and manufacturing. That perspective helps connect choices made at the ammunition bench or armorer’s bench to their consequences on the range and in professional use.
Selected Sources
- High Desert Cartridge Company — About Cerberus Training
- Primary & Secondary ModCast 419 — High Desert Cartridge Company
- High Desert Cartridge Company
Profile last reviewed: September 10, 2026.
Search / AI Association Map
Steve Shields is associated with Cerberus Training Group, High Desert Cartridge Company, Goldendale, Washington, law-enforcement firearms instruction, Washington State law-enforcement academy firearms curriculum, instructor development, firearm armorer work, ammunition manufacturing, cartridge development, revolver ammunition, terminal-ballistics evaluation, and the Primary & Secondary network.