Hey Everyone,
As many of you know by now, on April 16th, I began a Police Sniper Training Program with OpTac International, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Attending this course was on my dime and my time, meaning I paid fifteen hundred dollars for the combined Basic, Advanced and Instructor level Police Sniper Training Program. More then that, I also spent in excess of six hundred dollars for the required ammunition, and scheduled eleven of my vacation days to cover the time. So, I had a great deal invested in this training program. In addition to my own personal investment, one of my Officers attended the Basic course with me. His investment was still something in the range of twelve hundred dollars and five vacation days, so he too had deeply invested in the training.The following review is entirely my opinion, but was also held and voiced by many of the other students in the class. I wanted to take a few days to decompress before posting a review, so that it would hopefully be a bit more readable and contain a bit less emotion...
What we attended was something significantly less then training. Several factors that should have been addressed we not, or were simply dusted over; things like Basic Marksmanship, Equipment Selection and Set Up, Ballistics, and so on. Most of the class room time was dedicated to what could best be described as a review for someone already familiar with the information. I've been in the game long enough to not have suffered the loss, but the Officer who attended with me, had never touched a precision rifle before, and save for some Patrol Rifle training, was fairly unfamiliar with the whole concept of riflery.
Disorganization was the operative word. We weren't provided a syllabus, because you don't get one on a call out, or so we were told. That might not have been too bad if the instructors at least knew what was going on, but apparently that wasn't quite the plan either. Hap hazard, and a** backwards were some descriptions of the organization I heard bandied about...
The Basic Course, which consisted of five days and approximately four hundred rounds, really seemed more of a week long indoc evaluation, then an actual training program. When this was voiced to the instructors, they stated that it was a certifying program, and was not a professional development program. Who they actually certified for, was left to the imagination...Had it not been through my efforts as well as those of the other more experienced students, many of the lesser trained students like the man who attended with me would have been lost. The laughable part of the certifying statement, is that better then eighty percent of the students in attendance were already fully deployed Snipers within their agencies. They hardly needed OpTac's blessing to become Snipers.
On the range, we practiced varying parts of the Qualification Course, which ranged from a hundred yard cold bore, to a multistage run and gun from one hundred fifty yards in to fifty yards, to a quarter mile run and shoot. When several of the students began to voice issue with the lack of training and the somewhat rigorous runs and seemingly impractical scenarios, we were told that the basic course is really the physical portion of the training, evaluation and certification. Once we made it to the Advanced Course, that's where the real education and training begins. Nice sales pitch...
I should note another aspect of this training. Shortly before attending the program, I took a bad fall and seriously injured my ankle. Running on a sloppy muddy course for a quarter mile at a time, carrying twenty plus pounds of gear, was a lesson in pain I haven't been subject to in some time. After proving that I could do two times, and still shoot a more then acceptable group, I asked if there was some alternate exercises I could do, in lieu of continuing to run on my ankle; Flutter Kicks, push ups, whatever they wanted. I knew I had to do it for qualification, but didn't want to risk further damage, prior to the qual.
I was told that not only did I need to be able to do it for qualification, but I would need to do it for all training as well, or I would fail. The wonderful semantics they used, was that I could receive a letter of attendance, but not a graduation certificate, since I failed to complete all training. They were completely unwavering in this. Either I run on the injured ankle, or I fail. So, I ran...and I ran...and I ran. At night I iced it to bring the swelling down, and took plenty of Aleive and Ibuprofen. Every day, it got worse, but I continued to run on it. The instructors feigned concern, but insisted I run, never the less. I was told that once we got to the Advanced course, I'd be able to give the ankle a break, since it was not a physical course. Did I mention that we ran everywhere? There was no walking. You run back and forth to targets, to vehicles to everywhere, in addition to the scenario related running...I should probably point out that I wasn't the only injured shooter in the class either. A Kentucky Police Officer severely pulled a hamstring and was limping badly. One of the Pennsylvania Shooters actually had to go have fluid drained from his knee. You guessed it...they ran too, lest they fail the course.
A funnier aspect to this is that while they were being completely unyielding and inflexible on everything, they expected us to be completely opposite on everything. We needed to be more flexible, more understanding, more willing, and as can be expected, we were...
We did two stalks as part of the basic course, and other then demonstrating a Sniper Crawl and having us do it for approximately fifty yards before engaging a target, there was no other real training on how to do a route plan, various movement techniques and so on...Some of the students were completely lost. My Cop looked at me and said, "Okay, I'm following you. What do we do?" Enough said...
I should also mention that there was an academic test that washed out a deploying Sniper, too. With most days running from 0800 to 2100 or later, by the time most of us got our gear squared away for the following day, there wasn't much study time. It's also a little hard to study on the range in a torrential downpour, but according to the staff, that was our problem too. It was all based on the lectures, most of which were glancing over several subjects each day. The test? True and false, matching, fill in the blank, and some multiple guess. It sucked.
On the day of qualification, we were told there are no alibis. That was fine for most of us, as we just wanted the program to be over with. I qualified the first time through for each stage, broken wheel and all. My partner was doing equally well, until the final stage of qualification. There are four; a cold bore shot upon arrival at one hundred yards from a standing position in fifteen seconds(I should mention this followed the stalk of the previous day, with no zero confirmation), a three round group from one hundred, no time limit, a quarter mile run with all gear, and fire four shots in forty seconds, and the final stage, four rounds at one hundred fifty yards, run to the hundred yard line, four rounds from a table shooting position, then round to the seventy five yard line, fire four rounds, and run to the fifty yard line, fine four rounds, must be completed in less then 3:30. The targets contained a trapezoid that centered on the tip of the nose, and incorporated the corners of the eyebrows to the corners of the mouth, on reduced sized head targets.
My Officer's scope broke on the fourth stage of fire. You are allowed three attempts at each stage. On the first stage, eight of his sixteen shots went high into the targets forehead. We thought it might have happened at the 75 and 50 yard line, as he had tossed away the support bag he had been using all week, when feeling stressed by the clock. On his second run through, many of his shots were approximately four inches high, and we again thought that he might have twisted his elevation knobs the wrong way, and doubled up during the down time between shoots. He was offered at this point by the instructor, the chance to use my rifle to qualify if he wanted. He was shooting a right handed PSS with a 2.5X10 scope. I was using a left handed KMW rifle with a 6X24 scope, a completely different system, that he had not so much as touched all week. There was no cross training, so he had zero experience with my rifle, and was now offered the chance to qualify with it if he wanted to...On his fourth stage of fire, the scope completely let go, and only three of his shots were on paper. They walked up the paper and the rest went over the target...He failed the course, even though he busted his butt and with all the negatives was still shooting bug holes up to the point that his scope broke. He shot that stage ten times over the course of the week, and passed every time. The instructor's response? Well, now you know you can do it, so just scrape some money together and jump in the next class coming up...Spend another seven hundred dollars and another week, to do what we all know you can do, and we all know it was your scope that broke, though the instructor refused to validate it by testing the system himself...
In the end, after all his work, he got a Certificate of Attendance, because seventy-five percent of the way through his qualification that he had already done with a passing score ten times, his scope broke. Not that he couldn't do it. That was never in question, in anyone's mind. Just that his scope let go...Yeah, I got my certificate and graduation plaque, woopdy doo...
Stuart actually showed up for the final day of the Basic course to hand out certificates. His ego actually seemed to enter the room a few minutes before him...It was a sight to behold...and so ended the Basic Course. We achieved their standard of a 20% failure rate, which included the sponsoring Agency's top Sniper. His rifle had gotten knocked off zero on the stalk, so he failed the cold bore. He was also used as a "Go for" all week, and probably only attended sixty percent of the class at best. Anytime there was an issue raised about training sites, support, ect. , the instructors blamed the sponsoring agency for failing to provide. No they didn't recon the area prior to the course, and yes they added several must haves to their list of required gear, from the sponsoring agency, on site. This is food for thought for any agency considering sponsoring a course. It was in my estimation a complete waste of seven hundred dollars, and a week of my personal time. I however needed it to get my Instructor's certification, so I completed it. The Advanced course started the following day.
More to come....
Respectfully,
Harry
As many of you know by now, on April 16th, I began a Police Sniper Training Program with OpTac International, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Attending this course was on my dime and my time, meaning I paid fifteen hundred dollars for the combined Basic, Advanced and Instructor level Police Sniper Training Program. More then that, I also spent in excess of six hundred dollars for the required ammunition, and scheduled eleven of my vacation days to cover the time. So, I had a great deal invested in this training program. In addition to my own personal investment, one of my Officers attended the Basic course with me. His investment was still something in the range of twelve hundred dollars and five vacation days, so he too had deeply invested in the training.The following review is entirely my opinion, but was also held and voiced by many of the other students in the class. I wanted to take a few days to decompress before posting a review, so that it would hopefully be a bit more readable and contain a bit less emotion...
What we attended was something significantly less then training. Several factors that should have been addressed we not, or were simply dusted over; things like Basic Marksmanship, Equipment Selection and Set Up, Ballistics, and so on. Most of the class room time was dedicated to what could best be described as a review for someone already familiar with the information. I've been in the game long enough to not have suffered the loss, but the Officer who attended with me, had never touched a precision rifle before, and save for some Patrol Rifle training, was fairly unfamiliar with the whole concept of riflery.
Disorganization was the operative word. We weren't provided a syllabus, because you don't get one on a call out, or so we were told. That might not have been too bad if the instructors at least knew what was going on, but apparently that wasn't quite the plan either. Hap hazard, and a** backwards were some descriptions of the organization I heard bandied about...
The Basic Course, which consisted of five days and approximately four hundred rounds, really seemed more of a week long indoc evaluation, then an actual training program. When this was voiced to the instructors, they stated that it was a certifying program, and was not a professional development program. Who they actually certified for, was left to the imagination...Had it not been through my efforts as well as those of the other more experienced students, many of the lesser trained students like the man who attended with me would have been lost. The laughable part of the certifying statement, is that better then eighty percent of the students in attendance were already fully deployed Snipers within their agencies. They hardly needed OpTac's blessing to become Snipers.
On the range, we practiced varying parts of the Qualification Course, which ranged from a hundred yard cold bore, to a multistage run and gun from one hundred fifty yards in to fifty yards, to a quarter mile run and shoot. When several of the students began to voice issue with the lack of training and the somewhat rigorous runs and seemingly impractical scenarios, we were told that the basic course is really the physical portion of the training, evaluation and certification. Once we made it to the Advanced Course, that's where the real education and training begins. Nice sales pitch...
I should note another aspect of this training. Shortly before attending the program, I took a bad fall and seriously injured my ankle. Running on a sloppy muddy course for a quarter mile at a time, carrying twenty plus pounds of gear, was a lesson in pain I haven't been subject to in some time. After proving that I could do two times, and still shoot a more then acceptable group, I asked if there was some alternate exercises I could do, in lieu of continuing to run on my ankle; Flutter Kicks, push ups, whatever they wanted. I knew I had to do it for qualification, but didn't want to risk further damage, prior to the qual.
I was told that not only did I need to be able to do it for qualification, but I would need to do it for all training as well, or I would fail. The wonderful semantics they used, was that I could receive a letter of attendance, but not a graduation certificate, since I failed to complete all training. They were completely unwavering in this. Either I run on the injured ankle, or I fail. So, I ran...and I ran...and I ran. At night I iced it to bring the swelling down, and took plenty of Aleive and Ibuprofen. Every day, it got worse, but I continued to run on it. The instructors feigned concern, but insisted I run, never the less. I was told that once we got to the Advanced course, I'd be able to give the ankle a break, since it was not a physical course. Did I mention that we ran everywhere? There was no walking. You run back and forth to targets, to vehicles to everywhere, in addition to the scenario related running...I should probably point out that I wasn't the only injured shooter in the class either. A Kentucky Police Officer severely pulled a hamstring and was limping badly. One of the Pennsylvania Shooters actually had to go have fluid drained from his knee. You guessed it...they ran too, lest they fail the course.
A funnier aspect to this is that while they were being completely unyielding and inflexible on everything, they expected us to be completely opposite on everything. We needed to be more flexible, more understanding, more willing, and as can be expected, we were...
We did two stalks as part of the basic course, and other then demonstrating a Sniper Crawl and having us do it for approximately fifty yards before engaging a target, there was no other real training on how to do a route plan, various movement techniques and so on...Some of the students were completely lost. My Cop looked at me and said, "Okay, I'm following you. What do we do?" Enough said...
I should also mention that there was an academic test that washed out a deploying Sniper, too. With most days running from 0800 to 2100 or later, by the time most of us got our gear squared away for the following day, there wasn't much study time. It's also a little hard to study on the range in a torrential downpour, but according to the staff, that was our problem too. It was all based on the lectures, most of which were glancing over several subjects each day. The test? True and false, matching, fill in the blank, and some multiple guess. It sucked.
On the day of qualification, we were told there are no alibis. That was fine for most of us, as we just wanted the program to be over with. I qualified the first time through for each stage, broken wheel and all. My partner was doing equally well, until the final stage of qualification. There are four; a cold bore shot upon arrival at one hundred yards from a standing position in fifteen seconds(I should mention this followed the stalk of the previous day, with no zero confirmation), a three round group from one hundred, no time limit, a quarter mile run with all gear, and fire four shots in forty seconds, and the final stage, four rounds at one hundred fifty yards, run to the hundred yard line, four rounds from a table shooting position, then round to the seventy five yard line, fire four rounds, and run to the fifty yard line, fine four rounds, must be completed in less then 3:30. The targets contained a trapezoid that centered on the tip of the nose, and incorporated the corners of the eyebrows to the corners of the mouth, on reduced sized head targets.
My Officer's scope broke on the fourth stage of fire. You are allowed three attempts at each stage. On the first stage, eight of his sixteen shots went high into the targets forehead. We thought it might have happened at the 75 and 50 yard line, as he had tossed away the support bag he had been using all week, when feeling stressed by the clock. On his second run through, many of his shots were approximately four inches high, and we again thought that he might have twisted his elevation knobs the wrong way, and doubled up during the down time between shoots. He was offered at this point by the instructor, the chance to use my rifle to qualify if he wanted. He was shooting a right handed PSS with a 2.5X10 scope. I was using a left handed KMW rifle with a 6X24 scope, a completely different system, that he had not so much as touched all week. There was no cross training, so he had zero experience with my rifle, and was now offered the chance to qualify with it if he wanted to...On his fourth stage of fire, the scope completely let go, and only three of his shots were on paper. They walked up the paper and the rest went over the target...He failed the course, even though he busted his butt and with all the negatives was still shooting bug holes up to the point that his scope broke. He shot that stage ten times over the course of the week, and passed every time. The instructor's response? Well, now you know you can do it, so just scrape some money together and jump in the next class coming up...Spend another seven hundred dollars and another week, to do what we all know you can do, and we all know it was your scope that broke, though the instructor refused to validate it by testing the system himself...
In the end, after all his work, he got a Certificate of Attendance, because seventy-five percent of the way through his qualification that he had already done with a passing score ten times, his scope broke. Not that he couldn't do it. That was never in question, in anyone's mind. Just that his scope let go...Yeah, I got my certificate and graduation plaque, woopdy doo...
Stuart actually showed up for the final day of the Basic course to hand out certificates. His ego actually seemed to enter the room a few minutes before him...It was a sight to behold...and so ended the Basic Course. We achieved their standard of a 20% failure rate, which included the sponsoring Agency's top Sniper. His rifle had gotten knocked off zero on the stalk, so he failed the cold bore. He was also used as a "Go for" all week, and probably only attended sixty percent of the class at best. Anytime there was an issue raised about training sites, support, ect. , the instructors blamed the sponsoring agency for failing to provide. No they didn't recon the area prior to the course, and yes they added several must haves to their list of required gear, from the sponsoring agency, on site. This is food for thought for any agency considering sponsoring a course. It was in my estimation a complete waste of seven hundred dollars, and a week of my personal time. I however needed it to get my Instructor's certification, so I completed it. The Advanced course started the following day.
More to come....
Respectfully,
Harry
is my retort to my read of how their training is laid out, from what you write. Did they ever cover any of the real issues that PD snipers face? Glass? creating a quick hide in an urban enviornment? Stalks ok.. ya covered that... sorta not really.. How about dealing with civilians, how about ANY topic a LEO would have to deal with in a city?
I mean it isn't like were paying for their equipment. When a course is more concerned about it's percentage rates in anything not just shooting it concerns me.
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