Posted: 6/29/2010 6:24:25 PM EDT
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I just made my departments swat team not to long ago, and we dont have a marksmen right now mainly due to funds for marksmen equipment
however when i came on i brought alot of my own weapons with me, one being a precision rifle...all my weapons have been given a go and my Lt. has no problem with me finding training...as long as it doesnt cost the department right now...our state academy puts on a marksmen class but it cost, the NRA puts on a marksmen class...but it cost...so i was wondering if any federal training/DOJ training is out there? thanks |
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When I worked in SC, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety in Columbia provided classes that were free of charge, have things changed?
Our sniper team, which I am a part of, recently attended SniperCraft's course in South Florida, but it cost about $7500 or more for all of us to go. Was without any doubt the BEST class of ANY kind I have ever taken. At least two students were there on their own dime. We are now wanting to host the advanced course here at our own range. You might want to contact the folks at the Regional Counter-drug Training Academy in Meridian, Mississippi. Although this place specializes in free drug-related interdiction courses, they may have a contact within the Mississippi National Guard that has marksmanship training. Another place might be the Florida National Guard's training facility located in Camp Blanding, Florida. The have, or did at one time, have tactical training opportunities. Make contact with your local National Guard Infantry Units, if you can find a trained sniper, perhaps he/she will take some time with you. If you lived near me, I would be more than glad to help show you the things I learned. As a last resort, you may want to contact Derrick Bartlett of SniperCraft, Inc. Maybe he has some leads on funding sources. |
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The phrase about there being no free lunches comes to mind.
My dept for the longest time wouldn't send anyone to training. I threw money into a seperate account just to attend training. For a while things got better and we would be sent to training paid for by the agency. Times have gotten tougher and the training budget was $0 this year, so I am back to paying my own way again. If you are on a Team, have you joined NTOA yet? |
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Depending on your area, agency set up and facility availability look at hosting a class. I was training officer for my last agency for 4 years(so that was in the late 90's). Generally, when we hosted a class we would recieve 1-6 free slots for our folks to attend.
Hosting a class is work and takes time but is not super expensive. I would ask local hotels for group rates etc. Make an information sheet containing hotel and restraunt information etc to mail out to folks. We would make necessary copies for the instructor and buy some bagels fruit and coffee (an advantage to having a jail you can make that shit yourself.) Facilities would vary depending on the type of class. In four years we successfully hosted SWAt ,incident command, officer survival, interview and interrogation, advanced handgun various investigation classes etc etc ad nauseum. So first, ask your supervisor about the idea. if your COC is willing to let you run with it ask around (NTOA or your state toa and/or state doc and other agencies may be a good source). Then start making calls. 1. Work with the instructor and he will work with you. some will want you to handle registering students. Some will want to do it themselves. 2. Advertise the fuck out of the class. Nothing sucks worse than buying a few hundred rounds of ammo out of pocket and then having to cancel the class because you were two bodies short. 3. Communicate with the instructor and folks who sign up. Don't call him going do we have enough bodies every week but discuss it with him ahead of time and touch base periodically. 4. This takes time. I prefer to have a min of 4 and preferred at least 6 months lead time to advertise. 5. network 6. Some instructors will be flexible. An example my favorite person to work with was Doug Poechtel at Counter Measures Tactical. Doug was willing to turn a 40 hour basic course (SWAT or precision) into a combined 60 hour 6 day basic/basic instructor course or an officer survival course (30) into a 40 or 50 hour combination off surv/adv combat handgun. the combined courses, particularly instructor courses can increase the number of folks showing up. 7. I also used to do a couple other things to say thanks to the instructor and to increase the odds of being able to keep training. The last day I would have a lunch (for those willing to pay) at a nice restaurant, give the instructor a dept shirt or hat (and I bought his lunch) and pass out cigars (this was all out of my pocket but since I got to go to a lot of training definitely worth it). I also had a class coincide with the quarterly chief and sheriffs meeting, which involved lunch. I got the boss to agree to havign doug come and do a one hour talk about training etc. Next time we hosted one of his classes multiple local agencies sent people. Good luck. Oh, in case you are interested Dougs website is here:http://www.countermeasure.com/home.html He does a lot in the Utah-CO-AZ-NM area (when I worked with him in the late 90's he lived in UT). He moved to NY in the early 2000's IIRC. |
| Oh, another option is the feds. I did FBI sniper school in 96. At the time it was free in the sense of no class fee. You or agency still had to cover meals ammo travel etc. WHile it was a very basic course more focused on basic shooting (I viewed as a good basic test of your equipment) with minimal time on range estimation and almost no time on field skills. It was still better than nothing. And the price was definitely right. |
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thanks for the advice fellas, im thinking about starting to save money to put myself through, but i will also have to convince the other marksmen applicant to do the same, this would be our team
our department is pretty small with 60 total road guys and about 13-14 on the swat team when i did training at camp blanding when i worked down there...they did put on alot of swat training for the JSO and clay county, i did alot of urban environ training at the mout site but im not sure about sniper training and im really not sure about them giving training to someone out of state, ill have to look into it the public safety department as far as i know doesnt put on the training, because i believe the academy is its own animal now and they hold everything, im thinking id mainly be paying for ammo in that course they put on so somewhere around 500$ which isnt bad, the NRA and some other classes maintain that you have been qualified as a "trainer" or "police firearms instructor"....problem with that is that our small department has 12 firearms instructors, so one our chief wont send anyone else to qual as an instructor and i dont think the academy will take anymore "instructor applicants" from my agency...so that rules me out for alot of classes im going to try to find out what exactly is REQUIRED so i dont have SLED putting the smack down on me, luckily the other markmens applicant is on my road squad and were both pretty motivated to get this done... today is weds..and we have our training so ill ask some of the brass about it, and if i can get some bs phone pics ill post them up |
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Contact Jacksonville NC Police Department. They have a LE-only sniper school, 2 phases. Each phase is 1 week long and costs $165 for out of state. Yes, that's one hundred sixty five dollars. If you are in an NC agency, it's free. The fee is only because the course is administered through the NC community college system.
The instructors also teach at Blackwater (or whatever they're called these days). I funded my own way through, including purchasing the match ammo (that part hurt!) PM me and I'll give you specific contact information. |