This is an AAR (Instructor's perspective) for the 3 day OPOTA Scoped Rifle Course.
Here is the SH link with advertising the course;
http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1030375#Post1030375
This was the first Scoped Rifle course that was run from the OPOTA Richfield, OH office. OPOTA has struggled in the past with Scoped Rifle and Sniper courses and last year I began speaking with two of the primary firearms/tactics instructors about doing one. Everyone was on board and open to filling the gap in Ohio LE scoped rifle training. This class was 3 days and cost $200 per student. Check out the above link for the course description.
My goals for this course was to get everyone out of prone and comfortable with unconventional positions and increase the students accuracy.
Day 1
Death by power point.... I hate classroom but it has to be done in most cases. The power point needs to be cut down but for this class it was an overview of gear, zero and ballistics, MOA, Fundamentals of marksmanship and basic LE field craft (Urban/Rural Hides, camouflage ect )
After the power point we spent the rest of the afternoon on Prone, fundamentals and getting a good zero. We ended the day with mapping out our mechanical offset at 75, 50, 25 and 7 yards.
Day 2
Cold Bore at 100 yards, verify zero, Conventional seated and kneeling with and with out slings, use of cover, Unconventional seated & kneeling supported. Buddy shooting, movers (Northern Lights Tactical Robot), Support side shooting, FOM drills, cold bore ukd from an awkward position.
Day 3
Snap shooting, transition to pistol from various positions, cold bore/ukd from an urban hide, Urban hide builds and more shots from inside and through structures, 150-400 yards from various positions to include shooting from a residential roof top. Cold bore/ukd from hide, top gun competition.
That is a brief overview of what we accomplished. We had to end early on Day 3 because of HEAVY rain. We were shooting in an old sand/gravel quarry and the ground was very uneven and flooding, it became a safety issue or else we would have continued. We missed out on a few drills and a run and gun which was intended to crown a top shooter. Instead we did a ukd (approx 300 yards) from paddy squat on uneven ground in the pouring rain, under time constraints. Everyone estimated the range within 50 yards and we only had four hits, those four had a shoot off from weak side kneeling from the same position. One shooter hit and took home a TAB Sling that was donated by our own Tony Burkes.
The shooters were diverse in age and experience. We had 4 start out with AR15s, one was asked to leave after day 1 do to poor equipment and lack of knowledge of the system. The three AR shooters that remained, two struggled with ACOGs on M4s and the third excelled with his RRA Varmint. The rest of the rifles were a huge mix to include several AI AE, HS Precision, DD Ross, GA Precision, and Remington LTR, PSS, XCR and Varmint models, all in 308. Ammo was a variety of Black Hills, Fed Gold and Hornady (155, 168 and 175).
The class was set up for 3 days to allow the majority of departments to attend. It is common for some agencies to not authorize officers to attend classes over 3 days because of overtime and man power issues. Having said that, most of the students agreed the class needs to be 4 or 5 days. We tried hard to keep down time to a minimum but one instructor had to back out at the last minute do to a problem at home leaving only two of us which led to a little down time on day 3.
The other instructor is a gunsmith on the side (primarily 1911) and it was nice to have him when we had a few weapon issues. One, issue in particular was stripped heads on the action bolts. At the range he was able to drill and use EZ out to pull the bolts and put in new ones.
Because we only had two instructors we took almost no pictures but I managed to snap a few on my cell phone....
<span style="font-weight: bold">Big thanks to Tony Burkes and TAB gear for the sling!!!!!</span>
Here is the SH link with advertising the course;
http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1030375#Post1030375
This was the first Scoped Rifle course that was run from the OPOTA Richfield, OH office. OPOTA has struggled in the past with Scoped Rifle and Sniper courses and last year I began speaking with two of the primary firearms/tactics instructors about doing one. Everyone was on board and open to filling the gap in Ohio LE scoped rifle training. This class was 3 days and cost $200 per student. Check out the above link for the course description.
My goals for this course was to get everyone out of prone and comfortable with unconventional positions and increase the students accuracy.
Day 1
Death by power point.... I hate classroom but it has to be done in most cases. The power point needs to be cut down but for this class it was an overview of gear, zero and ballistics, MOA, Fundamentals of marksmanship and basic LE field craft (Urban/Rural Hides, camouflage ect )
After the power point we spent the rest of the afternoon on Prone, fundamentals and getting a good zero. We ended the day with mapping out our mechanical offset at 75, 50, 25 and 7 yards.
Day 2
Cold Bore at 100 yards, verify zero, Conventional seated and kneeling with and with out slings, use of cover, Unconventional seated & kneeling supported. Buddy shooting, movers (Northern Lights Tactical Robot), Support side shooting, FOM drills, cold bore ukd from an awkward position.
Day 3
Snap shooting, transition to pistol from various positions, cold bore/ukd from an urban hide, Urban hide builds and more shots from inside and through structures, 150-400 yards from various positions to include shooting from a residential roof top. Cold bore/ukd from hide, top gun competition.
That is a brief overview of what we accomplished. We had to end early on Day 3 because of HEAVY rain. We were shooting in an old sand/gravel quarry and the ground was very uneven and flooding, it became a safety issue or else we would have continued. We missed out on a few drills and a run and gun which was intended to crown a top shooter. Instead we did a ukd (approx 300 yards) from paddy squat on uneven ground in the pouring rain, under time constraints. Everyone estimated the range within 50 yards and we only had four hits, those four had a shoot off from weak side kneeling from the same position. One shooter hit and took home a TAB Sling that was donated by our own Tony Burkes.
The shooters were diverse in age and experience. We had 4 start out with AR15s, one was asked to leave after day 1 do to poor equipment and lack of knowledge of the system. The three AR shooters that remained, two struggled with ACOGs on M4s and the third excelled with his RRA Varmint. The rest of the rifles were a huge mix to include several AI AE, HS Precision, DD Ross, GA Precision, and Remington LTR, PSS, XCR and Varmint models, all in 308. Ammo was a variety of Black Hills, Fed Gold and Hornady (155, 168 and 175).
The class was set up for 3 days to allow the majority of departments to attend. It is common for some agencies to not authorize officers to attend classes over 3 days because of overtime and man power issues. Having said that, most of the students agreed the class needs to be 4 or 5 days. We tried hard to keep down time to a minimum but one instructor had to back out at the last minute do to a problem at home leaving only two of us which led to a little down time on day 3.
The other instructor is a gunsmith on the side (primarily 1911) and it was nice to have him when we had a few weapon issues. One, issue in particular was stripped heads on the action bolts. At the range he was able to drill and use EZ out to pull the bolts and put in new ones.
Because we only had two instructors we took almost no pictures but I managed to snap a few on my cell phone....
<span style="font-weight: bold">Big thanks to Tony Burkes and TAB gear for the sling!!!!!</span>
