Some have asked me to give a report on the "Precision Rifle 1" course I recently enrolled in at The Firearms Academy of Seattle. For a brief overview of the course from Firearms Academy of Seattle, see the following link:
http://www.firearmsacademy.com/precrifl.htmSo... to get strait to the point: I was INCREDIBLY disappointed with this course and I will be asking for my money back. infact 3 other gentleman including myself left early. This was supposed to be an intense course for the "serious rifle shooter."
1. The faciilites are run down. The targets and shooting boards were completely shot through insomuch that the reinforcement platforms held below were completely dry rotted. Oh and we were expected to post and take down our own targets.. not a big deal per say but when you pay roughly 5 hundred dollars in course and ammo fees, you would expect many of the things you do at the range for yourself to be done for you.. when you are paying .
2. Massive overgrowth on the shooting lanes completely obstructing some of the shooting targets out to 250 yards. Marty had to go out there with his tractor and move the overgrowth several times. Shouldnt this have been done PRIOR to our arrival? This class is offered ONCE a year.
3. There was NO 400 yard shooting range. This was the deal killer for me. As you will read in the course description link above: "Precision Rifle offers two intense days of training and practice in use of the scoped, centerfire, MOA-accurate rifle with distances varying from 50 to
400 yards." Apparently, the 400 yard lane was now being dominated by the owners cattle and it too had become overgrown and unuseable. When I asked the owner Marty Hayes about shooting at 400 yards and the rumor circulating the class that we would not be able to shoot at that distance, his response was that "I had been mistaken about the course and that was for Precision Rifle level 2." He proceeded to grab a pamphlet that said the distance was 250. As you can all see, the web site clearly says for level 1, 50-400 yards would be accessed. It was obvious that I was not respected and the truth was not given. What Marty did not know was that there was a previous student of this course that did this exact class one year earlier and they had done 400 yards. I decided to leave it at that and gather my things.
More great stuff:
Tower excercise.. we were to hide in the woods the next morning and practice our concealment procedures why someone was trying to find us. Only a few problems with that:
1. The tower was all but condemned.. Marty bluntly said to "scale the tower at your own risk." I decided to investigate and the structure was due for a fall over at any moment and this was a 30-40 foot structure we were supposed to practice Sniper techniques.
2. No camo was provided.. we were to bring our own, yes.. However the Gille suites were not provided.
Gun cleaning.. we got a a rifle cleaning lesson. This was not a intro level class, everyone there had really nice rifles, new how to use them. This lasted for hours. The offer a "Level 1 Rifle" course. This was not what we should be spending a lot of our time doing.
Videos... everything in this course is basically taught by Maj John L Plaster from his book and videos " The Ultimate Sniper" We watched these videos whenver we had a break.. but this too lasted for hours. Marty would rarely be in the classroom, instead he was off riding his ATV.
Bottom line:
This was a serious operation at ONE POINT. Now it is Hokey. I received very little instruction. The facilites were run down, overgrown and poorly taken care of. The instruction was minimal and most of all the course did not live up to what was officially written in the course description. I hear the hand gun courses are ok, and often are taught by police instructors. However if you are thinking of taking this course, or any other for that matter. Please keep my experience in mind.
