Quality Training or Scam?

[einherjarvalk]

One of my longtime friends is currently on a bit of a training course kick after having done a private class with a well-established instructor in the Northeast. It's made him look into other training opportunities in his budget range, and one of the Instagram accounts he follows caught his eye with a "deal" on training at Front Sight in Las Vegas.

However, the discounted rate being shown threw up a red flag for him, and he passed it along to me. The class in question was being offered by a company I hadn't heard of before called "Come Shoot With Me, Inc." Their website offers classes with the same names and prices at the same rate as I saw on Front Sight's official site, but slashed down in price by 80%.





This to me raised a gigantic red flag - a large, well-respected (to my understanding) institute like Front Sight doesn't seem like the type to devalue their training by slashing prices to that degree. On top of that, Come Shoot With Me's site didn't show any instructor bios or detailed information about why someone might want to train with them. Instead, it has this:



At this point, it sounds less like Come Shoot With Me is offering any training through them and more like a Front Sight member is monetizing their own membership. Then it starts to get weird.

Come Shoot With Me also has an "Opportunities" page. I took one look at it and thought "pyramid scheme." That initial impression may be wrong, but it still doesn't look good. Instead, it looks like the owner of Come Shoot With Me isn't just monetizing their own membership, but trying to buy exposure through Instagram influencers, who direct people to them and then get a commission off the classes booked through that referral link. Not quite multi-level-marketing, but still kinda questionable, especially considering Front Sight itself doesn't seem to have any knowledge of this from what I've seen.

While I've told my friend this looks like a scam to me, I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks of this whole situation. Is it legitimately discounted training from Front Sight? A pyramid scheme? Just some guy with a range membership trying to get people to pay for the luxury of having him on site with no credentials?

I'm not going to claim it's any one thing for certain as I only just became aware of this company's existence, but at bare minimum I'm hoping digging into this can help me sort wheat from chaff better in the future regardless of whether it turns out to be legitimate training or not.

[HopetonBrown]

Front Sight isn't well respected.

You can get a lifetime membership for free if you look around.

Front Sight charges a $100 transfer fee and $50 per year background check fee.

If you want to train with 41 other students with a curriculum drawn up in 1987 then you'll dig it.

[Talionis]

Friends don't let friends go to Front Sight. It is the gun culture version of a cult.

[einherjarvalk]

Sounds like it's two questionable companies smashing against one another then. Wasn't aware of the issues with Front Sight, but at least now I know.

[rathos]

Probably some one selling their guest passes they got with their membership. Front sight is... interesting. Their instructors think that a drop leg holster is some how "concealed" if your shirt comes close to touching the gun.

[Olim9]

I think Front Sight has had +20 ND's in their classes iirc. Tom Givens has had zero in all of his time teaching. The latter is actually well respected and charges twice as less with even less bullshit in his classes. I would go get a decent class like Combative Pistol 1 with Tom and then spend the extra $500 on a quality force on force class. Surely better than going to a class that has an advertisted price of $1,000 where you will learn how to teacup a handgun.

There's instructors out there that are absolutely inept and have no buisiness teaching other people how to fight for their lives. Those people need to step their game up and Front Sight is one of them.

[Larry T]

If I were him, I'd take a 2-day Dave Spaulding class for ~$425.

[SC_Dave]

Also note the female in the picture is using a grip that is no longer considered best practice........ Speaks volumes I say.

[Cookie Monster]

Front sight is interesting. I took 10 to 15 classes there. I found it fine, nothing perfect as I got better and got a greater understanding of things. The value is only there if you live close.

[David S.]

Give us an approximate location and travel radius, and the type of training he's looking for. I bet some of us could help find a better source of training.

Much needed updates to my site are coming SOONTM.