A few months ago I asked my chief if I could use our sniper rifle to attend the NC Justice Academy’s LE Sniper course. We hadn’t used our sniper rifle in about 5 years...it’s just been eye candy in our armory and it just looked lonely every time I opened the cabinet. He replied no, you’re retiring in a few months. A short time went by and I asked again. He again said no. I replied back that he could make it my retirement class...kinda like a gift. Wouldn’t you know...he said yes.
Last week I attended the class which @Grizzly21 helps teach. I had a few preconceived notions about the class but went with an open mind. There were 27 LEOs attending, two of which were from SC. The last class had a few from other states. Apparently these classes are hard to come by elsewhere. This class is offered twice a year by the NCJA and is taught at Johnston Community Colleges Howell Woods, right in my back yard. The range itself has a pistol range, 400 yard rifle range, and a fairly new shoot house. I also teach here through the college and my agency uses the facilities at least twice a year.
The first day was all classroom...mils, MOA, holdovers, equipment, etc. Nothing Grizzly21 hadn’t already told me about. My agency supplied me with: sniper rifle is a Venom Tactical Copperhead.308 topped with a Leupold, Eberlestock Gunrunner II pack, and Federal 168 BTHP ammo. Grizzly21 gave me some rear bags and a mat. That was pretty much all I had to start the class.
Day 2 we were on the range shooting primarily from the 100. Various drills including zeros. Nothing fancy which was good for me. After lunch, like immediately, they had us lay all our shit, minus rifle, at the 100 then walk to the 200. Once there we were told to low-crawl back to the 100 and make a shot. It should be noted here that I’m 48 and out of shape...fuck me...glad I only ate a sammich for lunch. I did it along with everyone else. We collected sand spurs and fire ant bites along the way. Did I mention that it was 90 and humid? Anyway, it builds character I guess. Grizzly21 got a laugh out of it. I will laugh next week once I’m fully recovered. I missed my shot because I didn’t know that during my crawl I had moved a turret. Lesson learned. We shot some eggs and other paper targets. All in all it was a good day of learning.
Day 3 and every morning thereafter we would shoot cold bore first thing. Temp this day started out at 55 or so wouldn’t get above 77. We then moved into 200 yards and learning how to dope our rifles. After lunch we again shot one round from the 100, just to confirm everyone was on target. Then we did a few tours... We left our rifles on the 100 yard line and then went back to the 200 yard line. We partnered up by numbers. You would run back to your rifle and fire a shot on paper. Once you did you had to get up and run back to the 200. Your partner had to begin his run as soon as you got up. We did this 5 times. Good exercise and way better than low-crawling 100 yards. We also did night shooting on this day. NC now requires that LEOs shoot/qualify day and night with all weapons. My Leupold has an illuminated reticle so it was good to see how it would perform. There were a few guys that had NVGs and IR capability that wanted to shoot also. Another excellent day of learning.
Day 4 started with cold bore then we shot some paper targets. Temp this day started at 50 and wouldn’t get above 75 or so but it was windy. We shot some at 200 then later would shoot helium filled balloons at 300. On this exercise Grizzly21 told me not to dial in my dope...but instead to hold 1.5 over mils. When my number was called I held the mils over and decided to ambush the balloon. The holdover call worked. We then moved to the 400 to shoot unknown distance from 100 to 410 yards. Very good exercise. We ended the day with a quick review on some stuff we learned on day 1 because day 5 would start with a cold bore test practical and move into the written exam. Up to this point I had shot 171 rounds of .308 in 3 days. Another great day of learning.
Day 5 started with a practical test shot cold bore from 100. You miss you fail. Temp was a cool 50 degrees and sunny. By 0840 we had all fired our one shot. All 27 of us passed the cold bore and written.
This class was altogether well run and taught by the instructors...they did a great job delivering the material and setting up the practicals on the range. There were a few students that had equipment issues but Grizzly21 was able to mitigate most of them with his experience working on and shooting precision rifles. The only issue I had equipment wise was the chamber on our rifle is so tight it wouldn’t feed 3-5 rounds per box of the Federal ammo. After fighting with it the first Range day I came home and chamber checked the rounds I would need for the remainder of the week. After that I had no issues.