http://badlandstactical.org/
Last week Badlands Tactical Training Facility in Grandfield OK held their last Basic Precision class for the year, CLEET #15-2582(40hrs). Roughly 10 hours of lecture with remaining time in the field. Lecture was split up over the first two days so we were shooting every day. The purpose of this class is strictly fundamentals of shooting, observation, mil/moa ranging, data logs and proper maintenance of equipment. For those reasons prone was the only position. Three instructors for 10 students were Rich Johnson, Steve Suttles and 2015 OK Sheriff of the Year Bobby Whittington. Their profiles are available linked above.
To quote a student on the last day, “I came to become a better rifleman, now I realize I need to be a better spotter”. My training background is mostly handgun related at other facilities. Every class I’ve taken saturated my brain with new information and exposed my bad habits (training scars). Badlands didn’t disappoint with 10 hour days including homework. Follow thru fundamentals were hammered into us. I learned new ways of maintenance and training including a new dry fire exercise that will improve trigger fundamentals. And back to the quote, we learned advantages of having a spotter and pitfalls of self-spotting.
Safety was paramount every day. Range rules/etiquette were covered on day one. The Safety Circle is explained and aggressively enforced in all Badlands firearms classes. Maximum power for rifle scopes on the line was 10x and spotters at 20x. Steve explained the relationship between magnification and objective size as exit pupil. The effect of increasing magnification is decreased exit pupil causing the surface of our eyes to burn. 2 hours (seamed longer) lecture involved the legal and personal consequences for Law Enforcement and civilians of shooting a human when justified. Badlands now includes this curriculum in all of their firearms classes. This is the only facility I’ve attended, other than CCW, that used class time to open student’s minds to issues we rarely like to talk about.
TUITION INCLUDES LODGING.
About the first photo, the culture of Badlands’ rifle training is law enforcement based. Half of our class represented small PD’s trying to set up a precision rifle response team with little available funding. The pace isn’t like boot camp, nor is it a vacation. For us civilians the pace is fast yet manageable. Ninety percent of this training works for long range hunting, sporting and competition. Obviously one of the students failed to implement fundamentals one too many times! That said, check out the videos linked above and you’ll find a family culture provided by Steve, Rich and the entire Whittington clan.
Typical day starts at 0800 start, Sunday hot range at 0745.
Every time I go to Badlands they’ve expanded training facilities. We were the first class to use the new automated moving target at 200 yards.
Howa 6.5 Creedmoor needed 8.5 mils to 1000 yards using Hornady 140 gr ELD(81500).
AERO Precision M5E 308 was a bit more challenging calling wind, 15 mils with Federal Gold Medal 168 gr.
Last week Badlands Tactical Training Facility in Grandfield OK held their last Basic Precision class for the year, CLEET #15-2582(40hrs). Roughly 10 hours of lecture with remaining time in the field. Lecture was split up over the first two days so we were shooting every day. The purpose of this class is strictly fundamentals of shooting, observation, mil/moa ranging, data logs and proper maintenance of equipment. For those reasons prone was the only position. Three instructors for 10 students were Rich Johnson, Steve Suttles and 2015 OK Sheriff of the Year Bobby Whittington. Their profiles are available linked above.
To quote a student on the last day, “I came to become a better rifleman, now I realize I need to be a better spotter”. My training background is mostly handgun related at other facilities. Every class I’ve taken saturated my brain with new information and exposed my bad habits (training scars). Badlands didn’t disappoint with 10 hour days including homework. Follow thru fundamentals were hammered into us. I learned new ways of maintenance and training including a new dry fire exercise that will improve trigger fundamentals. And back to the quote, we learned advantages of having a spotter and pitfalls of self-spotting.
Safety was paramount every day. Range rules/etiquette were covered on day one. The Safety Circle is explained and aggressively enforced in all Badlands firearms classes. Maximum power for rifle scopes on the line was 10x and spotters at 20x. Steve explained the relationship between magnification and objective size as exit pupil. The effect of increasing magnification is decreased exit pupil causing the surface of our eyes to burn. 2 hours (seamed longer) lecture involved the legal and personal consequences for Law Enforcement and civilians of shooting a human when justified. Badlands now includes this curriculum in all of their firearms classes. This is the only facility I’ve attended, other than CCW, that used class time to open student’s minds to issues we rarely like to talk about.
TUITION INCLUDES LODGING.
About the first photo, the culture of Badlands’ rifle training is law enforcement based. Half of our class represented small PD’s trying to set up a precision rifle response team with little available funding. The pace isn’t like boot camp, nor is it a vacation. For us civilians the pace is fast yet manageable. Ninety percent of this training works for long range hunting, sporting and competition. Obviously one of the students failed to implement fundamentals one too many times! That said, check out the videos linked above and you’ll find a family culture provided by Steve, Rich and the entire Whittington clan.
Typical day starts at 0800 start, Sunday hot range at 0745.
Every time I go to Badlands they’ve expanded training facilities. We were the first class to use the new automated moving target at 200 yards.
Howa 6.5 Creedmoor needed 8.5 mils to 1000 yards using Hornady 140 gr ELD(81500).
AERO Precision M5E 308 was a bit more challenging calling wind, 15 mils with Federal Gold Medal 168 gr.
