Frag Out! Magazine

As for me, it took me over A hAlf of yeAr to prepAre myself to the course. i wAs buying All the geAr And com- pleting All the bureAucrAcy stuff – i wAs the only guy of out of united stAtes And one of two civiliAns. the rest of clAss students where for different us Armed forces brAnches And lAw enforcement services. the course wAs directed by four heAd instructors – two former us speciAl forces (green berets) snipers, one commAnder of swAt sniper teAm And commAnder of sniper teAm from depArtment of corrections. lAw enforcement instructors hAve Also militAry experience. now they All were teAching us new set of skills in elk gArden, west virginiA. My whole trip started in the early morning. I drove to Warsaw, capitol city of Poland, then I had a flight to France where I got a plane to United States. Then, for about 90 minutes I tried to explain to the immigrations officers why I have two fully stoc- ked drag bags of gear and I am going to sniper class, trying to make him sure that I am not terrorist or religion extremist. Ride to West Virginia was the easiest part – most of that state is co- vered with hills and woods. They look lovely until you have to march for hours with all your gear. And I did it for three weeks. The standard training class starts with 1.5 week shooting tra- ining which is necessary to complete before attending the main part. Because of some reasons, I did not have to take part in, so now I had three weeks of mastering other skills including sho- oting, ahead of me. On this stage, it is too late to ask what the milliradian is or how to correct the shot even though instructors were helpful and they answered all the questions. If students told that they fully understand each case, there was no turning back. We were required to know. There was no time for retakes. After arrival, I unpacked all my stuff and picked up additional gear I ordered online before my trip. First day was nice and smooth – we spent few hours in the class, walking through the basic gear, snipers task and mission, schedules and requirements we will need to meet. To pass the courses, 70% scores in KIM games, surveillance (with sketch drawing) and stalking is required plus 90% in everyday FBI sho- oting qualification. Later that day I picked up AR-10 sniper rifle with Leuopold M3 3,5-10x44 scope with Mil-Dot reticle. Nor- mally, I don't prefer semiautomatic rifles but bringing my own gun to the USA would be real pain in the ass so I decided to rent one here. Instructors praised my ghillie suit. For each week of training 500 rifle rounds were required making it 70 rounds per day. After briefing, the classes started. We zeroed our rifles and we were informed what the FBI qual is. The only troublesho- oting part of this gun qualification is, in my personal opinion, the its last part. Four minutes of intensive physical effort and then four shot to small circle have to be taken in less than one minute. Ten shots in total to the 2MOA-3MOA size targets. www.fragoutmag.com

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