Project Officer Survival FREE Law Enforcement Firearms Training supported by Walther, Aimpoint, Safariland, and Propper. (photo by @ashley_stone1911)
On June 6-7th 2024, Rick Hogg owner of War HOGG Tactical, www.warhogg.com, conducted FREE Law Enforcement Firearms training via Project Officer Survival. The Inaugural Project Officer Survival “GATOR” Training / Vendor event was held at the Element Training Center in Holt, Florida. Walther Arms, Aimpoint, and Safariland supported this FREE 1-day red dot pistol Law Enforcement Firearms Training event. The students were outfitted in Propper clothing for the event.
Project Officer Survival
378 Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) were shot in the line of duty during 2023. A total of 46 LEOs died in 2023 as a result of being shot in the line of duty. Established in 2020, the “Project Officer Survival” mission is to provide free Law Enforcement firearms training via support from our industry partners and using corporate or private tax-deductible donations through 501c3 nonprofits we have partnered with. We want to increase their survivability at little to no cost to the individual officers.
To date, Project Officer Survival has trained hundreds of LEOs and three officers directly correlated their training during a Project Officer Survival course to them surviving the deadly force encounter.
Course Objectives
Give LEOs a skill set to be efficient and effective if they are ever in a deadly force encounter.
Empower our officers while on the range to think for themselves.
Build a proper mindset and solve problems so the “real world” encounters are easier.
Equip them with a tool via The Firearms Training Notebook to continue training after the course.
Encourage them to Be 1% Better Everyday!
This is a flyer for the project officer survival event depicting law enforcement officers in different parts of the training and vendor logos.
The “GATOR” Event
The intent of this training event was multipart. One, to educate LEOs on the different types of red dot sights, and to get them a day of training using a Aimpoint ACRO equipped Walther PDP pistol, drawing out of a Safariland Holster. Second, was to bring awareness to the firearms industry about Project Officer Survival and to gather support for future Project Officer Survival Events. Third was to have law enforcement, military personnel and law-abiding citizens attend the vendor event and have the ability to try out some of these vendors products.
The “GATOR” event was a couple months in the making. We picked The Element Training Complex on the panhandle of Florida. This location was picked with easy reach to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi for our law enforcement students and near numerous military installations.
The afternoon of June 5th, vendors arrived at The Element Training Complex to setup their respective vendor tables / areas. Marathon Targets, ICC Ammo, Aimpoint, Walther Arms, Grizzly Targets, Shooting Targets USA and Cobalt Kinetics setup on bay 2 for live fire practical application of their products. Kontek Industries brought their mobile shoot house out and had it across from the vendors in bay 2. Kontek was supported by Force on Force munitions. Safariland, Propper, Sub Second, Whiskey 7 and Ricky Harris Designs set up away from the live fire bays under a very large overhang. Project Officer Survival training was set up in bay 1 with the support of Grizzly Targets Shoot No Shoot (SNS) target system.
The following companies donated items for the event. Notch Gear with War HOGG logo hats, Hoist to hydrate both students and people visiting the vendors, XS Sights, Kore Essentials, Pact, ESCA tech provided D-Lead wipes and soap for both students and vendor event attendees. PACT, inc. provided a club timer III and case for the winner of the shooting competition.
Each student was given a copy of the firearms training notebook to collect data during the course and continue improving their marksmanship skills after the course (photo @ashley_stone1911)
Day 1 of Training
Both June 6th and 7th started at 8am with 12 Law Enforcement Officers from Florida, Georgia and Alabama having their hand sized for an appropriate fit of the Walther PDP professional, full size, compact and F-series pistols topped with Aimpoint ACROs. Safariland level 3 retention holsters and mag pouches were handed out for the day of training. The officers needed to bring 400 rounds of 9mm ammo, eye and ear protection, a belt for their holster and an old t-shirt that could be shot. The morning of June 6th was forecasted for rain, I was not worried having Aimpoint ACROs. In fact it did rain that morning proving to the students how well an enclosed red dot sight performs and how weather is not a factor.
Each student received a SWAG bag with a copy of The Firearms Training Notebook, custom War HOGG hat from Notch Gear, ESCA tech provided D Lead wipes and soap, a Hoist hydration beverage, multitasker tool or mag pod, bottle opener from Grizzly Targets and literature from different manufactures.
This training is supposed by Walther, Aimpoint and Safariland (photo by @ashley_stone1911)
Intros
The day started with intros from War HOGG Tactical and Walther. I asked the students to do a couple of things throughout the day. First was to not be afraid to change things about their shooting. I am going to give them some generalities, but they would have to figure some things out based on their own bodies. I tell them, “If you do what you always done, you are going to get what you always got”. Second, was to treat this “flat range” like the street. I’m trying to get a mind shift in these law enforcement officers. I do the same things for my civilian and military courses.
Next Rick DeMilt from Walther’s Law Enforcement division gave the students a brief about the PDP and showed them a cut away of the Walther barrel equip with a step chamber, one of only 2 firearms manufactures that have a step chamber.
Overview of Red Dot Sights
For me, this is a critical part of the course because to many law enforcement agencies are uneducated on the red dot sights or as I like to call them, pieces of life saving equipment. Agencies are not putting the time in to conduct a thorough T&E process. I discuss that with an open emitter red dot sight and the issues with them. You have a failure point built into the sight with an exposed emitter. I then talk about the failure point gizmos some manufactures are placing on their optics like solar panels and shake awake systems. Next is talking about the enclosed emitter red dot sight, specifically the Aimpoint ACRO and its durability. Lastly, I discuss dot brightness, zeroing the optic and telling the students as soon as that dot is on target send the round. Too many shooters transitioning to the red dot sight think the optic housing as something to do with aiming, like lining up iron sights, it does not.
Portable training aid for red dot sights used by War HOGG Tactical
Performance on Demand
The training started with the War HOGG Self Eval. The War HOGG Self Eval is shot individually, from the 5-meter line at their ready position on a 3×5 and 4×6 index card using a PACT club timer to record data. This is the first piece of data we collet for The Firearms Training Notebook.
The Firearms Training Notebook is a critical piece of all of War HOGG Tactical training courses. The intent is to give the student data so when they leave the course they can see where they need to improve on their marksmanship and gun handling skills.
The War HOGG Self Eval and The Firearms Training Notebook (photo Laura Fogarty)
Instruction Phase
After shooting the War HOGG Self eval, I give the students a series of instruction, starting with my War HOGG administrative pistol loading procedure. It starts with identifying a safe area, drawing the Walther PDP from my Safariland holster defeating the level 3 retention and presenting the pistol in a safe direction. This gives me a chance to check the red dot brightness and ensure my iron sights are in working order. Yes, I have seen some students missing a front or rear sight. Next is locking the slide to the rear and conducting a speed magazine change, with another pistol presentation. I then conduct a “War HOGG” check (press check), holster my pistol with my thumb on the rear of the pistol to ensure it does not get knocked out of battery, and raise my hood up so all retention devices are activated. The final step is bringing a new magazine into position 1 of my magazine pouch. I then cover unloading the pistol.
Next, I give my students a class on pistol malfunctions, the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship, really focusing on getting a good grip on the pistol and the red dot pistol presentation. The ability to have an efficient presentation is critical in acquiring the red dot to have the ability to fire sooner verses “Fishing” for the red dot.
The Training Day
We start with some dry fire on pistol presentations and move on to single shot presentations on a 3-inch dot. Using a building block methodology of teaching the students they then moved on to controlled pairs. From there we talked about magazine changes and conducted both dry and live fired speed magazine changes. We finished the morning with drawing from the holster. After each block of instruction we captured data for the students using a Pact Club Timer and The Firearms Training Notebook so the students had data to take back with them to improve their marksmanship ability.
Conducting a demo for the students with the Aimpoint ACRO (Photo Laura Fogarty)
Lunch Break – We did a quick room clearing class on the Kontek Industries mobile shoot house.The food truck Brunch with a Twist was out fueling our students and individuals that came out to check out the vendors. Grizzly Targets provided lunch for day one and Propper for day 2. This way the students could stay on site to check out the different vendors.
Afternoon Session – The afternoon started on 8-inch plates for a 5 shot drill at 5, 7 and 10 meters. I’m not a fan of cadence drills, but instead tell my students “the dot gives you permission”. We then collect some more data for their notebooks on their 5 shot performance at 5, 7, and 10 meters. The students conduct a down dot drill and we introduce them to shooting strong and support hand.
Putting it all together
Adding Realism to Training – For all our course we ask our students to bring out a t-shirt that they can shoot to add one more layer of realism to their training. I let have them shoot multi shot engagements at various distances. I pause the group because there is a teaching point that needs to be made about shot placement. Then the students finish the drill with this information and typically we see two distinct shot groups.
The final drill of the day is shooting under physical duress. This drill is a staple of all of Project Officer Survival and is accomplished using sandbags for various exercises. The focus is on marksmanship with each miss adding 10 seconds to their overall time. It Pays To Be A Winner! For the winner there are some great prizes from our industry partners.
Shooting Under Physical Duress is incorporated in all Project Officer Survival Courses (photo by Laura Fogarty)
Conclusion
With the support from Walther, Aimpoint, Safariland, and Propper, 24 Law Enforcement Officers from Florida, Georgia and Alabama that are better trained with red dot pistol. These officers are more educated about red dot optics and can take that information back to their agencies and help the process of purchasing rugged and reliable pieces of life saving equipment. If your agency is interested in red dot pistol training reach out to us via warhogg.com
Train Hard, Stay Safe and see you “On The Range” – Rick
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Rick Hogg is the owner of War HOGG Tactical, Inc. and is a 29 year US Army Special Operation Combat Veteran, as well as an SOF K9 handler, that has taken his 13 combat deployment, both Iraq and Afghanistan, and teaching experience as a Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat (SFAUC) instructor and harnessed them into a combat proven techniques training company, War HOGG Tactical, Inc.
Veteran owned, War HOGG Tactical, Inc. a North Carolina firearms training company that travels the country teaching firearms training, tactical training and K9 training to civilians, military and law enforcement agencies teaching through combat proven techniques and experience to improve students marksmanship proficiency. War HOGG also conducts product development and product field testing along with a variety of consulting services in the defense, firearms and entertainment / film industry.
War HOGG Tactical also offers free law enforcement firearms training via Project Officer Survival with support from our industry partners. If you are interested in hosting a free law enforcement training course send us an email for more info.
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