Has anybody heard of Spartan LLC.  They are a firearms training group and I believe they have an office out of Columbia, SC.  Some of the local shooters have been talking about having them come up and conduct a class and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them and could give some feedback.

Thanks for the info.

im leary of any of these "experts" that offer so called training. if you look at the cadre members of these places they usually have one or two guys whove "been there" and the rest of the staff resumes include such confidence inspiring experience as "12yrs experence on goatbang county SWAT" whoopty-friggin-doo. i know this is going to get my flamed but the only Tac teams ive ever seen that werent a danger to themselves and others were some of the high budget CA teams and NYPD.

The super ninja gurus of the world can't be out on the street busting bad guys and at the range teaching at the same time, can they? [;)]

Hell, I thought the reason a lot of these guys are out teaching is because it seems to pay a LOT more than any normal job out there. Those guys have to be making some serious cash charging a minimum of $500 per person with classes of 10-20 people.

Michael

DvlDog, goatbang "might" be an insult to our own GoatBoy !
[:D]

roger 5sub, read that "donkeyscrew county"

 i look at it this way. most civilian "tac-teams" are rediculous examples of what it means to be over equiped and under trained. dont believe me? go to a "swat roundup" when you consider that most of these teams recieve training from these civilian traning "academys" it doesnt say much about the quality of instruction. on the other hand, big cities with deep pockets like NYC, and LA have officers who are military veterans and they set up their own traning in that image. from what i've seen these big city departments turn out some competent officers (officers, not operators)

Hey guys, appreciate the feedback. [beer]  The info I have on this group says that all instructors are current/active SCHP.  It does list several of the instructors who are SWAT qualified.  The price of the one day courses is $110/per.  Some of our guys have taken the courses and say they are pretty good, and I'm never closed minded to new technique, but I'm afraid it will be "slow speed - high drag".  They won't let you take any of there more interesting/advanced classes until you complete the basic ones so I'm afraid I will be wasting some money.  Just thought I would ask. [bounce]

Rabbit9, that's what keeps me from signing up for some of these classes, myself. I don't need "basic firearm training", and it's almost always a pre-requisite for the more interesting courses. Maybe they should have a pre-class session that allows all participants to "prove themselves" before they're dictated to a certain class. Just my .02

OK ^^^BTT^^^

I decided to take the Tactical Handgun course offered by Spartan as the prerequisite to their advanced classes.  I was prepared to be disappointed.  The class was held 12/9/01 @ Pinetucky Gun Club and was well worth the time and money expended.  The instructors were PROFESSIONALS.  I say this because of the way they conducted themselves both in classroom instruction and on the range.  I am continually amazed by shooters/instructors/experts that have poor gun handling skills; these people know there business.  Even in the basic/intro class it was fast paced.  They run a hot range, so if you were not loading, you were shooting.  Their use of steel and reduced size targets(approx. 2" target dots) kept the class interesting.  When doing CQB drills or shooting IDPA/IPSC the target "A" zones are generous because of the short engagement times involved.  I don't shoot Bullseye, so the return to fundamentals was a plus.  I thoroughly enjoyed the class and my experience with this company was very positive.  I'm looking forward to their advanced tactical pistol, carbine and smg classes.  Because I asked for group information/opinion on this, I felt it was appropriate to give a review.