A look at the ranges and facilities at Front Sight, on 550 acres of Nevada desert about 40 minutes from Las Vegas, as they stood in November 2006. Some of the planned buildings were finished and in use; others were still under construction.
Planned for phase one
- Paved roads, a 6,000-square-foot classroom and conference area, a pro shop and administration building.
- A 7,200-square-foot armory and gunsmithing shop and a maintenance facility.
- Ten training ranges from 25 to 400 yards, eight 360-degree live-fire simulator ranges and an indoor video simulator building.
- A five-story SWAT tower, a rappelling area and 400 yards of underground tunnels with simulators.
What students used
- Lecture hall: seating for hundreds, with good lighting, multimedia screens and sound.
- Pro shop: rentals, training aids, ammunition, cleaning supplies, targets and manuals.
- Pistol ranges: targets on air-powered turners.
- Scenario buildings: reactive and photographic targets in building mock-ups for shoot or no-shoot decisions, room clearing and tactical movement, plus training doors for entry and cover work.
- Rifle ranges: turf strips marking each distance, lights for dusk and night shooting, and a people mover to save walking time.
- Sniper Point: a long canyon with reactive targets from 200 to 400 yards and much farther, including one about a mile away that students first had to find.
- Interactive canyons: walking courses where targets, both threats and innocents, appear as you move, for scanning and shooting on the go.
- Climbing and rappelling: a custom tower billed as the world’s tallest rappelling facility, a high ropes course, zip lines and a climbing wall.
- Tunnels: a maze of underground tunnels about 10 feet across, with multiple entry points.
A lesson from the turning targets
- Turning targets can seem unrealistic: when does an attacker turn 90 degrees? An instructor explained the right way to see them. The turn is not the start of the drill; it is the attacker starting to draw. Thinking of it that way made the draw faster and left plenty of time for a good shot.
Notes
- At the time, the school discouraged visits without a course confirmation because of ongoing construction.
- The school later went through bankruptcy proceedings; check its current status before planning a visit.
Takeaways
- Scenario ranges and photographic targets train decision-making, not just shooting.
- Treat a turning or reactive target as the threat’s draw, and react to it.
Originally published on After Action.net on November 28, 2006. Rebuilt from the archived report; the original photos were not preserved. See every class in the Training Log, or share your own training experience.
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