NOLATAC Training Center - New Outdoor Range in Avondale

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  • geoney

    Well-Known Member
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    2   0   0
    Jun 1, 2011
    796
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    Lake Charles
    I think it’s pretty shitty to masquerade around like you are a LEO to further your business when you were only really a reserve. That’s all I need to know about that person.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

    So wait... reserves are not LEO's? Do they have thew ability to arrest? DO they attend an academy?

    If he was pretending to be an LEO, wouldn't that be a crime?

    Or did he like lie and say he was full time or something?
     
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    MTx11B

    Combat Vet
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    17   0   0
    Aug 31, 2013
    287
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    NOLA
    This is comic gold... I usually don't pay attention to gossip which most of this thread is, albeit there might be some truth to the antics of Mr. Lebouef and his "business dealings".

    Before I begin this might be a long read, I'm writing this from my phone so typos beware it's late so I'll probably ramble a bit about the events that took place leading upto the failure of the range and what he is trying to do now. Also it should probably be said I haven't lost money dealing with him and have nothing to do with his current activities or businesses nor have I ever except for what I will talk about here I have absolutely zero feelings toward Mr. LeBouef and hope he succeeds in whatever he tries to do.



    I'll try and keep it short and factual and can only talk about my personal experiences dealing with him and training other veterans that worked for him over the past couple years and what they told me and showed me in messages from him. I still talk to these other veterans daily if not weekly and have no reason to believe they fabricated anything about him or messages from him as they have literally cut their losses with any dealings with him and refuse to work with him also.

    To shed some light on this whole situation and backround on the range and what he now does. There was a firearm instructor program that got gibill approval around the 2013 time frame, at the time it was started as a non profit and wasn't well known at all with very little progress due to it being one of the first if not the first firearm training program with gibill approval in the United States so the first class had about 3 students and the second class in 2014 had 4 of us.

    The course ended up teaching veterans and civilians a minimum of twelve disciplines over a 6 month period to become instructors in pistol, rifle, shotgun, muzzleloading, reloading and a few others. Over the years word spread about the amazing training and how veterans would get paid to come learn if they used their gibill. We saw a lot of medically retired combat guys like myself and even more veterans from every other branch needless to say the program had exponential growth in a few years time something like 500% none of which had anything to do with Mr. Lebouef.

    Fast forward to the 2016-2017 time frame the program expanded from a small range to utilizing multiple ranges and having multiple classes going at once all across Louisiana with students from previous classes going back to their home state and starting their own businesses and sending referrals back to us the profit margin was amazing to say the least. One of the ranges we started to use was NOLA motorsports at the time it was crappy and the backstops didn't even come up to my shoulders so we only used it for shotgun and muzzleloading portions with the occasional archery makeup. We ended up advancing him a few grand to utilize the range whenever we needed so he could finish making improvements for some reason he didn't have the funds to do them on his own even with his other businesses being so successful ( red flag right?).

    Now the gentleman who started it all from scratch was having serious health issues with some of the instructors blood lead levels spiking up to the 70s which can happen if you spend everyday teaching people to shoot for weeks and months at a time (we also found one of the indoor ranges we used had poor air filtration). So we spoke in length about where to go next with the program. A few ideas floated around for a few months and we started to cut back on how many students with the end goal being to either sell off the program or hand the reigns over to a partnership to continue on with veterans teaching veterans blah blah.

    Enter Mr. Lebouef who has been an instructor for just as long but has not seen the success we have who also from day 1 swore up and down how he could conduct the training on his own and didn't need anyone to do it and "can't you see this is a goose with a golden egg" (Another red flag). Every business meeting to work out details of partnership always ended up being about how he can go about getting rid of partners... (partners he didn't even have yet) and also how he was going to spend money expanding because we were being conservative with how many students we were teaching at a time and more students means more money coming in. (If I miss a red flag at this point just know I know you know)

    About the partners, they were to be made up of myself (only because someone thought it would not succeed without me continuing to oversee operations and ensure the program continued the quality of training and not become about maximizing profit) and other veterans with verifiable military experiences and honorable discharges with combat awards that came through the training program and also Mr. Lebouef.

    Back to the events over the next two meetings he would just go off on tangents and say things like "say someone gets caught with child pornography can we take their shares and kick them out" -Mr. Lebouef's exact word's during our second meeting.
    We ended up walking out of that meeting with nothing accomplished not really feeling positive about it all so we ran indepth backround checks and did a bit more research on our potential partner. we found troubling information and massive debt along with his own businesses (nolatac/st bernard indoor shooting range ect) having multiple partners/backers yet still being in the red for some reason along with hearing horrible stories about how he treated the vets that worked for him. We found that he was using one business to cover the other while using funds to take training courses from social media instructos and travel the country/ vacation calling it all business expenses..you get the picture. I'm not suprised the range at NOLA Motorsports didnt work out.

    Some stories included how he started a holster making business with $5000 dollars (nola motorsports range never got improvements made) sent two of his workers that were veterans to go learn to make holsters with this company he bought rights into then had them traveling all across the state to gun shows on weekends and subsequently bringing him back thousands of dollars that they made in cash while working sometimes 15 hour days and only paying them literally $100 dollars for the whole weekend. I mean that business model is profitable as all hell for him but the main veteran he counted on doing these shows that ran it for him has since quit working for him and is allegedly still owed a paycheck last we spoke about it. Mind you we are only in the late 2017 time frame...fml

    Other vets that worked for him have also quit and last I heard he is still looking for workers to come make holsters and work for him at st bernard.

    Let's speed this up, the partnership never worked out the last meeting we had he brought up how to get rid of partners again and said the same thing about child porn ( I can't make this **** up) to which I responded " why is that your go to".

    He continued on telling a room full of combat vets how great he is and how he has done so many things and that's why he deserves 25% of a company he had no part in making. I say combat vets because he also served but never deployed and wasn't in a combat role while he served he did something with public affairs or paperwork if I remember while he was in the marines feel free to correct me on whatever non combat job he did.

    Needless to say I turned down (one would say burned that bridge to the ground with him on it) a partnership that would have included him and a group of us veterans that wanted to keep the quality of training their while also making it for veterans by veterans which meant eventually giving veterans that came through the training program at somepoint down the road a chance to actually come on to the board of directors themselves if they proved to be of great morale standing and able to uphold the values and direction we wanted to maintain for the future.

    In the end we shut it down and released all the instructors we had of their non competes and let them start their own company if they wanted doing the same thing we did. We also released Mr. Lebouef of his noncompete we had him sign before we would give him an advance to use the range back in 2016.

    When I refused to be his partner I got "permanently banned from his range" (lol okay) and also haven't spoke to the guy since that last meeting occasionally people would tell me that he isn't doing so well and is looking for instructors and wants to make amends. I only recently found out about this thread and I apologize for not finding out about it sooner probably could have saved a lot of people time and money if anything a caveat emptor. In the end I hope things work out for him and his new gibill approved instructor program which is mirrored off of ours as I made the 2018 calendar and curriculum along with previous versions (if anyone knows college curriculum and calendars for the school year you know what it takes to make one and get approval for it to be published) it seems he got a copy of it and just copied it with slight changes to send into the VA for approval .

    If you see this Mr. Lebouef as I heard you got banned from this forum for some reason I do wish you the best and a very profitable future and that your program puts a firearm instructor in every home across this great country of ours.

    Side note- I didn't go into the how much we actually made or the financials of the training program because that had nothing to do with why I trained people especially my brothers and sisters in arms to become firearm instructors. I loved what I did and found something I enjoyed doing after three combat tours and many years in the infantry and not knowing what I was gonna do when I got medically retired I saw the same thing in every person that came through our course and the time spent seeing them grow into instructors and business owners was more fulfilling than any other endeavor I have ever done.

    Now you can toss a rock and find a gibill approved course training instructors in everything from firearms to private security, k9 handlers ect if you have any gibill months left especially post 9/11 I encourage you to use it and if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a pm I'll answer what I can.

    Again sorry for long read but if you made it this far hopefully I shed some light on the situation with Mr. Lebouef and how a series of events lead to where and why things possibly went south for him and his business dealings at the track. As I mentioned earlier another veteran told me he is trying to make amends with people he wronged in the past or something so hopefully everything works out for him in the end...just leave me out of it.
     

    sportsbud

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    50   0   0
    Jan 16, 2013
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    NOLA
    Well damn, that is a hell of a detailed account for what is going on. I live not far from the St. Bernard Range, and do have to say that I see tremendous turn-over in his employees, I was deployed for the 2017-2018 time frame and came back to all new faces... I do have to say that he never did upgrade that equipment on the line and now that I think about it the ventilation does concern me... Luckily I do go to MCTA a good bit... One of these days I do need to start taking some training courses... But my interest in firearms has never been to be tactical just to be proficient and collect old guns... Usually qualify expert and practice some shoot and move occasionaly at MCTA lol....
     

    MTx11B

    Combat Vet
    Rating - 100%
    17   0   0
    Aug 31, 2013
    287
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    NOLA
    I've only been to st bernard twice in my life once in 2016 and again in 2017 I seen no changes in that range at the time just a bunch of tires as a backstop if I had to guess I'd say they are probably still there today but I could be wrong.
    When we did use the NOLA motorsports range it was for training instructors and we brought and took with us everything we used and left it as we found it as we paid for usage in advance. Anything else conducted had nothing to do with our training but anyone that seen the signs knew that range wasn't going to last long without someone competent running it.
     

    Martman300

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    44   0   0
    Nov 12, 2018
    702
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    Gretna, la
    This is kind of what I was thinking, crazy expensive. Understand insurance, living wage etc. but if you really want to shoot outdoors, this sounds like a better way.
     

    MTx11B

    Combat Vet
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    17   0   0
    Aug 31, 2013
    287
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    NOLA
    This is kind of what I was thinking, crazy expensive. Understand insurance, living wage etc. but if you really want to shoot outdoors, this sounds like a better way.
    As a training company we provided our own insurance in order to utilize any range we had a contract with. In most cases our insurance was bigger than the range and we would pay months and sometimes a year in advance with exact dates and times we would be needing and took on all liability for the time we were on said range for our students and ourselves. We would only schedule range use on weekdays and never om days that are profitable such as weekends, every range we dealt with was more than happy to have us and wanted us for more days usually. There is a better way to conduct business sadly some people don't get it.
     

    Emperor

    Seriously Misunderstood!
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    11   0   0
    Mar 7, 2011
    8,376
    113
    Nether region
    Thanks for ya'lls service and thanks for the detailed update.

    I can tell you all, as a long time member, there are some very funny threads that involved this dude. Being opinionated was not one of his apprehensions. :mamoru:
     

    DAVE_M

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    Apr 17, 2009
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    Rumor has it that the range shut down and the Facebook group associated with it was deleted. No reason was given so it’s kind of a mystery.

    From what I've been told by two previous members of the range, the range silently shut down. When the members would attempt to book a time slot online, there were none available. Eventually, enough members noticed this and a post was made in the facebook group asking about it. I think I still have the screenshots of the messages. I was told that Brannon made phone calls to individual members in regards to the lack of time slots. I do not know how many he called or what was said to each individual, but I can only relay what was told to the two members I know personally. Both were offered memberships at the indoor range in Arabi, but no refunds of membership fees were given.

    I've only met him once in person and he wasn't the most enjoyable person to be around. Given that I was on "his" range at a class with an instructor I wanted to pay attention to, I tried to avoid his antics as best as possible. I understand that I can be a bit of a pain, but he takes the cake. He insulted me a few times, which may or may not have been warranted, but I wouldn't expect that of someone who holds themselves to be a professional. There is a Facebook group that was for Louisiana folks to talk about shooting where he was banned from for insulting other members. Later on he created a parody group that was eventually overrun by trolls and is entirely filled with memes and nonsense. Given the amount of forums that he's been banned from, I was proceed with caution in any dealings with him. I don't hold any personal grudges against him and thank him for the time spent on his range. It was a relatively nice facility and I enjoyed the class with John McPhee. However, I do not wish to have any further dealings with him. I feel bad for anyone who has been mistreated by him or has lost money due to the range shutting down.
     

    DAVE_M

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    ________
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    MTx11B

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    Aug 31, 2013
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    NOLA
    This thread just keeps getting better and better. I am really suprised he continued on with his antics and bad business tactics after that. If anyone were to take him to court it would most likely end him and relieve him of any future stress of owning a range at all. I heard some local developers might be interested in buying it for a premium to build condos. Hopefully you guys get your money back
     

    DAVE_M

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    This thread just keeps getting better and better. I am really suprised he continued on with his antics and bad business tactics after that. If anyone were to take him to court it would most likely end him and relieve him of any future stress of owning a range at all. I heard some local developers might be interested in buying it for a premium to build condos. Hopefully you guys get your money back

    I don't know the full reason why the range closed, but I believe it had something to do with a lease not being renewed. He had hosted many top instructors on his range and prior to closing he hosted Tom Givens' Tac Con. Shortly after, the range closed.
     

    MTx11B

    Combat Vet
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    NOLA
    I don't know the full reason why the range closed, but I believe it had something to do with a lease not being renewed. He had hosted many top instructors on his range and prior to closing he hosted Tom Givens' Tac Con. Shortly after, the range closed.
    Anyone can host top instructors just contact them, pay their fee and be sure to provide a place for them to teach. Nothing he did was remarkable or new it seems just copy and paste. When I used to travel around teaching I would put 60k on my truck in 5 months and had substantial flight time. A lot of people want to learn and even more want to learn without being treated like idiots while doing it. The market is still out there for teaching guys in the woods on basic military ttp's I met a lot of suits getting their loafers muddy who "just wanted to protect what's their's"... It would be a good option to have a nice range in decent traveling distance not ran by idiot's at somepoint in Louisiana.
     

    DAVE_M

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    FRC is a nice facility. Limited to 25 yards and static lanes, but a wonderful facility nonetheless. They do have a small shoothouse used for sims training and have many classes there. If you're into long range, there is still the range in Cutoff which goes out to 600 yards if I recall. Palo Alto would be another option, but that's members only.
     

    jcomar1

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    May 19, 2009
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    FRC is a nice facility. Limited to 25 yards and static lanes, but a wonderful facility nonetheless. They do have a small shoothouse used for sims training and have many classes there. If you're into long range, there is still the range in Cutoff which goes out to 600 yards if I recall. Palo Alto would be another option, but that's members only.

    FTS in Cutoff goes to 935yds and has all the steel already setup every 50yds or so from 250-935.
     

    DAVE_M

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    FTS in Cutoff goes to 935yds and has all the steel already setup every 50yds or so from 250-935.

    I haven't been out there yet, but have many friends that frequent it. From what I've been told, it's a nice facility and doesn't require a mortgage payment to go.
     

    jcomar1

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    I haven't been out there yet, but have many friends that frequent it. From what I've been told, it's a nice facility and doesn't require a mortgage payment to go.

    I've been a number of times. $20 per day to shoot. It's a great range.
     
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