Obviously its not blackwater anymore & hasn't been for like a decade, give or take a year. Now its triple canopy & AMk9 on Academi property owned by Constellis, but its still in the same spot its always been in since its inception. This time I stayed at the blackbear Inn which is nice but not as nice as the Inman Lodge just a few hundred feet away. The Inman is 2 man rooms & has a food vending machine, ice machine, soda machine & a nice laundry room that is free to use (actually both have that) Theres a pool table at the Inman but it costs money to use unlike the one over at the blackbear which has drop pockets so that one is free to use. Both lodges have nice courtyards to cookout in & just straight up chillax during your downtime. One wing of the blackbear is 4 man rooms & community showers/bathrooms you have to walk down the hallway to get to. The other wing is 2 man rooms that you share a bathroom/shower with an adjoining room so a tad bit nicer. Both lodges also have dvd's & movies & stuff to sign out & watch in your rooms or in the common areas but every room does have a tv with cable & wifi so thats pretty badass aint it?. Both lodges have super dooper awesome coffee always ready to drink with badass creamer available too & fridges to keep your food & drink in. The staff do an excellent job of keeping the rooms & the entire building clean, its not trump tower but its still very nice & comfortable so I dont mind staying here at all. The chow hall is always excellent with tasty delectable food & drink for EVERY friggin meal! Lots of ranges to shoot on that police/military/contractors from all over the country come to train & even from other countries. Each building also has a small gym which is nothing special but it definitely gets the job done. What a super crazy enjoyably fun amazingly incredible bitchin' badass place to stay! read more

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This is adult Disneyland With Guns. If you like guns and endless things to do and learn this is your place. I was lucky enough to know someone who worked here and got me on to the premises and allowed me to shoot their guns. Their shooting ranges are out doors and there are many of them. This is normally a Law Enforcement/Military training ground with some civilan courses in gun safety and marksmanship training. Off in the distance I could hear the automatic gun fire that some of the Navy Personel were fireing off. I asked if I could shoot an automatic and was declined because you have to be in Law Enforcment or in the Military. I would love to come back here again some time soon. read more

Went to a one day armorer's course for my IWI Tavor. First time attending a class at this facility. Enrollment was a process, but nothing extraordinarily difficult. Received the enrollment packet and directions, but not the classroom/building number or location. Directions eventually put me at the front gate. Got directions and classroom number from the gate guards. It certainly is a large facility, with a lot of different courses going on. The armorers course was pretty much as expected. Chuck H. was an excellent instructor with a lot of experience as an armorer and knowledgable in the Tavor. Did a deep dive into the guts of the weapon and performed a left hand conversion. Learned a lot and gave me a lot of confidence to tackle my 9mm conversion! I'm sure the 7 others in the class feel the same way. Might have to go back one day and take the two day Tavor operators course! Recommend and will repeat! read more

Well, Blackwater no longer exists. It is now the Blackbear Lodge and the corporation is owned by Academi. I have gone through M4 Carbine training, 9MM training and CRC here. I have used the range a number of times for qualifications dating back to when it was Blackwater, then US Training Center, and now Academi. The course of instruction has always been top notch and the personnel are well qualified. They have a galley on premisses for lunch and they also have a pro-shop. read more

On 11/8/2010 I ordered apparel from their proshop website. It was two shirts and a cap. Shipping was 10 dollars via fedex, kinda steep for a very light order. Their website claimed everything was in stock but on 11/10/2010 they email me one of the items wasn't in stock so they weren't shipping the item. Instead of letting me cancel the order or wait for the item to arrive in stock they shipped the other items anyway. So for 10 dollars shipping I received one shirt and cap. Never given an option to receive the other shirt as a backorder or any options other than to reorder (hope they don't just cancel) and pay another 10 bucks for fedex shipping. So for two shirts and a cap it will cost me 20 dollars shipping. I emailed them and they ignored my request to give me free shipping on the cancelled shirt then emailed again this time getting a response that was basically, sorry go fly a kite. Bad customer service. Amazon.com would have shipped the backordered item separately at no cost to me. Thats how you treat your customers. read more