For us, a great hunt means adventure, the physical challenge in tough conditions, and great company.
It's the stuff that memories are made of, and that's we go time and time again.
This year our owner, Craig set out for a Marco Polo in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan - a high altitude sheep hunt like no other, in temperatures that got as low as -25°F.
In this detailed video Craig's running through all the gear he packed, including;
If you're a seasoned hunter, you might find something new to enhance your trusty loadout, and if you're just planning your first hunt-of-a-lifetime then this is a great place to start your cold weather hunt prep.
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Our aim was to assemble the quintessential sporting air rifle, balancing both target shooting and hunting needs with incredible accuracy. The rifle we chose is the Air Arms S510 Ultimate Sporter, featuring a finely crafted adjustable walnut stock, a convenient Tier One UIT accessory rail, and one of the most efficient sound suppressors in the air rifle market.
We paired it with Hawke Optics' high-performing Sidewinder 4-16x50 FFP scope, offering top-notch optical clarity at its price range.
To mount the Hawke air rifle scope, we used Tier-One 11mm Dovetail rings, crafted from aerospace-grade 7000 series aluminum, offering unparalleled precision.
Additionally, we utilized a lightweight 180mm carbon leg Tier One Tactical bipod, versatile for both hunting and target shooting.
Hill Pumps supplied their top-of-the-line EC3000 Evo compressor, engineered to fill the air rifle or a compatible dive tank up to 7 liters. Overall, this setup represents the pinnacle of sporting air rifles, highlighting world-class manufacturing.
Introduced in 2020, the Sidewinder is the go-to high-performance air rifle scope for multiple shooting disciplines. It offers parallax-free shooting from 9 meters to infinity, aided by a detachable index-matched rangefinding side wheel.
The air rifle scope features Hawke's latest H5 optics, providing a remarkable 24-degree ultra-wide field of view and a generous 100mm eye relief. The turrets are precision-locked with 1/10 MRAD clicks and include a witness window for quick turret position identification.
Air Arms has a storied history of crafting championship-winning field target rifles and top-tier sporters.
The S510 R Ultimate Sporter is the culmination of these efforts. Its fully adjustable cheekpiece and butt pad synergize with the stock's semi-match design, offering unparalleled control for the shooter.
This rifle was honored as the 'AIRGUN OF THE YEAR' at the 2021 Great British Shooting Awards.
From Hill Pumps:
Our newest compressor, the EC-3000 Evo, is the result of nearly two centuries of engineering expertise by Ernest Hill Ltd.
Assembled in our Sheffield factory, the Evo introduces several enhancements for reliability and user experience. It features an automatic air pressure purge system that activates whenever the motor stops, reducing motor strain and purging air, including moisture.
The unit also incorporates a highly precise digital pressure sensor and an additional analog gauge, eliminating the need for recalibration during major servicing.
The Evo can be set to pressures ranging from 50 bar (755 psi) to 310 bar (4500 psi).
]]>In America, hunting is more than a mere pastime; it's a cultural touchstone that has evolved from a frontier necessity to a multi-billion-dollar industry. As of 2023, a staggering 38.69 million hunting licenses, tags, permits, and stamps were issued across the United States, underscoring not just its enduring appeal but its significant economic impact.
Hunting in America generated $10.8 billion in revenue in 2021, making it the third-largest outdoor recreational activity in the country. With so much variety in hunting across the country, from the choice of location and prey to the firearms and seasons, we thought we’d get under the skin of this age-old tradition.
With that in mind, the team here at Tier One conducted a nationwide survey of hunting habits to reveal what makes American hunters tick. Join us as we fire off the results.
Hunting is widespread across the US, with varied habitats providing the opportunity to employ different hunting techniques and stalk diverse game. Based on our survey responses, we developed a comprehensive picture of some of America’s best hunting states. We’ve also created an interactive map with the location of the best terrains and the favored trophy animals in each state.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Rugged and mountainous plains
Depending on the game, Texas is thought to be the perfect place to visit for year-round hunting. The state has become the epicenter of the hunting industry and is one of the best for deer hunting - particularly the Texas Hill Country. It offers abundant experiences for hunters of all levels of skill and experience.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Vast hilly areas of woodland and grassland
Although New York is well-known for its urban living, it’s still one of the most popular hunting states in the country. NY is a boon for hunters, especially its Adirondack Mountain region. It has diverse wildlife to hunt and scenic views to admire, making it an excellent choice for all sorts of hunters.
Most Hunted Animal: Deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Steep, rocky mountains and forests filled with bushy vegetation
The Golden State has some iconic spots for long-range hunting, such as the Cache Creek Wildlife Area. There are also lots of excellent sites for early deer hunting. You can experience the raw beauty of Californian nature, with over 176 million acres of public land to explore.
Most Hunted Animal: Deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: From woodlands and rolling hills to swampy areas
Hunting season in Michigan attracts both locals and tourists alike, with a range of private and public hunting lands to choose from. Popular choices include the 95,000 acres of Seney National Wildlife Refuge and the 2 million acres of the Huron-Manistee National Forest. License fees for hunting here (for non-residents) are often lower than in other states, which is something to keep in mind.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Deep valleys with challenging hills and forests
Although white-tailed bucks are Ohio’s most sought-after game, coyote season is open all year, with no limit. One of the most popular hunting locations in Ohio is the Woodbury Wildlife Area, which is teeming with wildlife, including a thriving population of deer, wild turkey, and small game.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Vast forests and high mountains
Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest deer populations in the country, with the white-tailed deer enjoying its status as the state animal. There are millions of acres of land for hunting, including the Deer Hunter Focus Areas. That, combined with a diverse range of game species, makes Pennsylvania an excellent choice for long-range hunting.
Most Hunted Animal: Deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: From coastal plains to mountains and canopy forests
Take advantage of Georgia’s liberal white-tail limits, with the ability to harvest up to 10 antlerless and 2 antlered deer per season. From deer and turkey to hog and quail, the hunting opportunities are endless, especially in the foothills of Cooper’s Creek Wildlife Management Area. Georgia’s rich hunting culture and spacious hunting lands make it a paradise for hunters looking for the best spots for stalking game.
Most Hunted Animal: Deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Farmlands and shaded forests
With 5 million acres of public hunting land to explore, there endless opportunities to bring home a deer, pheasant, turkey, bird, or other game. Traverse the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest during deer season for quality deer hunting. As well as the state’s abundant deer population, their large build and impressive antlers help to make Wisconsin a hotspot for trophy hunters.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer
Best Terrains for Hunting: Dense pine forests, wetlands and foothill regions
With the likes of alligators, turkeys, deer, waterfowl, hogs, and more, Alabama is a key state for southern hunters who want to stalk a variety of game species. Alabama’s National Forests, including Bankhead and Conecuh, provide more than 1.3 million acres of big game hunting. With its abundant game and varied hunting landscapes, Alabama has something for every enthusiast.
Most Hunted Animal: White-tailed deer and wild hogs
Best Terrains for Hunting: From sandhills and rocklands to forests and prairies
Its tropical climate and varied terrain can make Florida a challenging state for hunting, but that doesn’t deter its hunters. Florida offers some unique opportunities for out-of-state hunters. You can stalk the Osceola turkey, a prestigious subspecies that’s native to the area, or go in search of alligators or Burmese pythons, all while enjoying the natural beauty of the Sunshine State.
How hunters stalk and hunt their game can vary hugely. Our survey has revealed the most popular hunting types and techniques favored by enthusiasts across the country.
It’ll probably come as no surprise that rifle big game hunting is the most popular type of hunting in America, with 59% of hunters participating in it. If you’re looking for the ideal mount for your rifle, check out our X selection here.
Following on from rifle big game is rifle small game hunting, a technique that just less than half of American hunters enjoy.
Bow big game hunting is a more challenging form of hunting that’s preferred by 30% of hunters. Requiring precision and skill, hunters must be calculated, calm, patient, and extremely fit.
28% of hunters enjoy controlling wildlife populations through rifle predator/varmint hunting. It prevents coyotes, foxes, snakes, and other predators from maiming domestic and farm animals and plays a vital role in pest control.
More than a fifth of hunters participate in waterfowl hunting, with its small, swift targets requiring accuracy and good timing.
From deers to ducks, a range of animals are considered ‘game’ species in America and are frequently hunted. In some states, that also includes the likes of alligators and snakes.
With a variety of game species for hunters to choose from around the nation, we’ve put together a list of the most popular.
White-tailed deer is the most hunted animal in the country, with 64% choosing to hunt this skittish prey. Most hunting states have an ample population of white-tailed deer, with ambush hunting by far and away the most common hunting strategy.
The second most hunted animal in the US is the wild turkey, which attracts 31% of hunters. Native to North America, this upland species was close to extinction, but thanks to conservation efforts, it’s now one of the most abundant species on the continent. Known as the big game of small game hunting, hunters require a solid understanding of stealth and camouflage and are rewarded by the animal’s well-flavored, tender, and versatile meat.
In Western states especially, the mule deer is a popular game for 22% of hunters. It’s known as the holy grail of big game by many, with the challenge of stalking this animal making for a particularly rewarding hunt.
Coyote hunting is possible year-round in most states, with 20% of hunters helping to control the wildlife population and protect livestock. Coyotes are fierce predators and can damage deer, sheep, and moose populations if they’re not properly managed. Coyote hunting promotes the safety of cattle and even provides ecological benefits.
16% of hunters target either elk, wild boar, or feral pigs. While elk hunting often involves long-range shots in expansive terrains, boar and pig hunting offer a different kind of thrill, often in denser settings but sometimes at night, with NVGs on, from the back of a truck - pest control is an important job. When done in the traditional way, these pursuits require not just skill but also real determination, making them a true homage to ancient hunting traditions.
In regions with moose populations, 15% of hunters choose to hunt this largest species of deer. Moose are known to be difficult to bring down effectively, but the reward if you succeed is bountiful, with quality venison that’s perfect for many homecooked meals.
Within the hunting community, 12% choose to stalk mountain goats, usually as a trophy hunt. Considered to be one of the most dangerous hunts to participate in, mountain goat hunting requires tenacious determination and perseverance. You should be in good physical shape and have highquality precision equipment if you’re going after this type of game. Check out Tier One scope mounts for repeatable long-range accuracy.
10% of thrill-seeking hunters target black bears, mostly for their luxurious pelt and meat. Elusive and solitary, black bears provide a thrilling experience for all hunters, and you’ll also contribute to stabilizing the black bear population. The dark, rich meat of the black bear is also delicious and an excellent source of protein.
Pronghorn hunting accounts for only 8% of hunting activities in America, but that doesn’t mean they should be overlooked. Naturally wary, pronghorns are often difficult to lure, which can lead to a challenging but exciting hunt. Hunters must be acutely aware of their surroundings at all times, as spotting the animal first gives you a far better chance of taking it down.
Although only 7% of hunting enthusiasts go for bighorn sheep and bobcats, these animals are often desirable trophy hunts with unique value. Bighorn sheep antlers are often treasured by hunters, and bobcat pelts are also prized. Don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re easy hunts. Hunting both animals can be physically demanding, as bighorn sheep reside on perilous terrains and bobcats are notoriously elusive.
Trophy hunting has long been used to control predator populations throughout the country. Successfully hunting a big game animal can provide a tremendous sense of accomplishment and success, with the pursuit of hunting trophies becoming a lifetime pastime for many. According to our survey, these are the most highly prized trophy animals in America.
There are all sorts of reasons why people hunt, from sport to pest control and the camaraderie it brings. According to our survey, the top hunting motivations in America are as follows:
The primary motivation for hunting among 62% of the hunting community is to obtain organic and high-quality meat. This can be a healthier, cheaper, and more sustainable alternative to purchasing meat from the store.
Hunting as a sport can be traced back to ancient times. 17% of people hunt primarily for the sport, with skills such as discipline, patience, alertness, and accuracy all important qualities that a hunter needs to excel.
It should not be overlooked that 5% of hunters do so for pest control purposes. They control the population of certain species of wildlife to prevent overpopulation and eliminate animals that cause ecological damage and are a nuisance to farms and others.
Only 4% of hunters are motivated by trophy hunting or commercial purposes. Their motivation to hunt is to bag an impressive trophy or generate an income.
Contributing to conservation efforts and wildlife management is a motivation for 3% of hunters in America. Managing the animal population is important in areas where the ecological infrastructure might not be able to support a large population.
Individual hunters prefer different shooting ranges for effectiveness and accuracy. Our survey has revealed the favored shooting ranges among America’s hunters:
58% of hunters prefer shooting at targets within the 50-200 yards range. This relatively short distance allows for high levels of precision and accuracy and gives you the best chance of a humane, single-shot kill.
This range, favored by 29% of hunters, is further than the shortest range but still allows for precise shots that hit their mark, particularly for skilled hunters.
For experts in long-range hunting, shots taken from 401-700 yards provide a stern test. 11% of hunters prefer long-range game hunting from this type of distance.
Of the American hunting community, only 2% prefer to take aim from 701 yards or more. This is the ultimate challenge for long-range hunters. However, any long-range hunting of 400 yards or more requires real skill and a very high-quality, precision rifle setup. We make the highest precision scope mounts in the world, and lightweight precision bipods precisely for this task.
When it comes to long-range hunting, you need a firearm that delivers power, accuracy, and versatility. These are the top 10 firearms among American hunters:
Surprisingly, most hunters who responded to our survey hunt with a .22 caliber rifle, which is ideal for targeting game from up to 150 yards. Obviously, they're not taking down Whitetail with that, so it seems like there are a lot of hunters using a variety of calibers out there and not just fixating on a single species or single rifle.
22% of hunters agree that you can’t go wrong with a .308 caliber rifle. Its versatility makes it suitable for various hunting scenarios.
One-fifth of hunters prefer the .30-06 rifle, a firearm that champions versatility and aerodynamic bullets for long-range hunting.
Also known as the 300 Winchester Magnum, this caliber offers immense power and excellent accuracy for hunting all types of game.
For big game hunting, 15% of hunters choose the .300 Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC), which delivers optimal precision at extended ranges.
The 7 Short Action Ultra Mag (SAUM) caliber is favored by 14% of hunters. It’s well suited to mid to long-range hunting scenarios.
.338 Lap Mag (11%)
11% of the hunting community use the .338 Lapua Magnum, an excellent caliber for big game hunting at long distances. Tough and heavy, it’s perfect for targeting bears, elks, and more.
0.243 caliber rifles are chosen by 11% of hunters for their mild recoil, power, and stability. It’s a well-balanced choice that’s perfect for beginners and young hunters.
For flat shots when big game hunting, 0.270 caliber rifles are an excellent pick. They offer exceptional penetration and energy and are popular among 11% of hunters.
The .300 Remington Ultra Magnum (RUM) caliber is known for its extreme power and savage recoil. Used by 9% of the hunting community for its effectiveness in long-range hunting, it’s great to see this hugely effective, big game hunting caliber used as widely as it is given the increased cost of the ammo.
Hunting seasons are closely regulated and you must follow the rules about what you can hunt and when. With those rules in mind, these are our respondents’ favorite times of the year to hunt:
Autumn is one of the best times to hunt as most states’ deer seasons begin in early autumn and can last until December. The moderate temperatures at this time of year can help to create perfect hunting conditions.
Although it can be very challenging due to the cold and icy conditions, there is still some excellent hunting to be had in winter, with many species available to those who are willing to overcome the climate.
Spring hunting opportunities are abundant, especially for certain game species that are emerging from hibernation.
Pest control pursuits and small game hunting are popular during this season. There are also big game opportunities, with some of the best summer hunts including wild hogs and coyotes.
There are certain months of the year when hunting opportunities are at an all-time high. Things like the deer mating season are crucial, and this dictates when American hunters are most active. The most popular months for hunting are as follows:
The most popular month for hunting is November, preferred by 46% of hunters in America. This is the month when deer hunting opportunities are at their peak.
October is favored by 34% of hunters and provides plenty of opportunities to spot white-tailed bucks before and during their rutting season.
January is one of the best times to hunt small game and despite the weather conditions, it’s enjoyed by 25% of hunting enthusiasts.
December is another popular winter hunting month, with many hunters keen to make the most of the deer season before it comes to an end.
The deer hunting season starts in September, with the ample hunting and mild weather conditions attracting 21% of hunters.
The spring hunting season begins in March, with 15% of hunters using this time to stalk small game and big game.
February is still a relatively popular hunting month, with 14% hunting small game such as rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, and more.
In some states, the spring hunting season starts in April, with 12% using this time to hunt for turkey and other game.
Another 12% of hunters choose June as their favorite month, particularly those hunting for bears and squirrels.
Marking the end of the spring hunting season, May is favored by 11% of hunters. It’s particularly among for black bear hunting.
Some states open deer hunting season early in August, making it the perfect time to get out there for 9% of hunters.
The summer hunting month of July might be too hot for some, but it still provides a wide range of hunting opportunities and is favored by 7% of enthusiasts.
Hunting is thriving in America and the diversity and size of the country provide some fantastic opportunities. But for those who seek the thrill of hunting beyond US borders, there are also some top worldwide hunts, including these personal recommendations from our hunting experts.
Although they’re found in other areas of the world, Marco Polo sheep are primarily hunted in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The cost for Marco Polo hunting opportunities can go up to USD 50,000. Nonetheless, this species of wild sheep is the ultimate central Asian trophy hunt for ambitious hunters looking for a new challenge.
Although the terrain can be barren and remote, hunting this magnificent species is still very challenging. With steep mountains, hunters must be in good physical condition before attempting this hunt.
The sub-alpine climate of the Kyrgyzstan mountains makes the hunt for the Mid-Asian Ibex a difficult one. Strenuous walks, horseback on rough terrain, and low temperatures mean that you’ll need more than thick skin to participate in ibex hunting.
Hunters seeking the challenge should be in good physical shape and have the determination to persevere through the harsh climate of the Pamir mountains. Although a physical challenge, the reward is more than worth it, with the potential to strike large trophies.
Those with experience in long-range hunting have a distinct advantage, as you can expect to shoot at distances from 200 to 350 meters away.
The Scottish Highlands are teaming with wildlife, including the red deer stag. The demanding and picturesque terrain makes the Scottish Highlands a unique experience that draws hunters from around the world.
However, as well as the raw beauty of the Scottish landscape, hunters can also expect to encounter the unpredictability of Scottish weather, especially during the hunting season. Be prepared to face all manner of conditions, from torrential rain and freezing temperatures to storms. After the hunt, your reward is to put your feet up and relax in historic hunting lodges that are close to the hunting areas.
For trophy hunters, Croatia should certainly feature on your list, particularly for the excellent mouflon sheep and Balkan chamois, which are hidden away in the Croatian mountains. By hiking through the rugged sub-Mediterranean terrain, you’ll be rewarded with magnificent views and exceptional trophies.
Croatia’s Mediterranean climate can be challenging, but with a rich tradition of hunting, the rocky slopes and dramatic mountains offer unforgettable hunting experiences.
The Dagestan tur can only be found in the mountains of Azerbaijan, with a standard spot-and-stalk hunt that requires patience, agility, and a moderate level of physical fitness. On horseback, you’ll be taken through mountain passes and up to the right altitude for Dagestan tur hunting.
Careless steps on rough terrain can be dangerous, making this hunt a precarious but noble one. You must be careful and alert, as the Dagestan tur are known to be elusive creatures, but the chance to bag this species makes it well worth the chase.
Our survey on hunting trends in America provides valuable insights into the favored hunting locations, prey, firearms, and seasons. From Texas and New York being two of the most popular hunting states to white-tailed deer and wild turkey the most hunted game.
Regardless of whether you hunt for meat, adventure sport, or conservation purposes, hunting has an enduring popularity, and the USA offers an abundance of top-quality hunting experiences.
As well as being a skillful, suspenseful, and exciting sport, hunting connects people with nature and is rooted in American tradition. It also has a vital role to play in conservation and sustainable living.
Whatever your preferences are, don’t be afraid to delve deeper into the world of hunting. The hunting community in America is vast and there’s an incredibly diverse range of opportunities out there that are waiting to be explored.
Visit the Tier One website for all your scope mount and bipod needs.]]>Kyrgyzstan, a rugged, mountainous country in Central Asia, is known for its stunning landscapes and diverse wildlife. Among the numerous attractions for outdoor enthusiasts, ibex hunting has become increasingly popular, drawing hunters from around the world. With its challenging terrain and elusive game, an ibex hunt in Kyrgyzstan is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many. But where do you begin? This comprehensive guide will provide you with everything you need to know to embark on a successful ibex hunt in Kyrgyzstan. From clothing and gear to local guides and physical preparation, we've got you covered. We will also delve into the journey from Bishkek to base camp, the process of tracking the ibex, and the transformative experience of hunting in the vast mountain wilderness.
The Mid-Asian ibex, native to the Tien Shan and Pamir mountain ranges, offers a unique and exhilarating hunting experience. The thrill of tracking these majestic creatures through the rugged landscapes of Kyrgyzstan is unmatched, and it's no wonder that hunters are increasingly drawn to the challenge. This guide will help you prepare for your adventure, so you can focus on enjoying the experience and making memories to last a lifetime. We'll explore the breathtaking beauty of the Kyrgyz wilderness and the deep connection hunters feel with the landscape, using quotes from famous hunting authors to illustrate the powerful allure of this extraordinary adventure.
In this ultimate guide to ibex hunting in Kyrgyzstan, we'll walk you through every aspect of planning and executing your trip. We'll cover:
By following this guide, you'll be well-prepared for your adventure, ensuring a safe, enjoyable, and successful ibex hunt.
Let's Get Into It!
Are you ready to embark on an unforgettable hunting experience in Kyrgyzstan? Let's dive into the essential information you'll need to plan your trip.
When hunting in Kyrgyzstan's mountains, it's crucial to have the right clothing and gear to keep you safe, comfortable, and prepared for various weather conditions.
Here's a list of the essential items you'll need, along with detailed explanations of their importance:
For a comprehensive list of clothing and gear recommendations, check out this article.
Selecting the appropriate rifle and accessories is crucial to a successful ibex hunt.
Here are some recommendations to help you make the right choice, along with detailed explanations:
For more information on selecting the right rifle and accessories, check out this article.
Kyrgyzstan's mountain weather can be unpredictable, and it's essential to understand the conditions you may encounter during your hunt.
Here's a breakdown of the weather and best hunting seasons:
Remember that weather conditions can change rapidly in the mountains, so it's crucial to be prepared for all possibilities.
Keep an eye on local forecasts and consult with your guide to plan your hunt accordingly.
You may also want to bring extra layers of clothing and gear to ensure you're ready for any situation.
The altitudes in Kyrgyzstan's hunting areas can exceed 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), which can cause altitude sickness if you're not adequately prepared.
Here are some tips to help you acclimate:
For more information on preparing for high-altitude hunting, check out this article.
Ibex hunting in Kyrgyzstan can be physically demanding due to the rugged terrain, steep inclines, and high altitudes.
To ensure a successful and enjoyable hunt, it's essential to be in good physical shape.
Here are some tips for getting fit before your trip:
For a detailed hunting fitness plan, check out this article.
Hiring a local guide is essential for a successful ibex hunt in Kyrgyzstan.
Local guides have invaluable knowledge of the terrain, animal behavior, and local customs.
They can help you navigate the challenging landscape, increase your chances of a successful hunt, and ensure you have a safe and enjoyable experience.
Here are some tips for finding and working with a local guide:
To find reputable guides and outfitters, consider visiting websites like BookYourHunt or Hunting Consortium.
Before or after your ibex hunt, consider spending a few days in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek.
This vibrant city offers a unique blend of modernity and tradition, making it an ideal place to explore Central Asian culture. Here are some must-visit attractions and activities:
For more information on what to see and do in Bishkek, check out this article.
The journey from Bishkek to your hunting base camp can be a long and arduous one, but it's also an integral part of the adventure.
Most outfitters will arrange transportation, typically using a reliable off-road vehicle like a Toyota Land Cruiser.
The drive can take anywhere from 8 to 14 hours, depending on the location of your base camp.
The drive will take you through a diverse range of landscapes, from rolling hills and picturesque valleys to rugged mountain passes.
This is an excellent opportunity to take in the breathtaking scenery and get a taste of the wild beauty that awaits you on your hunt.
Make sure to pack essential items like snacks, water, and any medication you may need for the journey.
You'll also want to ensure you have warm clothing and a comfortable pillow for the ride, as temperatures can drop significantly as you gain elevation.
The actual hunt for the elusive ibex is a challenging and deeply rewarding experience.
It often involves trekking on horseback or on foot, navigating treacherous slopes, and enduring harsh weather conditions.
The hunt can last up to three days or more, depending on the location and movements of the ibex.
During the hunt, you'll be immersed in the breathtaking beauty of Kyrgyzstan's mountain wilderness. The pristine landscape, untouched by human intervention, offers a truly unique and spiritual experience.
As the famous hunting author Ortega y Gasset once wrote, "One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted" (Meditations on Hunting, 1942). This sentiment perfectly captures the essence of hunting in such a remote and wild setting.
You'll likely spend your nights sleeping out under the stars, huddled around a campfire with your guide and fellow hunters, sharing stories and soaking in the tranquility of the mountain wilderness.
The camaraderie that develops during these moments is an integral part of the hunting experience, and it's something you'll cherish long after your adventure has ended.
As you track the ibex through the rugged terrain, you'll come to appreciate their incredible agility and resilience. These animals are perfectly adapted to their environment, and pursuing them in their natural habitat is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience.
The pursuit will test your physical and mental stamina, but the rewards – both in terms of the personal satisfaction and the prized trophy – are well worth the effort.
In the words of another renowned hunting author, Peter Hathaway Capstick, "The excitement of the chase... the satisfaction of achievement... the sense of conquest of one's self... all these are a part of the hunter's reward" (Death in the Long Grass, 1978).
This sentiment rings true for those who embark on an ibex hunt in the majestic mountains of Kyrgyzstan.
Conclusion
Embarking on an ibex hunt in Kyrgyzstan is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that combines physical challenge, personal growth, and an unparalleled connection with nature.
By following this ultimate guide, you'll be well-prepared to tackle the many aspects of planning and executing a successful hunt.
From choosing the right clothing and gear to working with local guides and exploring the vibrant capital city of Bishkek, this guide covers everything you need to know to embark on an unforgettable ibex hunting experience.
The memories you'll create, the friendships you'll forge, and the profound sense of accomplishment you'll feel are just a few of the many rewards that await you on this incredible journey.
So pack your bags, lace up your boots, and prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime. The majestic ibex and the rugged beauty of Kyrgyzstan's mountain wilderness await you.
Happy hunting!
]]>When it comes to precision shooting, having precision scope mounts with tight tolerances and high repeatability makes all the difference.
In this article, we'll show you what to look for in a high quality scope mount, explore the best 30mm scope mounts available at Tier-One, showcasing their unique characteristics and identifying the shooting sports they're best suited for.
With Tier-One's commitment to ultra-high-quality engineering, one-hit machining, and unparalleled repeatability, these products stand out as the best in the industry.
Let's dive in!
Kicking off with a real all-rounder, The Tactical Rings from Tier-One are the best tactical 30mm scope rings for shooters who demand maximum accuracy and stability.
These rings feature six screws per ring cap, making them ideal for high recoil calibers. They're the same skeleton as our bulkier Short Saddle Monomount (up next) but without the connecting yoke.
They also offer a slightly lower bore height than the Monomount, so we've seen them used a lot by precision rifle competitiors who want the minimum space between the objective bell and the barrel or, on a gas gun, the handguard.
Precision-engineered and matched as pairs, these rings provide the ultimate platform for repeatable, reliable shots.
Best for: All Round, Tactical shooting, high recoil calibers
35mm Medium weighs 7.05oz / 200g
For those seeking the best 30mm scope rings for long-range shooting, look no further than the Short Saddle Monomount. This true monolithic mount, hewn from a single billet, offers unparalleled stability and accuracy.
With six screws per ring cap, like the Tactical Rings, it's also ideal for high recoil calibers. This is the bulkiest, most secure mount we make. You could throw this thing off a cliff and it would return zero (we do not recommend trying this with your Zero Comp scope, for the love of God). Basically, it can take whatever you throw at it - bounce it off barricades all day long - ride up a mountain, drop it, and still make the critical shot on a prize Ibex or Marco Polo (we've done it). It will not be deterred.
Best for: Ultra secure Long-range shooting, high recoil calibers
Approximately 7.8oz (varies by height)
If lightweight performance is your priority, the Zeiss Ultralight Rings are the best 30mm picatinny scope rings for you. With their sleek design and minimal weight, these rings offer precision without compromising on durability or stability. We manufacture these for Zeiss USA so we know that no expense has been spared in their engineering, design or manufacture.
Best for: Hunting, lightweight setups, Zeiss rifle scope
The Long Saddle Monomount is another serious contender for the world's best rifle scope mounts. This one-piece mount is designed for shooters who require maximum stability and repeatability.
Crafted from a single billet, this true monolithic mount ensures your shots go exactly where you expect them to, time after time.
It is the sister mount to the Short Saddle Monomount, utlising the same base, but carrying four screws per ring cap instead of 6. This makes it lighter, and with a longer construction and shorter ring caps, it's ideal for scopes with a large turret housing.
Another bullet-proof monolithic mount that will return zero all day, every day. More on why these Monolithic mounts are so highly engineered later in this article.
Best for: Long-range shooting, precision rifle competitions
Approximately 7.1oz (varies by height)
Engineered with the modern sporting rifle in mind, the Tier-One Cantilever Mount is the best choice for AR-platform rifles. This 30mm scope mount provides optimal eye relief and features a forward offset, making it perfect for fast target acquisition and rapid transitions. Also known as a reach-forward mount.
It's the only Cantilever currently on the market that is reinforced for blunt-force events and it still comes in light due to its 7075T6 aluminum and weight cutting construction.
Best for: AR-platform rifles, fast-paced shooting sports
30mm version weighs 7.4oz / 210g
Our lightest 30mm picatinny rings, the Superlights are (surprisingly) our lightest and lowest profile scope rings. They are manufactured from the same high end materials and with the same one-hit machining method in matched pairs for extra tight tolerances.
They're also suprisingly robust! We've shot big game with these rings on a .300PRC rifle and they did not falter one bit.
Best for: Hunting, target shooting, any discpiline or endeavour where weight is absolutely critical
Tier-One scope mounts boast a range of features that set them apart from other options on the market. These features contribute to their status as the best 30mm scope mounts available.
Tier-One offers both one-piece and matched pair scope mounts. The one-piece mounts, crafted from a single billet, provide the ultimate stable base for your scope. Matched pair scope rings ensure accuracy and reliability by preventing alignment issues.
Some of Tier-One best 30mm scope mounts, such as the Tactical Rings and Short Saddle Monomount, feature six screws per ring cap. This design offers enhanced stability, making them ideal for high-recoil calibers.
Tier-One employs state-of-the-art engineering techniques to craft their scope mounts. This focus on quality ensures that their mounts provide the stability and accuracy needed for precision shooting.
By using a one-hit machining method (all critical faces are machined in one operation) Tier-One eliminates error accumulation from resetting or retooling the machine. This approach results in a more accurate and reliable mount, setting our mounts apart as the best 30mm scope mounts on the market. We pioneered this method in the pursuit of ever more accuracy.
Tier-One scope mounts are designed for compatibility with a wide range of rifles and platforms, including bolt-action rifles, AR-platform rifles, and more. They will fit on any 1913 standard picatinny rail. This versatility allows shooters to find the perfect mount for their specific needs.
Before selecting the best 30mm scope mount for your needs, consider the following factors:
Different shooting sports may require specific scope mount features. For example, tactical shooting or high recoil (king of 2 mile, etc) might demand a mount with six screws per ring cap for increased stability, while hunting may require a lightweight setup like the Zeiss Ultralight Rings, or the Superlight Hunting Rings.
If you're using a high-recoil caliber, consider a scope mount with added stability features, such as the Tactical Rings or Short Saddle Monomount.
Consider the mounting system of your rifle when selecting the best 30mm scope mount. Tier-One offers mounts compatible with Picatinny and dovetail systems, ensuring you find the right fit for your firearm.
For some shooting applications, such as hunting or lightweight setups, the weight of the scope mount can be a crucial factor. In these cases, opt for a lightweight option like the Zeiss Ultralight Rings.
If you don't mount 'em right, they won't work! To ensure optimal performance from your best 30mm scope mount, follow these tips for proper installation:
Before installing your scope mount, thoroughly clean the mounting surfaces on both your rifle and the mount to ensure a secure, stable connection.
When tightening the screws on your scope mount, use a torque wrench to ensure you apply the correct amount of torque. Over-tightening can damage your scope or rifle, while under-tightening can result in a loose, unstable mount.
Once your mount is securely installed, level your scope to ensure accurate, consistent shots. Use a bubble level or other leveling tool to achieve proper alignment.
After installation, give your scope and mount a thorough inspection to ensure they are stable and secure. Consider taking a few test shots to confirm everything is properly aligned and functioning as expected.
If you're setting up a new reifle, or trying to cure accuracy issues in your current rig, Tier One provides an exceptional lineup of the best 30mm scope mounts available for shooters who demand the utmost in precision and performance.
With our commitment to ultra-high-quality engineering, one-hit machining, and repeatability, these mounts are the top choice for those seeking the best 30mm scope mounts. Whether you're into tactical shooting, long-range shooting, hunting, or practically any other shooting sport that involves a rifle and require you to be accurate with it, Tier-One has the perfect scope mount to elevate your shooting experience.
Key Findings and Recommendations:
To keep your Tier-One scope mounts performing at their best, it's essential to maintain and care for them properly. Follow these tips to ensure the longevity and reliability of your best 30mm scope mounts:
Periodically inspect your scope mounts for any signs of wear, damage, or loosening. Catching these issues early can help prevent more significant problems and maintain the accuracy and stability of your shooting setup. Check the torque on your screws - atmospheric and altitudinal changes can affect these components.
After each use, especially in harsh environments or extreme weather conditions, clean your scope mounts to remove dirt, debris, and moisture.
When not in use, store your rifle and scope mounts in a cool, dry place, preferably in a padded case or gun safe. This will protect them from damage and environmental factors, such as moisture and temperature fluctuations.
Always refer to the manufacturer's recommendations for proper care, maintenance, and installation of your scope mounts. This will help ensure optimal performance and longevity.
In addition to choosing the best 30mm scope mounts, precision shooters may want to explore other Tier-One products to enhance their shooting experience further. Some of these products include:
Lightweight, durable, and designed for precision, the wide range of Tier-One Carbon Bipods provide a stable shooting platform for various shooting sports and applications.
Engineered to reduce recoil and muzzle rise, Tier-One Muzzle Brakes help shooters maintain control and accuracy during rapid-fire or high-recoil shooting situations. Coming soon to the USA.
By combining the best 30mm scope mounts with other top-tier Tier-One products, precision shooters can create a shooting setup tailored to their specific needs and preferences.
By maintaining and caring for your scope mounts properly, you'll ensure their longevity and reliability for years to come. Furthermore, consider exploring other Tier-One products to create a complete, customized shooting setup that meets and exceeds your expectations.
As a passionate hunter, you surely understand the importance of having the right equipment when facing the rugged terrain and unpredictable conditions of extreme mountain and big game hunting. If you don't, well, let me just tell you it's going to be physically challenging, and you need gear you can rely on to just work.
One essential piece of gear is a reliable, sturdy, and versatile bipod. With so many options on the market, finding the perfect one can be challenging.
That's why we've compiled a list of the best bipods for hunting, focusing on their capabilities and benefits in relation to extreme mountain hunting and big game hunting specifically.
Our top pick is the new ATAC Bipod by Tier One. This innovative bipod has just been released and is currently only available in the US through our site, tier-one-usa.com. The ATAC Bipod boasts an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, thanks to its carbon fiber and 7075T6 construction - true aerospace materials. This lightweight yet versatile and sturdy design allows hunters to trek lighter and further on their expeditions.
The ATAC Bipod offers unmatched versatility with interchangeable adapters for Arca, Picatinny, and Blaser R8 rifles. With over 1200 leg positions, it provides unparalleled stability on any terrain. The wide leg splay, switchable feet, and pan and tilt (cant) features make it the best bipod for hunting in extreme mountain conditions, as well as in match settings, and there really is nothing else on the market that covers so many bases with absolutely zero compromise in performance in any environment. It is a masterpiece of precision engineering in the shooting industry.
The Tier One Evolution Carbon Fiber Bipod is another excellent choice for hunters looking for a lightweight and sturdy bipod. Again, made from high grade carbon fiber and aerospace 7075t6 alloy ensures durability and a reduced overall weight, allowing you to cover more ground with less fatigue. This bipod is perfect for big game hunting, where every ounce counts.
It has a unique U-shaped yoke that lowers the centre of recoil for your rifle. This is not a gimmick - it was designed for snipers and long range shooters specifically - you'll notice a reduction in muzzle lift and it can be exceptional useful for spotting your shots when combined with a good muzzle brake.
The movement is also uniquely smooth and is protected from dirt and sand ingress so it doesn't get jammed up - the mechanism utilises a sealed roller bearing to prevent this. We've had this bipod out on test with active military in desert environments and they come back covered in sand but working perfectly. You really need to see it to appreciate it.
The Evolution Carbon Fiber Bipod is packed with useful features such as a smooth pan and tilt (cant) mechanism, adjustable leg length, and easy locking systems. This combination of practical design and lightweight materials makes it one of the best rifle bipods for extreme mountain hunting and big game hunting.
The Tier One Tactical Carbon Fiber Bipod is designed for hunters who prioritize versatility and stability in a bipod. Made from high-quality carbon fiber, it offers strength and durability while maintaining a lightweight design. The Tactical Carbon Fiber Bipod provides a stable shooting platform for long-range shots, making it the best hunting bipod for extreme mountain conditions.
This bipod features adjustable leg length, pan and tilt (cant), and an easy-to-use locking mechanism. The integrated Picatinny rail mount ensures compatibility with a wide range of rifles, making it an excellent addition to your hunting gear.
The Harris Bipod is a classic choice for hunters who appreciate a well-built, time-tested design. Known for its durability and ease of use, the Harris Bipod offers a stable shooting platform for hunters in various conditions.
While the Harris Bipod is a reliable choice, it lacks the advanced features and lightweight construction of the Tier One ATAC, Evolution, and Tactical Carbon Fiber Bipods. For extreme mountain hunting and big game hunting, we recommend opting for one of the Tier One models for their superior materials, versatility, and stability.
Conclusion:
When it comes to finding the best bipod for hunting, the ATAC Bipod by Tier One stands out as the top choice. Its incredible strength-to-weight ratio, versatile design, and unmatched stability make it the perfect companion for extreme mountain hunting and big game hunting.
The other bipods featured on this list, including the Tier One Evolution Carbon Fiber Bipod and the Tier One Tactical Carbon Fiber Bipod, are also excellent options for hunters who value lightweight and durable designs. These bipods offer superior stability and versatility, ensuring that you have the support you need for those critical long-range shots.
While the Harris Bipod is a classic option for many hunters, it falls short when compared to the Tier One products in terms of advanced features and lightweight construction - but that's because it's been around for a hell of a long time, and the format does work. For the best experience in extreme mountain hunting and big game hunting though, we recommend opting for a Tier One bipod.
Ultimately, selecting the right bipod is crucial for the success of your hunting adventures. The ATAC Bipod by Tier One, along with the other Tier One models featured on this list, are designed with the challenges of extreme mountain and big game hunting in mind. Their exceptional strength-to-weight ratios, versatile features, and superior stability make them the best choices for hunters seeking reliable and high-performing bipods.
Conclusion: Key Points
Visit www.tier-one-usa.com to explore these outstanding bipods and elevate your hunting experience in 2023. No matter the terrain or the game you pursue, you'll find the perfect bipod to make sure all your hard work comes to fruition. Happy hunting!
Feat. Nick Bazzone, competitive shooter and SNCOIC at the US Marines Mountain Sniper School.
Covering, in order:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nick.bazzone
web: www.tier-one-usa.com
Get yours at:
]]>Find Frank on:
Points covered:
Check us out at www.tier-one.usa.com
00:00:01
Intro: Welcome to the Tier one podcast. Bringing you interviews with the brightest minds in the shooting industry. Get unique insights to help you shoot better, survive longer, and outperform your competition brought to you by Tier one, the world's best shooting accessories.
00:00:19
Harry: Hey, guys, thank you very much for joining us for this part two of our interview with Frank Galli on the Tier One podcast. I've already done Frank's intro on the previous episode, so you know who he is if you haven't heard that. Do listen to it and catch up to where we are. There's a huge amount of information and quality stuff in there that that you can take away and apply to your own shooting. In this episode, we talk about a whole lot of stuff, but including what's the most important part of your life was set up for accuracy and precision. In other words, where should you pour your hard earned money to eke that little bit more accuracy out of it? The importance of dry firing goes to cover Frank's mantra That will be ATF, and that's literally what it is. WCF It doesn't mean quite what you think, though, so keep listening to understand that a bit better. And then also what the King of Two Mile competition is teaching us things we can take away from that and how we're going to keep pushing those range boundaries and start shooting further and more accurately. So without any further ado, let's dive straight into part two of our interview with Frank Galli.
00:01:33
Frank Galli: So that's where I come from. I try to put context to things when people just throw out the generalizations.
00:01:40
Harry: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. You do get a lot of generalities. I think you can go mad if you just follow threads, user discussions on the internet or what?
00:01:49
Frank Galli: Because it lacks context.
00:01:51
Harry: Exactly.
00:01:51
Frank Galli: And part of the thing is, is I tell this to everybody, like even with wind strategy, have a plan and stick with it.
00:01:58
Harry: Yeah.
00:01:59
Frank Galli: You know, don't try to change something like on a pure risk type of deal if you walk up, if you practice barricades. Right. So you're going to do you know, you're going to shoot a match. You know you're going to shoot a barricade.
00:02:11
Harry: Yeah.
00:02:11
Frank Galli: And then maybe somebody from the US comes over to shoot one of your matches and now you have you have a plan in your head. I'm going to shoot the barricade like this because this is how I practiced. Well, now you see somebody in front of you from the US and they do it completely different.
00:02:27
Harry: Show.
00:02:28
Frank Galli: And they clean it.
00:02:30
Harry: Yeah. And you're going, wow.
00:02:32
Frank Galli: Right. Right now you go, wow. I never seen anybody do it like that. And he cleaned it. I'm going to try it. Is that is that the time to try that?
00:02:43
Harry: Well, under pressure, absolutely right. For sure.
00:02:48
Frank Galli: Yeah. And these are the the missing tips and tricks. I mean, like Palin, there's a there's a there's a little core element of us that says and especially in the cop world now, guys want to know the tips and tricks before they know the trade.
00:03:04
Harry: Yeah, for sure. It's like, yeah, we've got there's another phrase that kind of sums up that ethos. So what you're saying there, which is like all the gear. No idea. Yes. Yeah. The not working the fundamentals first.
00:03:18
Frank Galli: And and I'm a fan of gear man. I'm sure I see the the piece people don't understand about me is I'm a fan first and that's why I have the longevity. That's why I have the passion. That's why I have the drive because I'm a fan. That's why my my podcast has new episodes every friggin week.
00:03:38
Harry: Yeah, you love it, right?
00:03:40
Frank Galli: So I'm about the gear, but I'm not about needlessly wasting your money on gear. I'm not about buying a solution unless you know you need that tool.
00:03:52
Harry: What are the in your mind then, in your experience, what are the critical fundamentals that people should be working on before they're going after the next shiny object?
00:04:04
Frank Galli: Um, well, it's all the basics. They work, they translate to anything. And to go back to the essential gear, I will add, especially for, you know, on both sides of the house, a tripod is become the essential piece of gear. Now, if if I had to, only if they said you can have your rifle in one thing else, even if it was one thing meant the bipod too. If they said you can only have, you know, you got your rifle and scope, you got a box of ammo, you can pick one thing. It's a tripod.
00:04:33
Harry: Really? Okay.
00:04:36
Frank Galli: I would pick a tripod over a bipod if I had to make that choice.
00:04:41
Harry: What's informing that decision for you?
00:04:44
Frank Galli: I could do anything with the tripod. There's nothing I can't do. I can walk from. From, I guess, London to Scotland.
00:04:53
Harry: Yeah.
00:04:54
Frank Galli: And if I had a firing solution every ten. Miles.
00:05:01
Harry: Hmm.
00:05:02
Frank Galli: Including if I was standing in water, if I was in a swamp up to my chest.
00:05:06
Harry: Yeah.
00:05:07
Frank Galli: I can make a shot. I can make a shot with a tripod.
00:05:10
Harry: True.
00:05:11
Frank Galli: You know, so to me, it's a do everything well, especially the way the rifles are now. But the fundamentals don't change. I mean, you need, like, alternate positions when you're doing something off your belly, that natural point of aim, right? You need to line up straight. And we all know we're all shooting straighter now than we were. So natural. Point of aim is not muscling the rifle. It's getting in. It's putting everything in a straight line. Eliminate angles.
00:05:37
Harry: Sure.
00:05:37
Frank Galli: Well, then we're going to we're going to aim, right. So our sight picture so that that we could depending on the optic, the power, there's a little compromise you could play in there with the parallax, with the different things that we do and opening up eye boxes. But you got to aim in. The bullet is going to go where the radical is. If we zeroed our rifle correctly, the bullet goes where the radical right. So we have to align that well then, you know, people talk about the breathing side, right? So breathing is our life. We have to breathe. Just want you want to keep breathing and but you want to you want it to not influence the shot because it's going to move you. So you break at the bottom collapse on your skeletal structure. If you think about an element of a good shooting position back in the day with a sling was bone support.
00:06:27
Harry: Right?
00:06:28
Frank Galli: Well, if I'm at the bottom of my natural respiratory pause, I've collapsed on my skeletal structure. The two big balloons in my chest are no longer in the way. I'm not bouncing on them. I'm now on my rib cage.
00:06:41
Harry: Yeah.
00:06:42
Frank Galli: Or support. So I get that. Now the two the two biggest problems are trigger control and follow through. Sure. I have to nail my trigger control and follow through because. Thousands. All right. So 14 thousandths of an inch is 20 minutes at 100 yards. That's your bait, right? So the front of a front of a if you take a 20 minute bass like a badger or I don't know who's another who's a brand of rail that you guys put.
00:07:14
Harry: Well, we make our own rails. Yeah, we tow in it.
00:07:17
Frank Galli: Okay. Isn't it at about 14, about 11 to 14 thousandths of an inch difference between the front and the back.
00:07:23
Harry: Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're probably right. I'd have to ask Craig, the designer, because he. He knows the text better than me, but, yes, I'm sure it's about right.
00:07:31
Frank Galli: Right. Subtract the front from the back. It's half of your bullet width.
00:07:36
Harry: Right.
00:07:37
Frank Galli: Think about that. It's half your bullet width is 20 inches at 100 yards. So any movement, if you divide that by 20 now divide that. Divide ten thousandths of an inch by 20. Oh, that's, that's one inch of error at 100 yards.
00:07:54
Harry: Yeah.
00:07:55
Frank Galli: So that's why trigger control and follow through are so important. Say, I mean, in life, right? You've got to follow through. If you're going to do this, you don't want a half step. So these fundamentals mimic everyday life and they're supposed to be subconscious. Right. I don't really want to think about them, but I need to execute them to the best of my ability. I need to know when I'm going to trade off an index, when I'm when one's compromised. What do I do with the rest? I just ran. I just ran 200 yards. I'm breathing really heavy now.
00:08:31
Harry: Yeah.
00:08:31
Frank Galli: Yeah. What do I what what do I do to fix that? You've got to know these things. And so that's why fundamentals translate from handgun to carbine to precision rifle. LR Press, you know, golf, baseball, football. I mean, you guys get American football over there now watch during a kickoff.
00:08:53
Harry: Yeah.
00:08:54
Frank Galli: And they'll kick the ball into the end zone. Right. They just did 120 yard kick.
00:08:59
Harry: Yep.
00:08:59
Frank Galli: And the opposing team just lets the ball go past them. Doesn't try to catch it.
00:09:04
Harry: Okay.
00:09:05
Frank Galli: Well, the defenders are all running down after him. Well, when he lets the ball go, do they stop running or do they run till they touch the end zone?
00:09:14
Harry: I haven't watched it. Do they do they run till they get to the end zone?
00:09:17
Frank Galli: Yes, they run till they hit the end zone. Because you're not serious if you stop.
00:09:23
Harry: Yeah. No, I get what you say.
00:09:25
Frank Galli: I get what you say. You're not right. So if I don't know soccer enough that to say.
00:09:30
Harry: But I'll give you a rugby. So I watch a lot of rugby and just recently I think it was even England who got caught out because it's supposed to play to the whistle. Right. So even if you know that ball is offside or it's gone into touch, which means it's gone out beyond beyond the boundary of the field, you're supposed to keep playing and tackle the guy and defend. And they didn't. And the guy ran on and there was no whistle. Right.
00:10:00
Frank Galli: Was it? Yes. Play through. And it's the same with with with shooting your precision rifle. You have to follow through. You have to go and make sure that you're executing these things and that you're being consistent behind it. And. The rest. The rest will take care of its it reduces the learning curve.
00:10:22
Harry: Right.
00:10:23
Frank Galli: By by executing right. It's not to say you can't get our stuff is so good today I can take a £26 six millimeter, lay it on a bag with a eight ounce trigger and I will hit a target every single time because the rifle is doing all the work.
00:10:40
Harry: It's just so precise.
00:10:41
Frank Galli: Right. But what happens if you take that same guy and now you give him a hunting rifle with a £4 trigger, would a crazy recoil and all these other things and you say now do it the same. Yeah. Well they, they can't. Right. It's a, it's, it's Porsche versus tractor trailer.
00:11:00
Harry: Sure.
00:11:01
Frank Galli: I can get from point A to point B if I'm going to drive a big old Volvo tractor trailer or something over there.
00:11:06
Harry: Yeah.
00:11:07
Frank Galli: And then I can get my little Mini Cooper or something and go zipping through traffic. I can't drive my Volvo truck the same way. I'm going to drive that Mini Cooper.
00:11:15
Harry: No, for real. But the fundamentals carry over across disciplines.
00:11:21
Frank Galli: So that's my mindset behind this. I appreciate it. I learn it. I need to know it, but I need to know how to apply it. And I need to know the pros and cons of it. And I need to know 360 degrees of it, not just a quarter of it. I mean, you know, the old saying is knowing enough to be dangerous. There's a lot of that out there.
00:11:40
Harry: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You see that in everything, not just shooting sports as well. You see it in in everything. A little bit of information is a dangerous thing.
00:11:51
Frank Galli: But my favorite example is the guys who own a product and say, Well, I own it. Like, you could tell they don't know how to shoot, but they own something. Uh huh. And when when they do that, I always post a picture of, you know, I find the first day with my Ferrari and I wrecked it.
00:12:10
Harry: No, that wasn't you actually, was it?
00:12:13
Frank Galli: It's another. No, no, no. But there's always a photograph. Internet in the story is he bought a Ferrari and he wrecked it a mile from the dealer.
00:12:22
Harry: Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:24
Frank Galli: You know, he owned her. Yeah, that guy owns a Ferrari. You know, he can go on the Internet and tell everybody he owns a Ferrari, but he can't drive a Ferrari.
00:12:33
Harry: For sure.
00:12:34
Frank Galli: You know.
00:12:35
Harry: For sure. But. So I mean, that's that's it's like it's great because it's common sense stuff, but it's not that common. I mean, it is, it's I think we all could do better to practice those fundamentals. And the crucial thing that I lifted out of that, as you said, it should be subconscious. And so many bad habits are subconscious. You know, you think you're doing everything right at the range. And I've watched you working with a with a guy. And in fact, I think you were working on trigger control. And you don't give him any instruction. You get him to take a few shots and you take your notes and there's like straight away you can see the guy is he's thinking about too many things all at once and he's he's he's snapping the trigger instead of squeezing it. And there's all these little things that should be ingrained and are not what the effect is the other way.
00:13:33
Frank Galli: Yes. And I do in all my classes, I do what's called the fundamental level. So you come to a you come to a frank class and it doesn't matter who you are in my class, you're all the same the first day. Well, I do the safety brief. You come in, I introduce. Hi, how are you doing? Here we are, safety brief. This is our safety protocols. Make sure everything's good. Now go get your rifle and everything you need to shoot five rounds. And I created a kind of 20 item checklist, and it's called a fundamental level. And I used to do it just for me. I wrote it down and then would reference it in the class. And then I created the checklist to give to the student, sort of like a prescription. And so they can look, I do it twice. I do one in the beginning and one at the end and the beginning. One is done before I've taught you anything. And what I'm doing is I'm nitpicking the hell out of your position.
00:14:34
Harry: Yeah.
00:14:34
Frank Galli: And so it's twofold because I don't know why this happens. It's an American thing mostly, but it happens all the time. You get a guy who signs up for $1,000 class, he shows up. And he's got his arms crossed before you even start. And he's got an attitude and he's like, you know, why are you teaching me this class?
00:14:58
Harry: And I paid for it. Yes.
00:15:00
Frank Galli: So there's an ego to it.
00:15:02
Harry: Yeah.
00:15:03
Frank Galli: Well, when I put you down with no instruction in on command, I say to you, okay, shoot five round group. And now I'm. I'm one foot away from you with a pen and paper. And before you even shop, I'm scribbling furiously.
00:15:19
Harry: Yeah.
00:15:20
Frank Galli: Yes, that gets in your head.
00:15:21
Harry: Oh, for sure.
00:15:23
Frank Galli: And and so then, you know, that strips away the ego. Yeah. And it allows me to teach a class.
00:15:30
Harry: Yeah. It's very, very humbling, isn't it? I guess.
00:15:33
Frank Galli: Well, we in our PR too, we actually call it the.
00:15:36
Harry: Humbler I.
00:15:38
Frank Galli: In that one. I do the same thing, but I do an unknown distance thing where I make you come up to a blind stage and I say, There's a red target out there. Find it range in engagement. You got 2 minutes, so.
00:15:51
Harry: Okay.
00:15:51
Frank Galli: And we call that the humbler because hardly anybody hits it. But the fundamental evil then lets you go. And now I teach the class and the first thing I do is I go through those fundamentals. And those fundamentals take me about an hour to an hour and a half of instruction.
00:16:10
Harry: Right.
00:16:11
Frank Galli: But you got your prescription, your checklist. And so I can go and say, Harry, you tap the trigger. You didn't follow through and you were holding your breath like this because I've just seen it.
00:16:22
Harry: Yeah.
00:16:23
Frank Galli: And now we after that's done and we go back to the 100 yard range. Now we strip everything away from you. Okay? We're going to move your scope if you need it moved, if you're canted off to the side of your if you were a little green army man with your leg up and you're shoot sideways. Sure, we fix. We fix you. So now if I bring you straight, I've got to move your scope.
00:16:43
Harry: Yeah. So you have a flat with the feet flat and everything.
00:16:47
Frank Galli: We were making clones, man. If you look at, like, the pictures from Alaska, everybody looks identical on the line. It doesn't matter what you're shooting now. We will put guys on a bench if you're older, got physical limitations. We have ways of managing a bench that are different than for other people. We don't shoot cut out benches, we shoot square benches, we get straight behind it and we use it like the prone. We push ourselves forward on it, we lay our chest on it. We want both elbows on the bench and we want you straight and square. And we've even designed a bench and we put sort of a bipod block on it and we square them off. And for like older gentlemen, we can even have a guy standing behind that bench in that position and they'll shoot every bit as good as everybody else. You know, standing up on the bench just depends on their physical limitations. But I'm not opposed to students. I'm not opposed to shooting in the condition they're used to. So if your range doesn't let you go prone and you have no plans on going prone, why would I teach you prone? If you don't.
00:17:59
Harry: Want your it's not going to be useful.
00:18:01
Frank Galli: Right? So we'll let you do a bench in my classes if we have that ability depending on where they're located. But you know, my range has a bench, the Alaska Range has a bench on the ranges, but some don't. But some people just aren't physically meant to be prone.
00:18:16
Harry: No, of course there's a lot of variation in humans, isn't there? Yeah. And that's why you see bipod come in different heights lengths as extensions. And as you say, the tripod is infinitely adaptable.
00:18:30
Frank Galli: That's a that's a pet peeve of mine is the bipod is that you'll get a big guy who puts gets by he's a 6 to 9 Harris and puts it on the lowest setting because he heard he has to get as low as possible. Yeah, well, prone is as low as you can get. The only thing below prone is dead, you know. And so you adjust the bipod for your body type.
00:18:53
Harry: Sure, sure.
00:18:54
Frank Galli: Me is going to be different than you. So why would you artificially do something? Someone else told you it's your car. When I teach a class, I teach your rifle. Set up. The bipod is like your car seats, mirrors and steering wheel.
00:19:09
Harry: Yeah, makes no sense.
00:19:11
Frank Galli: Yeah. So if somebody says I got to be as low as possible and they put their bipod super low, say they're six foot two, £230.
00:19:20
Harry: Yeah.
00:19:21
Frank Galli: You know, why does that guy have a 6 to 9 bipod on the lowest setting? That's the dumbest thing on the planet.
00:19:27
Harry: Sure. So it's like, why didn't you see right forward?
00:19:31
Frank Galli: Yeah, you're right. So he gets in. He gets in my I have a Tuareg, a Volkswagen, the diesel Tuareg there, you know. Yeah. If that six foot tall guy gets in my Tuareg, his chest is going to be against the steering wheel because I'm only five foot nothing.
00:19:47
Harry: Sure.
00:19:48
Frank Galli: Move the dang seat. Yeah.
00:19:51
Harry: Don't just, you know, struggle through.
00:19:54
Frank Galli: Right? Like when you buy a new car from the dealer, you he hands you the car, you got to move the seats in the mirrors. Oh then sure. Then when you get home you get all comfortable behind it, you get in the car. I don't know if you guys do, but I do. I get all comfortable, I move all my mirrors, I fine tune it. I set the little one, two, three button the you know, me, the girl, the valet. I'm doing all that and I'm adjusting all that stuff. But I take. I take 15 minutes to set the seats in my car up?
00:20:21
Harry: Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, absolutely. And normally your wife mucks it all up for you.
00:20:28
Frank Galli: Well, that's my next point. If. If you got in your car tomorrow and last night, your wife went to the store and didn't tell you, and she moved. She moved the seat and then left it. You would immediately know.
00:20:45
Harry: Oh, absolutely. It feels wrong. You have such a muscle memory with your car seat and you're driving position.
00:20:51
Frank Galli: Well, if you set your rifle up correctly, you'll have that same exact muscle memory. You'll be able to do all these things because you feel it, because you put the repetitions in. And this is where you were saying, you know, repetitions. It's the bad habits, right? You need the 9000 repetitions to fix a bad habit. Yeah, it's. It's 3000 positive reps to build a new habit and 9000 to fix a bad one.
00:21:17
Harry: Wow. Can you dry fire that? I mean, is it because obviously you're not. Yeah. Okay.
00:21:22
Frank Galli: Can you? Absolutely. But you can't cheat it. You can't just lift the bolt and pass the trigger. You have to do all 9000 as if everyone was a real shot.
00:21:33
Harry: Yeah.
00:21:34
Frank Galli: I mean, if you look. At the hand gun world. There are Japanese competitors who can't shoot live rounds in Japan. Who come to the US and come to other countries to shoot competitions who've only dry practice and have one and done well.
00:21:56
Harry: Wow. Wow. They just they are very. Not to stereotype, but they have a culture of. Of repetition. Until something is perfect in their martial arts.
00:22:09
Frank Galli: At least it's a martial art in exactly that. So what they're doing in a martial art is that they're doing a martial art. The. It's the kata, I think. Right. I'm probably.
00:22:20
Harry: Right. Yeah.
00:22:21
Frank Galli: That's dry practice.
00:22:22
Harry: Form. Yeah.
00:22:24
Frank Galli: Your form when you're going through the one, two, three fours, you know the he. Yeah. You know, whatever the heck they call, you know, that's dry practice.
00:22:33
Harry: Yeah.
00:22:33
Frank Galli: Your ear walk, crawl, you know, your crawl, walk, run.
00:22:37
Harry: Yeah. Yep.
00:22:39
Frank Galli: And so that's, that's kind of where I come from with that is that all these things are repeated in other sports. We're just not looking at it in the same way because we could buy it.
00:22:51
Harry: Yeah, that's the thing with the gear for sure. Yeah. So I've got a couple of questions. Obviously six, five and six, five. Creedmoor is everywhere now. It didn't use to be, but it is. I've heard you refer to it as. As one of the wind cheaters. Mm hmm. We have heard through the grapevine. Or, you know, it's probably good common knowledge that Special Forces units are trial, trialing that round in the States and here and elsewhere. Yep. What are your personal thoughts on all of the variations of the 6.5? And secondly, to that, if you could pick only one gun and one caliber, what would it be? Would it be 6.5?
00:23:40
Frank Galli: Yeah. Yeah. I love six five. And our military was doing 260 prior and I shot a lot of 260. I wish 260 was better supported, but the six five creed is money. I like it. I'm a big fan. Yes. Like we can go back to 2015 is our guys were running the six five variants even a little before that. So we've been doing it for a longer than we've advertised it.
00:24:11
Harry: Yeah.
00:24:13
Frank Galli: So if I only could pick the one gun. My, my, my one gun. Holy Grail gun is an AI. I'm an I'm an AI fan. I'm good friends with Dave Walls over there and Tom and everybody and Alice and known them forever. My one gun is an I. There's no getting around it. I probably if it was if it was the apocalypse kind of deal, I'd probably do a308 just because of numbers. But I will say, you know, as the world spins today, I'm going to do a65. I can go I can go to the backwoods of Alaska. I can get six five on the shelf.
00:24:48
Harry: Really?
00:24:49
Frank Galli: Yeah, even six. Creedmoor is on the shelves in nowhere.
00:24:54
Harry: Alaska, right.
00:24:56
Frank Galli: You know, Hornaday through Hornaday is the big one. They put that stuff everywhere there in every shelf out here. There's there's no Wal Mart gun shop that doesn't have it. So the logistics have been solved.
00:25:10
Harry: It's no longer an issue.
00:25:12
Frank Galli: Right. You know, there is an argument for the one gun for me, although I don't I don't like it. But I guess if I had to go, if the world was going to explode and I thought I could get away with it, I'd rather do a 338.
00:25:27
Harry: Yeah.
00:25:28
Frank Galli: But I'm smaller. It's not quite as practical. I'm going to be a little more sneakier, you know what I mean? So yeah, I'm going to go down a little bit. But honestly, I think, I think I think on the sniping side of the world, you know, the 338 is still there's a lot of value to that. I know they're playing with the normas and in the different cows and they're changing all that, trying to get out there. And, you know, they on paper at 1500 meters, the 338 Norma Mag was better than the Lapu mag. And this, you know, it's like, okay, it's still a good caliber and, and it's going to do a lot. But I'm still I mean, I'm a308 fan and still in a lot of ways, I grew up with it. The six five variants are better. I've my first 260 I made in 2001. It's matter of fact, it's sitting right here my yeah it's my gap headhunter was a rifle I spec from precision is this 260. I like the 260. Um you know especially if you hand load for it but the two sixties money the problem with the 260 was guys loading them long into the lands and they and they and they grab the land and pull the bullet out. Which is what the six five corrected by making the case just that little tiny bit shorter.
00:26:56
Harry: Right.
00:26:57
Frank Galli: You know.
00:26:58
Harry: Is it a steeper shoulder as well?
00:27:00
Frank Galli: Yeah, a little bit.
00:27:02
Harry: Yeah.
00:27:03
Frank Galli: It's a little different. I mean, it's it's still a good design that Creedmoor the one I'm not a fan of that I know a lot of people love. It's the six five by 47. I know people love it. It's a good, accurate cartridge. But it's it's it's muzzle velocities down and it's just enough to be annoying. I think the six by 47 is the better way of going with a 47 case.
00:27:30
Harry: Right.
00:27:31
Frank Galli: So I would I would leapfrog a65 by 47 and go straight to a six by 47.
00:27:38
Harry: Right. So you still pick the 6.5. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:44
Frank Galli: A Creedmoor would a one 3143. Something like that. I'm a happy camper. I mean, honestly, if I could kind of like if I could build it, I would say I want to. I want a65 Creedmoor. What, a 136 grain CNR, you know, or. Skinner But how do you guys want to say it there? But. Yeah, I'm American. We, we mess things up. But anyway, I would do, I would like a 136 grain load in a six Creedmoor. That would be my, my dream kind of off the shelf and then with my I rifles and then I want a suppressor on it or a moderator.
00:28:21
Harry: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, hold a razor. Yeah, yeah. I think suppressor sounds cooler. Like I grew up with Hollywood films, so. Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:30
Frank Galli: Me too. I want a can on it.
00:28:32
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. Well, there we go. Very good. Six, five, Creedmoor. One, three, six. Grind load. Brilliant. I have a second question. We sort of covered this a little bit, but back to the fundamentals for a minute. Other than the fundamentals you covered, which are our in regard to the shooter themselves, what's the next biggest factor in ensuring consistency and accuracy.
00:29:01
Frank Galli: Like next to taking the person away.
00:29:04
Harry: Take the person away. So we've we've assuming good trigger control, assuming good breathing, good habits and everything is nicely bedded in and that that part of it is fine. What's the next biggest factor that to to ensure consistency.
00:29:20
Frank Galli: The two things I look at are barrel and scope. Your barrel is going to be your biggest factor in overall. And then because I look at it two ways, precision and accuracy, right? So precision is the group size and that's us in the fundamentals of marksmanship. Accuracy is hitting the target at distance and doing an X ring. You know, I got a 600 meter target. I want to get in the x. Well, you have to have your ability to interpret your data correctly to hit that X. Sure. That means your scope has to be correct to hit the X. So if I say I need, you know, 3.2 mils to hit that 600 and my scopes only given me 3.0 or it's going to three, four or some weird number. I'm not going to hit my X.
00:30:07
Harry: Yeah.
00:30:08
Frank Galli: So, you know, precision comes from the fundamentals of marksmanship. Accuracy comes from your ability to interpret data. Your rifle system has a bearing on both.
00:30:21
Harry: Okay.
00:30:22
Frank Galli: You know, so bad ammo, good ammo, barrel scope, all has that bearing. But to me, the two biggest factors are put your money in the barrel, put your money in the scope, and then get a good trigger. And then after that, stocks are a personal preference. You know, make sure it's cleared and doing, like you said. Correct. But it doesn't matter if it's a hunting stock, a chassis, if it's if it's if it's quality and and done correctly, that's a personal preference. That's that's your red car. Blue car. You know, that's a pickup truck. But the other stuff is is going to be more important.
00:31:00
Harry: Okay. Very good. Excellent. Well, there we are. This money and the power money in this scope makes a lot of sense. So moving slightly on to more kind of more about you and your personal interests and what you've done in the industry. You're obviously a really high profile character and sniper site is a huge website. You have a lot of influence and you've talked about in one of your articles your passion for getting young shooters into the sport and how important that is. Well, a couple of questions, I guess. What's the best way to do that in your opinion? And do you think enough is being done about that to really build the industry for the future?
00:31:49
Frank Galli: I no, not enough is being done. But what is being done is usually really good. You know, those those those incidents you do hear about the Mary Beth Olson's and, you know, the different people who who've become public about it. Those are great success stories. But number one is don't overcome them. Less is better with kids. To start them out, you don't have to give them. You know, when I grew up, it used to be funny to give somebody the biggest gun they can not not handle and watch them fall down.
00:32:22
Harry: Yeah, yeah.
00:32:22
Frank Galli: Don't do that. You know, it's it may be funny to throw your kid in the water and let them sink or swim with firearms. Not as much. So I like I like starting them with the 20 twos. I think they should be better leagues. The leagues should be more focused on kids in a way. I like the 2222 stuff is fantastic. I like suppressors for kids.
00:32:48
Harry: Okay.
00:32:49
Frank Galli: MODERATOR Suppress them, you know, whatever you have to do because the sound is our biggest issue. The noise, you know, even consider double ering some of the kids to start out with. I can tell you I'm deaf as a stump on half my head you know. Yeah so double ear but that helps manage recoil with people is to keep the sound down then patience right but don't kids are quick kids will move up fast so don't shortchange a kid's learning.
00:33:24
Harry: Yeah.
00:33:24
Frank Galli: Just be patient with them and understand their size, the weights and what you're putting in their hand.
00:33:30
Harry: Yeah.
00:33:31
Frank Galli: You know, recognize that part of it, but don't. Don't limit it. Don't be like, oh, my kid's only going to shoot 100 meter, put them to a grand. Yeah, you know, let them go out there and experience it. The more experience they give them, the better put them in alternate positions. Kids are bendy.
00:33:48
Harry: They won't work. Sure.
00:33:49
Frank Galli: You know, and and but get them get them with the fun, you know, you don't want to give them the bad habits. The sooner you can get them with the fundamentals, the better you're off you're going to be. So you're not breaking bad habits down down the road, which is why I like the 22 stuff because it's not so recoil intensive.
00:34:09
Harry: Yeah.
00:34:10
Frank Galli: Recoil is what creates our bad habits really. And so, you know, that's our flinch factor is that's that's our brain trying to be defensive that our brain does not like the idea of a controlled explosion. Three inches in front of our nose.
00:34:24
Harry: Whatever. Yeah, why not?
00:34:27
Frank Galli: Right. Why wouldn't it? You know, it's like, wait a minute, you don't like a bang is going off there. So you have to do things to kind of let the brain know it's okay.
00:34:35
Harry: Yeah.
00:34:36
Frank Galli: And the sooner you can do that, the better off you are, because that is what creates the bad habits. But I think the 20 twos should be I mean, there's people who ask me about creating series and matches and different things. Yeah. And lately my advice is, well, why wouldn't you do a 22 first and create because the average range in the US I don't know about you guys is 200 yards.
00:35:02
Harry: Right.
00:35:03
Frank Galli: A 200 yard competition for a 22 is great. I know my voodoo 22, my 200 yard data is the same as my six five Creedmoor at 1000.
00:35:16
Harry: Really?
00:35:17
Frank Galli: It's identical wind and everything. Okay, it's almost the same wind. Hold, you know what I mean? It's like the fin accuracy. Guys have the 22 scalable stuff over there, but they have programs that scale the data.
00:35:33
Harry: Right. And well, I said another great way to teach the fundamentals then.
00:35:37
Frank Galli: Yes.
00:35:40
Harry: And if you're there and I'm young, I mean, it's like it's like learning any skill. If you start young enough, you've got far more chance of mastering it. I think it makes a lot of sense as well about silencing the rifle. I fired 20 twos when I was younger because we were very lucky in my school where I had a 22 range hidden away somewhere in the bushes, like a throwback to World War Two, I'm sure. And and we were in there banging away. Banging. But it was loud, you know, and it was like an echoey room. And it never occurred to me. But you're absolutely right, there is like a natural flinch, and then you brace the next one and then it's bang and it's loud. And you sort of. I guess that puts a lot of people off.
00:36:27
Frank Galli: Yeah, it does. The sound is our is our biggest deal. So if you can mitigate the sound a little bit, you'll you'll you'll create a better shooter.
00:36:35
Harry: Yeah.
00:36:36
Frank Galli: And which is why the dry fireworks. Because you're not influenced by recoil, right?
00:36:40
Harry: You've got to have a bit more patience to dry fire, though. I think a bit more maturity. Right.
00:36:45
Frank Galli: Well, do do a 40 round dry fire. Just do 40 perfect rounds.
00:36:50
Harry: Yeah.
00:36:53
Frank Galli: So I mean, even they have the training aids now where you can put the the sign up. I just talked to the one guy that Jeremy Swanee and Swanee is there in the U.S. They sell the, um, the dry fire kits that has a poster board with targets on it. Then you put the, the step down on the caps, the scope cap with the reducer.
00:37:13
Harry: Right.
00:37:13
Frank Galli: And, and you can focus your precision rifle scope at 11 feet.
00:37:18
Harry: Wow.
00:37:19
Frank Galli: And then you can focus in on target an image, a picture of a target, you know, range. And you could practice.
00:37:27
Harry: Oh, wow.
00:37:28
Frank Galli: And it's it's S.W. A and NY symphonies. And he sells them.
00:37:35
Harry: Yep. Very good. We'll have to speak to. Actually, I think Chad's introduced us to Sweeney as well. There you go. Cool. Yeah, we'll get him on. We've covered, obviously, the fundamentals we've covered. There's one little thing we haven't covered. Right. Maybe we could do this in in in like, overview, because I've seen this in your videos a lot, which is your WTF approach. So we're skipping back a little bit in the podcast because we sort of covered this in the beginning. Could you cover that for anybody who's listening, who hasn't heard it before?
00:38:09
Frank Galli: Yeah. My, my, my mantra for shooting a precision rifle is W2 f k and this is this is all it takes to shoot a target at long range. K the W is the wind because like for me, even when I'm driving out to the range, we have a lot of wind out here. I'm out west in Colorado. We have wind flags on our highways.
00:38:36
Harry: Right.
00:38:36
Frank Galli: Because the wind will knock tractor trailers over.
00:38:40
Harry: Right.
00:38:41
Frank Galli: And so you'll always read not so much Colorado, but Montana or Wyoming, right over the border. You'll always see there'll be a windstorm comes through and six tractor trailers were knocked over in one gust. So and so wind is my number one. Right. Wind is the great equalizer. It's all about the wind.
00:38:59
Harry: Yeah.
00:39:00
Frank Galli: So W is number one, it's the first thing you think about as soon as you're walking out to the range. I'm looking at the wind. So that's one. Then T is your target. What is the trajectory? The range, right? The wind. What is it? What are you going to do? Are you going to hold? You're going to dial. Then you got the the target, your range. So what are you going to do to engage that? You're going to hold, you're going to dial. So the wind is six miles an hour. Okay, cool. And we go and we'll get into it in another podcast. But it's I know I have a six mile an hour gun with a65 creed, so I got a six mile an hour gun. A six mile an hour gun at 600 yards means it's 6/10 of a mil. So I'm good done. So I got that an elevation target. So the T target, it's a 600 yard target. Okay. I need 3.2 miles to hit that target. Good. Got that. Well, then the F is the fundamentals of marksmanship.
00:39:55
Harry: Yeah, that's.
00:39:55
Frank Galli: Right. That's that's the checklist you put through your head. It's basically in that order. And I and I put the wind first because the wind is the wildcat. It's something you should think about the most. If you have a ballistic computer and you trued it, if you know your dope because you shot it before your elevation is a given. Yeah, you already know what your elevation is. You just have to match the numbers up, right? 600 to 6. That's 3.2 for me, you know. Well, wind is the wildcat. What's the wind doing is gusting, it's changing, it's doing that. So I have to put more thought into the wind. Then in order to do that, I have a plan. My win call is is put in my brain. I got a win call. I know my elevation at Target is 3.2 mils, so I'm holding on the target with my wind call. Now it should be that subconscious. No mind. I talk Tom Cruise all the time. Last Samurai.
00:40:48
Harry: Yeah.
00:40:48
Frank Galli: No mind, right? No mine. The fundamentals of marksmanship. So now I'm going to get in there. I've practiced. I dry fire. I don't have to overthink them because they're ingrained.
00:41:00
Harry: Yeah.
00:41:01
Frank Galli: So now I can just focus on putting the radical on the target where it needs to be. Watching my bullet to the target, I'm driving the rifle through recoil. I'm following that bullet through the scope to the target. In my mind's eye, I'm picturing the trajectory, okay? And I'm looking for it and I find it. So then I follow it to the target and I either hit and I'm good or I missed. And I have to make a follow up. If I missed, I want to see where I splashed on the radical. I just want to slide the scope over to that point. Okay. You know, I held 0.6 mil. What I hit at the one mil marker actually might be more than that, but I hit at the 1.2 mil mark is the win. So now I just slide the 1.2 into the middle of the target and send the following round. It should be 3 to 5 seconds. Is your honeymoon okay? I got 3 to 5 seconds to make that correction right. I have to be on my game to do it in 3 to 5 seconds, you know. And so that's that's why. So I'm not cluttering my mind. I'm wtf. What's the wind? What am I going to do about it? What's the target distance or trajectory? And then fundamentals.
00:42:13
Harry: On that 3 to 5 seconds. That's because the wind is going to change. Right. Or or something else. Some other factor is going to shift.
00:42:22
Frank Galli: Yeah. You shot and you missed the guy and he heard the crack and he went, What was that? And now.
00:42:27
Harry: He knows. I gotcha.
00:42:29
Frank Galli: You know, it's going to take about 3 to 5 seconds for it to register. He just got shot at.
00:42:34
Harry: Gotcha. Right? Yes. Yes.
00:42:37
Frank Galli: You know, so let's slide the radical over and send a follow up shot.
00:42:41
Harry: Yeah. You know.
00:42:42
Frank Galli: Or if it's that high a priority in me and you were working as a team, I could say, Harry, I got 0.6 mil on Oak. Frank I'm on my you instead of you. Get in a spotting scope. Let's give you rifle. Rifle.
00:42:55
Harry: Yeah.
00:42:55
Frank Galli: And then I go, all right, I'm 0.6. I fire, but I need that 1.2. Well, you see it and see it's 1.2. You slide your article over and just shoot before I've even run the bolt, that next round went down range. Now I have talking and rifles and not a spotter shooter dialogue.
00:43:15
Harry: Right.
00:43:16
Frank Galli: If it's that big of a if it's that important, maybe I need to do that.
00:43:20
Harry: To rifles on the target. That's interesting. That's cool. Yeah.
00:43:24
Frank Galli: Well, because there's two of us. Why do I got to take why am I taking a rifle out of my buddy's hand and giving him a spotting scope?
00:43:30
Harry: For sure? Yeah, for sure.
00:43:32
Frank Galli: Well, right.
00:43:33
Harry: Yeah, absolutely.
00:43:34
Frank Galli: It's got a 25 power scope. I'm not going to be spotting over 25 anyway.
00:43:38
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. It's all about getting that target.
00:43:42
Frank Galli: Yeah.
00:43:43
Harry: You know how I mean. Ranges look like we're shooting further and further and further get more and more accurate. And obviously all the equipment is being developed and refined so that we can get more accurate long distances. Like it's become almost like the norm to shoot 1000 yards and then then it will be the norm to shoot at 2000 and so on. Are you updating your own? Are you pushing your limits like that? You're trying to reach out further, or are you refining within that space? How are you personally developing?
00:44:21
Frank Galli: Oh, we're going farther. I'm going farther. And my my range, my private range that I use here in Colorado is I have targets every 100 yards to a mile.
00:44:29
Harry: Okay.
00:44:30
Frank Galli: And I could back up to 28. Yeah. We it's a bucket list for people to shoot a mile now.
00:44:38
Harry: Yeah.
00:44:38
Frank Galli: So my main range, the main part of it that's in front of you goes to 1425.
00:44:46
Harry: Okay.
00:44:46
Frank Galli: So we work to shoot everybody to that distance.
00:44:50
Harry: Really.
00:44:51
Frank Galli: If the range doesn't have the ability to go beyond a thousand, of course then we work within that low that that space. But I shoot, I shoot a mile all the time, you know, and like we're at the end of my class. I do like a one hour open shoot where I let you shoot any target on my range. And if your gun is capable, including a65 creed.
00:45:12
Harry: Yeah.
00:45:13
Frank Galli: In Colorado, a65 creed will hit a mile. No problem.
00:45:18
Harry: Really. Okay.
00:45:19
Frank Galli: Yeah, we're 20 about 20 mils. 20 mils to a mile on my range will usually get you pretty darn close anywhere from 18 to 21, depending on the rifle. So we can get you guys in the ballpark. But I have. Yeah. Ehlers. Ehlers, to me, there's, there's two elements at LR. One, it's all about the bullet. The bullet really, really matters in how you push it. Yeah. To the scope again because you got to reach it.
00:45:50
Harry: Yeah.
00:45:51
Frank Galli: You know, now the problem I see is that guys make these really ridiculous looking rifles.
00:45:57
Harry: Yeah, yeah.
00:45:59
Frank Galli: And then they can't get any fundamentals behind them where your fundamentals should be more important in LR. Yeah. And like, I go to King of Two Mile. I was.
00:46:10
Harry: Going to say.
00:46:11
Frank Galli: I don't shoot it. I film it because it always conflicts with my schedule and I'm not particularly a big fan of the format.
00:46:22
Harry: Yeah.
00:46:23
Frank Galli: But I go to, to, to be part of that and I see people I know and talk, you know, and I want to be there. But if you watch the majority of people shoot.
00:46:35
Harry: Yeah.
00:46:36
Frank Galli: There are the the shooter is so far out of whack, it's it's a miracle that they could do anything. I'll give you a great example. I watched the guy and I'm filming him, and it was he had been to every king of two mile.
00:46:50
Harry: Right.
00:46:51
Frank Galli: And he self makes everything. The calibers, even his own wildcat. Super nice. Okay.
00:46:57
Harry: Yeah, yeah.
00:46:57
Frank Galli: Super nice guy. Very low budget. You know, kind of a one man, one man guy, you know?
00:47:06
Harry: Yeah.
00:47:06
Frank Galli: Well, last year the last year I went I didn't go last year because it conflicted with my my travels. He made it to the finale to the he was one of the final ten shooters. So and his fundamentals were so bad. I watched I watched them pulling the rifle over every shot. He was counting the rifle because his bipod was loose and he was and he was using some things. And I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't it wasn't my place to go up and speak to him.
00:47:40
Harry: Yeah.
00:47:41
Frank Galli: And I'm watching them and the guys are calling him like, you need more wind. You need more wind. It's like, no, you need to, you need to take the kanth out of your rifle because as, as you pull the, as you run the ball with a lot of these, especially if you've got any kind of resistance on the bolt.
00:47:55
Harry: Yeah.
00:47:55
Frank Galli: If your bipod is loose, you pull the rifle over.
00:47:59
Harry: Yeah.
00:47:59
Frank Galli: Yeah. And it takes a little while for people to notice it.
00:48:03
Harry: Yeah.
00:48:04
Frank Galli: And so this is what happened. So to me, I think. That you have to look at the fundamental setup of how you build that rifle to create a platform that's either going to be the EF class kind of ones that you see with a really wide bipod in the really light triggers. But then the taco units on the front, the Charlie Tariq unit, so you can get your cheek weld. I mean, you see a ton of people shooting King of two mile with their cheek, not even touching the rifle because they can't.
00:48:38
Harry: Yeah. Because it's such a some of the rifles that you said before they look insane. I saw some guy had like an integrated or like monolithic silencer type set up where the silence was like this huge long tube, like a drainage pipe all the way back to the to the where you where the cheek should be. Yeah. I mean, it was just like an apparatus.
00:49:05
Frank Galli: They do. It's an engineering endeavor.
00:49:08
Harry: Yeah, in a way.
00:49:09
Frank Galli: You know what I mean? It's as close to bench rest as you can get a person kind of behind the rifle. But it is doing so much more because think about this. They're usually in a kind of two mile situation here. What I've noticed is they're pretty consistent to 25 Hunter.
00:49:26
Harry: Right.
00:49:27
Frank Galli: Even though they shoot farther, where where does the consistency fall? Well, the consistency falls off at 2500 meter. Right. Well. That's making everything inside 2500 that much more capable of being hit.
00:49:42
Harry: Of course.
00:49:43
Frank Galli: So if we push out to 4000, well, then 2500 is going to then become 28. Yeah, sure. And when they push the 528, it's going to be 32.
00:49:55
Harry: Yeah.
00:49:55
Frank Galli: Is that.
00:49:56
Harry: Informing. Is the research they're doing there and the discoveries they're making, is that informing, you know, ballistics research elsewhere? Are people picking up on that and learning from what they're doing?
00:50:09
Frank Galli: Yes, totally. And that's and that's the benefit of that, which I agree with. But my problem is, from a marksmanship standpoint, it's terrible example. Right. And you'll get guys go, well, you know, look at this guy, he's doing everything fundamentally wrong, but he won. It's like.
00:50:26
Harry: Yeah.
00:50:26
Frank Galli: But that's not a great example. You know, that's the exception, not the rule. That's the buzz. He, you know, you're launching a 400 grain bullet at 3000 feet per second. Eventually everything's going to get hit. But it doesn't it's not it's not being hit in a way. I would hold up as an example of what to do.
00:50:51
Harry: No, no, absolutely. Well, apart from anything else, you can't move around with those giant guns. It's not like you're mobile, you know, and you can go and sniping.
00:51:01
Frank Galli: Is crew served? I mean, if you think about it, it is a cruise served endeavour, especially when you get into the into the bigger calibers. True. Shoot, you're shooting a cruise serve weapon.
00:51:10
Harry: True. Yes. Not far from artillery. Really, is it?
00:51:13
Frank Galli: Right. A 50 cal is a crew surf weapon. A machine gun is a crew serve weapon. You know, if you're going into these bigger calibers, you know, you're you're engaged in a crew, served in Endeavor.
00:51:24
Harry: Yeah.
00:51:25
Frank Galli: And so that's why I think we should be changing sort of the fundamental way of doing that. Like honestly with LR like the one example I gave, I would be creating a mount. Like Kate has like a 50 Cal, an MTU mount, and then they have like the solo unit. I would be creating a mount to put my rifle in. Right. That was big, stupid and heavy, probably. And then I would create an off sighting system. If I. If I want to shoot a rifle like LR, I would probably create something slightly different, more of a solo mount. You know, in a match, if they're going to limit you now, if it's military. Honestly, to me, it's a bear bat. It's always been the people I've talked to who've always done it. It's. It's a beer bat. Hey, I bet I can hit that guy, but you can't, you know? Because there's no danger if somebody is 2000 yards away from me. You're not in any danger? No. And honestly, I have. I have a radio.
00:52:38
Harry: Yeah.
00:52:39
Frank Galli: Hopefully I could use it, you know, and I'd much rather. And it's ten times cooler to drop a bomb.
00:52:44
Harry: Yeah, sure. Yeah. Right.
00:52:47
Frank Galli: But there is situations where maybe. Maybe somebody's being harassed there. Situations of harassing fire, and now you can put harassing fire back on that person.
00:52:59
Harry: Right.
00:52:59
Frank Galli: So knowing them. But you're understanding and talking to a guy who did exactly that as soon as he started harassing that gunner, a gunner was a machine gunner like a PKM. We're shooting at a village.
00:53:13
Harry: Yeah.
00:53:14
Frank Galli: Off to the side, within view of the PKM was a team.
00:53:18
Harry: Right.
00:53:19
Frank Galli: Passing fire shuts that gunner down.
00:53:22
Harry: Yeah.
00:53:24
Frank Galli: But. Okay, that's cool. I didn't kill the guy or do anything like that, but I gave him harassing fire. It still works, but in that context I get it. But if I was going to be doing something like King of Two Mile ish, yeah. I would be trying to build. Something that was more offset. So even if I'm not going to be behind the rifle and I'm going to hold the rifle, I especially if they're going to let me use a $1,000 rest.
00:53:50
Harry: Right.
00:53:51
Frank Galli: I would create a different.
00:53:53
Harry: System.
00:53:54
Frank Galli: Or have classes and say, here's a light gun class, here's a heavy gun class, here's an unlimited class where a guy can roll a car up.
00:54:03
Harry: Yeah, yeah. I guess they're pioneering, aren't they? Like because they're reaching literally reaching out to distances that are like you're feeling you. It's almost like the Wild West. That's the vibe I get from it. When I look at the.
00:54:15
Frank Galli: Difference, the bench press model, to me it's more of a bench press model than a tactical practical model.
00:54:20
Harry: Yeah.
00:54:21
Frank Galli: But with like Eduardo, he wants the practical that comes out of it to build something for the military.
00:54:27
Harry: Yeah, well.
00:54:29
Frank Galli: That practical is going to be built in a 1500 meter package and 1500 meter package will be plenty capable to 25. Right. In that racing sense.
00:54:41
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. It's not going to be pinpoint accurate.
00:54:45
Frank Galli: The problem is, is you get guys selling to the military with what they're claiming is a 2000 meter solution. That's not really practical. Like if you go back to them shooting the 300 eights at a mile. Yeah, that was a selling point. And it's like, why would I take a 308 and turn it into a bad nine. Mm.
00:55:06
Harry: Yeah for sure.
00:55:10
Frank Galli: If you're, if I'm selling you on the idea that you're 300, it's going to do something to somebody at a mile. I'm the biggest liar on the planet. If I'm being serious, I can goof and say, Hey, man, you can do it. You might get close and given enough time and opportunity, something might get hit, but you're going to hit it with the same rate. You're going to hit it in a place you can't predict with the same amount of force of a nine millimeter at 100 yards.
00:55:37
Harry: Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah.
00:55:41
Frank Galli: If you're calling it harassing fire. Okay.
00:55:44
Harry: Yeah, sure.
00:55:45
Frank Galli: You're telling.
00:55:46
Harry: Me if.
00:55:48
Frank Galli: It's not effective fire by any means, if you're trying to sell somebody that you can sell, you can give them effective fire with a308 at a mile. They're lying.
00:55:57
Harry: Yeah.
00:55:57
Frank Galli: Okay. Now you're going to tell them and say, listen, I'll show you how to give some harassing fire and maybe, you know, you might.
00:56:05
Harry: Contract them and.
00:56:06
Frank Galli: They. Right. But that's that's I have a problem with that.
00:56:10
Harry: Do you think we'll be we'll reach those further distances with accuracy, with different calibers? Is that where the innovation is going to come from?
00:56:19
Frank Galli: Yeah, I think 2000 is is capable with, you know, first round I call in it.
00:56:25
Harry: Yeah.
00:56:26
Frank Galli: I think we can take the three round mantra, you know, no more than three rounds out of target, first round hit, one shot, one kill. I think we'll be able to get it to 2000 meters.
00:56:36
Harry: With.
00:56:37
Frank Galli: With a it's going to be something as big as a 50 cal, you know what I mean? We're probably going to have to fine tune the system a little bit.
00:56:45
Harry: Yeah, but it's doable. Yeah. What is the record now? You know, I remember hearing a while ago it was like two, two k's or just under two, just under two k's.
00:56:56
Frank Galli: I've seen 23 done with the three shots.
00:56:59
Harry: Right.
00:57:00
Frank Galli: David Tubbs, son in law, did it beyond 2000.
00:57:04
Harry: Right.
00:57:06
Frank Galli: I don't know where they currently stand because there's so many events that will give them a score. Yeah, I don't I don't know where they are, but I do like the idea of the, you know, lay down, you got three shots, wait 4 hours, you got three more. That's your try. That is smart. That is super.
00:57:26
Harry: So it's. Sorry. Sorry to cut you off, Frank.
00:57:31
Frank Galli: Yeah, I was going to say it's bullet technology, man. Yeah. The cider in that is the bullet.
00:57:37
Harry: Is the bullet? Yeah, that's what I was kind of asking. There was exactly that. Yeah. Is it is it going to come down to developments in the bullet? Because like like you said earlier, a lot of technology, you have a big war like World War Two. Suddenly loads of stuff gets developed, you know, because it's it's essential. And then you have Vietnam, it loads of stuff gets developed and then it's like you get stuck with that stuff for a long time. And now you're seeing people like wild catting rounds, you know, and someone's going to come up with this is the sense I get someone's going to come up with a hugely efficient caliber at that range. We just don't know what it is yet. Or maybe we do, but it needs a tweak or something.
00:58:19
Frank Galli: It's just a tweak. I think it's going to be between that 375 and 416 and it's going to get that casing tweak. It's probably going to be not so much definitely with like a cutting edge or a flat line. It's going to be that. But then it's going to be a case tweak where they're going to either do TAVE at TUB and straighten the case.
00:58:39
Harry: Right or.
00:58:40
Frank Galli: Something like that. That like a tub system would probably be the smart way to go because that's about as man portable as you're going to get.
00:58:51
Harry: Yeah.
00:58:51
Frank Galli: And so and still because he's using that smaller bolt face.
00:58:56
Harry: Right.
00:58:56
Frank Galli: And so if you did like a like a tub system in a step down I 50.
00:59:04
Harry: Yeah.
00:59:04
Frank Galli: You'd probably land on the right combination in some kind of 375 416 variant.
00:59:11
Harry: Right. Would you test that. Would you go and is you tempted to test that.
00:59:18
Frank Galli: I'm a little busted right now on my shoulder. So the big guns really hurt me because I kind of messed with my neck and shoulder. But yeah, I would totally shoot that.
00:59:26
Harry: But yeah.
00:59:27
Frank Galli: You know, it's definitely doable.
00:59:29
Harry: I mean, exciting.
00:59:30
Frank Galli: It's like it really is what it's going to land.
00:59:33
Harry: Yeah. So taking it in a step back and or the way I generally like to wrap up these chats is to get an idea of your personal ethos. And the way we do that is we ask, What are your words to live by? I can't remember if I even prepped you about this before the call, so.
00:59:57
Frank Galli: Oh, no, you did. That's a that's a that's a tough one. My words my words to my words to live by would be wtf.
01:00:04
Harry: Yeah.
01:00:05
Frank Galli: Cool. All the way across the board though. Like from like reading. Like I think like to me it'd be like the forget about it if you ever watched the, you know, something like Donnie Brasco where they ask about what is forget forget about it, forget about it. Could be everything, man. It could be it could be a little of this. A little of that. You know, forget about it could be good, forget about it could be bad to me. WTF could be the good, wtf could be the bad. So I'm a I'm a WTF guy kind of like well what the hell did you do that for? Why the hell are you doing? You know? Wow, that's really cool. Like what the frig. That is excellent, you know.
01:00:42
Harry: Yeah yeah.
01:00:43
Frank Galli: When trajectory and the fundamentals of marksmanship.
01:00:46
Harry: Yeah absolutely. That's. That's a mantra man. It's going in.
01:00:52
Frank Galli: Yeah.
01:00:53
Harry: That would be good.
01:00:53
Frank Galli: Anyway, that would be my unfiltered like little cadence that that's what repeats in my head. WTF.
01:01:01
Harry: Awesome, awesome. And finally, this goes without saying I'm sure, but where can people find you online? If you know where you want them to find you, how can they find you in your and your website?
01:01:14
Frank Galli: Sure. It's us snipershide.com And then I have the Everyday Sniper podcast and also I kind of didn't mention much, but I do have a book coming out on Amazon. If you put my name in or whatever they are to Amazon, I have a precision rifle book with a little bit of history, kind of like this podcast, but I have this variant of the book coming out within the next 1530 days. I think the Kindle is even in pre-order, but if you go on Amazon and put in Frank Galli, my, my, my book will come right up.
01:01:45
Harry: What is it called?
01:01:47
Frank Galli: Precision marksmanship and long range shooting for the Marine Sniper. Something like that.
01:01:54
Harry: Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:55
Frank Galli: It's over there. I can't read it from this far.
01:01:59
Harry: No worries. Well, I'll put all those links in the notes. And if the, if the book is visible on Amazon, we'll link it.
01:02:07
Frank Galli: Yeah, on Amazon. I think it's practical marksmanship. Practical cool. Yeah, I'm a practical guy.
01:02:16
Harry: You've been listening to the Tier one podcast brought to you by Tier one, makers of the world's finest rifle accessories. Find out more at Tier one U.S.A. and tune in for more great insights on the next episode.
]]>
In this two-parter we chat with Frank Galli, founder of Snipershide.com and an incredible long range shooter and instructor.
Frank covers the following for us in this segment:
Check out Frank at snipershide.com and on Instagram @shlowlight
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tier-one-rifle-podcast/id1589736464
https://anchor.fm/tierone/episodes/4-1-Frank-Galli--How-to-be-a-Long-Range-Legend-pt-1-ee3nu8
https://open.spotify.com/show/3JGv6nzkTr3JgIYIwhCaa0
00:00:01
Frank Galli: Welcome to the Tier one podcast. Bringing you interviews with the brightest minds in the shooting industry. Get unique insights to help you shoot better, survive longer, and outperform your competition brought to you by Tier one, the world's best shooting accessories.
00:00:20
Harry: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us on episode four of the Tier one podcast. We've had a little bit of a break. Apologies for that. A bit of a long wait for this one, but it's going to be absolutely worth it because this episode we have the master of long range shooting, Frank Galli. Frank is the founder of snipershide.com, which many of you will have heard of. You may even be active on there. And actually, Frank so generous with his time. We've had to split this one into two podcasts. It's almost, yes, just over 2 hours worth of recording. So in this first in part one, we've got an hour here and we cover a few really cool points with Frank, including his story. So how he got started with in his military service and the snipershide.com in 2000, how he developed early style shooting competitions as well, and how PRS actually was fully fleshed out and developed on snipers hired dotcom, which is a cool bit of history if you're into that. He also covers weaponized math. If you don't know much about that, stay tuned because it's pretty amazing stuff. Also, how to properly true your ballistic calculator. And crucially, I think everyone can benefit from this one. The biggest mistake that people make when they buy new gear. So quite a crucial one. I think we've all done it. Also, finally, we round out with what's essential gear for long range and how do you choose from the insane amount of stuff out there? So this episode is packed full of useful tips and tricks, and Frank is a really cool guy, so definitely worth tuning in and listening to this one. And don't forget, in the next couple of weeks we'll have part two as well, finishing off this this podcast. So that's enough for me. Enjoy the rest of the podcast. Enjoy tips and tricks from the master of long range shooting. Frank Galli.
00:02:22
Frank Galli: Hi, everybody. Listening to the podcast, you got Frank Galli from Snipers Hide. Many of you guys know me as low light out there. I've been low light for a long time. Run the website do training in and to give you a little background on me I was a marine scout sniper, enlisted in the Marine Corps when I was 17 and then went to boot camp, did all that, went to infantry training school and through there they kind of wanted me to go to the recon side of things. Went over through some of the recon stuff and then didn't get along is a nice way of putting it. With one of the lieutenants there I had I had a lieutenant that him and I butted heads and so I went over to the grunts to the line unit. So one, two. And it was right. It was the, the right before they were reopening the Statue of Liberty, we had our Statue of Liberty under construction for years.
00:03:19
Harry: Right.
00:03:19
Frank Galli: And Reagan was going to reopen it. So they needed Marines to go up there as part of the International Naval Review. They had tall ships. I remember there was a tall ship from Spain right next to us. And, you know, they basically have the water parade go by. And then the new Statue of Liberty was unveiled after the repairs. Well, during that trip, I got picked to go to that trip. There was two snipers there. And I had said, hey, listen, I had gone to recon, this is what happened, but I'm in the line unit now and I want to go to a state platoon to be a sniper. And they were like, Yep, cool, man. We want a guy with a recon background. That's great. So that was July four, the 4th of July, and I was a PFC at the time, which, you know, no rank at all really just got in. And then we went to Bridgeport, California, for our mountain warfare training. And then right after that was October was to start a sniper school for the next class. And I was a student. So they they kept their word. They they let me go to sniper school. And, you know, I actually my teammate, who was a corporal from the unit, failed out, but I passed and graduated. And yeah, all of this is happening with the background of the Iran-Iraq war going on.
00:04:42
Harry: Right.
00:04:43
Frank Galli: And so we're getting ready to kind of ramp up in that area. And they created the first Marine Corps special operations capable unit. And so the training was all changing. Prior to that, we were all doing Vietnam. World War Two doctrine. And so now they said, hey, the Marines are going to be a little bit more special operations oriented, and this was going to happen in conjunction with this float. So I go over to the Med, I do a Med float, and that's when the Iranians start getting a little froggy in in the Gulf and they mine the Straits of Hormuz. So they grab a bunch of us. They create a mag half, which is a marine air ground task force of 40, 40 brown Marines. And then like another hornet for the air crew. And they put us on a ship and they send us back over. And now we kind of get engaged in the Iran-Iraq war under what they considered an operation praying mantis or not. That was a praying mantis. That was earnest will. Sorry. Getting reversed. So I'm doing earnest. Well. And one of our ships hit a mine.
00:05:56
Harry: Right. Wow.
00:05:58
Frank Galli: So, yeah. So the USS Roberts hit a mine, and we go and retaliate against the Iranians. So in the eighties, I was able to get combat action and do some stuff, which, you know, it was a little unique in the U.S. I mean, certain Special Forces people were going out and doing small missions, you know, but as far as big military, not as much. And so that kind of laid the groundwork for me to be involved in that type of operations. Early on, I get out, get out of the military and I'm doing private investigation work, a lot of workers comp, insurance fraud, things like that in the New York area where I live.
00:06:43
Harry: Right.
00:06:44
Frank Galli: And so I was actually a licensed New York private investigator. And so really the New.
00:06:51
Harry: York originally.
00:06:52
Frank Galli: Connecticut, but right on the border. If you turned out my driveway, you would be in New York. If you went left, you went right. You were in Connecticut. So they recruited me because they had a a job that nobody can get near anybody. They had three people who were in doing insurance fraud against Amtrak. The train. The train system.
00:07:18
Harry: Yeah.
00:07:19
Frank Galli: And it was millions of dollars in these three guys were working together but lived in rural areas. One lived upstate New York, one lived by Amish country in Pennsylvania, and then another was Mobile. He drove around and did he did like flea markets. Very weird stuff. Yeah, but he lived in his car mostly. Wow. So the guys that lived in the in the rural areas, nobody can get near them because whenever a vehicle showed up to surveil them to see what he was doing, he would catch them.
00:07:51
Harry: Yeah.
00:07:53
Frank Galli: So, yeah. So a friend of mine said, hey, you're a marine sniper, you got a ghillie suit still. Can you go sneak into this guy's front yard, right, and film him working on his house? And I said, Yeah, sure, I could do that. So of course I did it. That all worked out. And not too long after that, I started the sniper's hide website. That was in 2000. So I had just gotten divorced and said, okay, what do I do now? You know, I'm like, Well, we were chatting. There was people there's actually people on snipers hide right now who were there that day. Wow. And we used a website at the time that kept crashing. And you'd get ten people on. It would be okay as soon as you got 12, the site crashed.
00:08:46
Harry: Yeah.
00:08:47
Frank Galli: And so we complained and somebody said, well, we ought to do something. So I made snipers hide and created my own site.
00:08:55
Harry: Right.
00:08:56
Frank Galli: Fill in the blanks. And then when snipers hide got really popular. I got recruited from Jacob Bynum out of rifles. Only he he used down in Texas and had a training facility. And now 911 just happened. The wars are going on. Matter of fact, my current girl, I left during that or I met during that time. We've been together since then. And, you know, so he came up to Connecticut and he said, hey, you need to come to Texas. You need to move your website from the Internet to real life and do things with us down here. Because Jacob was known for hosting pretty much the only competitions in the US. There was like two or three tiny ones. But Jacobs was known as a bigger sort of tactical competition. Precursor to pitchers today.
00:09:53
Harry: Yeah. Okay.
00:09:55
Frank Galli: And so I went down there, shot a competition. And, you know, at the time, as the wars are ramping up, the contracting started. Yeah. The military's looking for outside instructors because, again, the incestuous training from Vietnam was still happening.
00:10:17
Harry: Right.
00:10:18
Frank Galli: And so, you know, Jacob was a big fundamentalist guy, started it was called rifles only because he worked with the Safari Club.
00:10:28
Harry: Okay. Yeah.
00:10:29
Frank Galli: He did a lot of ammo and a lot of work for guys that went on big game safaris.
00:10:35
Harry: Sure.
00:10:36
Frank Galli: His his dad. It's funny. The first time I met his dad, he had just come back from Africa and lost two rifles in Amsterdam because they had they went from Africa to Amsterdam, got off the plane in Amsterdam to spend a couple of days and had their rifles with them. Hmm. And so the government took their rifles because they didn't. Oh, yeah, it was.
00:11:03
Harry: Yeah.
00:11:03
Frank Galli: It was. It was like $50,000 in two rifles.
00:11:08
Harry: Oh, my God.
00:11:09
Frank Galli: So this was the kind of money the safari people were spending.
00:11:13
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. Right back then as well.
00:11:16
Frank Galli: That's right. Right. So that's how Rifles only got started, was through that kind of safari type of deal. Well, to to kind of go back with you guys and and it's kind of a Jacob story and not a frank story. Yeah, but there's a connection. When Jacob was on a big game hunt, he was in New Zealand hunting tar.
00:11:39
Harry: Oh, yeah.
00:11:39
Frank Galli: And he was shooting something. I forget. I don't. I don't want to say it's a wallaby, but something similar to, like, a nuisance animal.
00:11:49
Harry: Okay. Yeah.
00:11:50
Frank Galli: And he was shooting them at, like 1500 meters with a 300 wind mag on I, in fact.
00:11:55
Harry: Right.
00:11:56
Frank Galli: And it caught the attention of some Australian SAS people. Who happened to be over there, who said, hey, we're getting ready to do a 338 program, you should come over because we haven't seen somebody just, you know, knocking off animals at 1500 at like this.
00:12:16
Harry: Like it's nothing.
00:12:17
Frank Galli: Yeah, right. Right. And Jacob is just knocking them down like it was going out of style. And that's what created the military side of rifles only was work through the Australian SAS.
00:12:29
Harry: Okay, that's.
00:12:30
Frank Galli: Interesting. Yeah. And then those guys used to be up in Texas all the time and I met quite a few of them that used to come and work and not necessarily work there. But they did, but they hung out there. And because that was their point of contact in the US when they came in to the US for their other training that was going on.
00:12:50
Harry: Was it Texas?
00:12:51
Frank Galli: Yes. Yes. And so that brought me down there and that got me working full time as a precision rifle instructor.
00:13:00
Harry: Yeah.
00:13:01
Frank Galli: So that's kind of the background from there. And I know it's a long story, but.
00:13:08
Harry: No, it's good. It's a good it's a very interesting story, actually. It's it's all over the world as well.
00:13:14
Frank Galli: It really does because we do travel around quite a bit. But so I'm down there working and doing that and we start creating the competitions around our training. So we look that competition at the time to validate training. So we would do a couple of weeks with military classes, then we do a few civilian classes and then twice a year we did big competitions, right? And we would take the after action reports from the military guys.
00:13:47
Harry: Right?
00:13:49
Frank Galli: So they said, yeah, and turn it into a stage. So we'd say, okay, this guy, you know, had a run up to a knee wall. He had to rest his rifle, you know, with no bags and no stuff at the time. And from the kneeling, he had to shoot and neutralize a target at 800 yards there. And and we would design it around that. And like, in fact, I have I don't know if any of your listeners have ever heard, but they can go. Look, there's a US Ranger who's written books called Nick Irving. He writes The Reaper, three books.
00:14:28
Harry: Okay.
00:14:29
Frank Galli: Nick was a student. I have like his mission notes from those 33 missions.
00:14:35
Harry: Really?
00:14:36
Frank Galli: Yeah, right here on my desk. And we did is we created match stages based on these mission notes.
00:14:45
Harry: Wow.
00:14:45
Frank Galli: And that's how this worked and.
00:14:51
Harry: What? When was this like? What kind of era?
00:14:54
Frank Galli: 2003. It started. And then the. The high point was around 2007. 2008?
00:15:01
Harry: Yeah.
00:15:02
Frank Galli: And then I left rifles only in 2011.
00:15:06
Harry: Right.
00:15:07
Frank Galli: And press started in 2012.
00:15:10
Harry: I'm going to say this is very it sounds very pricey. You know, it's like you guys were doing it first.
00:15:16
Frank Galli: Oh, big time. Well before the press came from what we did, because they started it based on the rifles only events.
00:15:25
Harry: Right.
00:15:27
Frank Galli: And it actually started on sniper's hide. I've created sort of this adversarial relationship with them.
00:15:36
Harry: But.
00:15:37
Frank Galli: But because I don't like kind of how it developed in a way. But basically they started the whole thing on sniper's hide.
00:15:47
Harry: Really? They started presence on site inside.
00:15:51
Frank Galli: Oh, yeah. It was all flushed out. It was all discussed. It was all worked on. Because our match is here is the problem. We have 75 people in a match. Yeah, well, we would say your match is going to, you know, registration opens on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.. At 1002, it was sold out.
00:16:12
Harry: Wow. Okay.
00:16:13
Frank Galli: And so you really had to either come to a class or know us to get into the match, because what people didn't realize is we had sort of a pre-registration list.
00:16:27
Harry: Right.
00:16:28
Frank Galli: And so you really that 10:00.
00:16:31
Harry: AM Rich list.
00:16:32
Frank Galli: Yeah. It was really only like 410 people.
00:16:36
Harry: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:16:37
Frank Galli: Because we had 65 names of people we wanted to shoot with already. It was more an invite thing, but it wasn't publicly announced as being invite.
00:16:48
Harry: Okay.
00:16:49
Frank Galli: We would say, Hey, we like Harry, man. We want to shoot with Harry. Harry's going to come to the match. And if here, you know, if you say, Hey, man, you would call me up and say, Hey, I really want to get into your match. Hey, dude, you're in. I like you. You're good.
00:17:02
Harry: Right?
00:17:03
Frank Galli: And I put your name down.
00:17:04
Harry: Yeah. And and then pre-filled.
00:17:07
Frank Galli: Well. Well, then I tell you, go register anyway.
00:17:10
Harry: Okay.
00:17:11
Frank Galli: But then we go look down the list and go. Okay. Harry. Yep. He registered. He's good. He's on the he's on the guest list, you know. And I mean we've had guys from the UK, I still have, we've had about four guys used to shoot our matches from the UK. One of them is a British Airways pilot and yeah, it comes over him and I have lunch, dinner, breakfast because he stops in Denver about every three months.
00:17:38
Harry: Yeah.
00:17:39
Frank Galli: And you know, we still get together but.
00:17:42
Harry: Voice work if you can get it. Hey, that's. Yeah, yeah, that's not bad.
00:17:47
Frank Galli: No, no. But the matches were like, we wanted you to answer a question. Basically, it was to validate your training. Were you fundamentally secure and doing the barricades and barricades were shot very different back then. A barricade today like the skill stage is, is kneeling, standing, standing, kneeling.
00:18:15
Harry: Right.
00:18:16
Frank Galli: Right. That's the skill stage. Well, we used to do, like three shots sitting. Three shot kneeling. Three shot standing. And then we would go to a prone, but we would change the time limits up smaller, different targets. But it was sitting, kneeling and standing because that three step barricade is designed to replicate a supported shot, a wall, an obstacle. Anything that you might come in contact with?
00:18:46
Harry: Yeah.
00:18:47
Frank Galli: If it's a short wall, well, then you practice your sitting. It's a little taller wall when then kneeling to get over the obstacle. The wall's taller. Then you go standing.
00:18:56
Harry: Yeah.
00:18:57
Frank Galli: So we were testing all three. Of those elements with a barricade, you know, and we used to do paper shoot and CS on paper with them more, more so than, than steel. And that way there, we kind of wanted you to kind of get inside that three inch shooting sea.
00:19:20
Harry: Right.
00:19:20
Frank Galli: You know, from that yard or we are usually like 150 until they made them permanent. But then they went permanent at about 100, 110 yards. But that was the the idea was so you could practice those stages. I mean, we used to do stages where you shot off the barrel. You know, we would put a chain link fence or a barbed wire and say the barrel has to go through. And you'd rest in everybody who came to a rifles only or sniper's hide match knew what their offset was if you rested your barrel on something. All right. You know. So, I mean, we used to do a whole lot of more practical.
00:20:05
Harry: It's clearly all inspired. So it's clearly all quite heavily inspired by like military experience, right? Like it's stuff that like firing positions that you would really have to use in a combat environment. Yes says that's what it sounds like to me.
00:20:24
Frank Galli: It was because we were dealing with for, you know, three weeks on and then one week off there. We were dealing with military guys all the time and all the higher end units, you know, so we would see how are they operating? How are they? Because we don't we never teach, you know, tactics. We're just we're just marksmanship and fundamentals and how to apply the rifle system to your tactics.
00:20:51
Harry: Right.
00:20:52
Frank Galli: Because it's you know, I'm not going to come in and say, well, you need to do it like this. It's like, well, maybe that's not your mission.
00:20:59
Harry: Yeah, yeah, sure. It's up to them.
00:21:02
Frank Galli: Right. But we could say, hey, if you're going to run the gun that way, a better way of doing it might be a little more contact on that obstacle. You know, your hand position could be compromised. Make sure you get your trigger control here. You know, if you're rolling something over or getting under a vehicle or doing these things, yeah, maybe don't roll over prone and do supine, maybe do a Hawkins position instead.
00:21:27
Harry: Right.
00:21:28
Frank Galli: You know, it's about giving somebody that tool in their toolbox versus saying, you know, you have to do this.
00:21:35
Harry: Yeah, sure. Wait. Did you find your students were pretty good? Like, were they already fairly skilled or did you have to teach them quite a lot?
00:21:44
Frank Galli: The military side was very good. I will say the biggest thing we we found with them is especially when they went to the semi-auto platforms. I'll they were going to other training for their M-16s, so their M-4 and M-16s, they would go to three gun guys or speed guys.
00:22:07
Harry: Yeah.
00:22:08
Frank Galli: And then when they started getting their their M1 tens or for them as Marco elevens before the 110. But if they had a Mach 11, which is a semi-automatic 308, they would do a cone of lead. So if they missed the first shot. Yeah, they would empty the mag on the second.
00:22:28
Harry: Yeah, fair enough.
00:22:29
Frank Galli: So that was the goal for us then was to try to convince them sort of the one shot, one kill mentality where put a value to the follow up shot instead of because like the first couple of times that happened, you know, you'd have a guy in and you'd run them up to test them and you'd say, okay, run up here, drop down, shoot that target. Yeah. And they, they'd run up, they drop down, they'd shoot the target and they'd miss and they'd go bank and that first shot would go off and then I'll send, you'd hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And then you go, All right, dude, what are you doing? And they just and they tell you, they say cone lead, right? It's like, Oh, no, no, no, let's do this a little better. So, yes, they're very good because they're they're in great shape. They're they're smart because, you know, the the special operations guys have to have a certain sort of set of smarts to them. They're they're their aptitude scores have to be higher than most people.
00:23:28
Harry: Yeah. It can't just be meat heads and.
00:23:30
Frank Galli: Right. Yeah. And so they take instruction really well. And so yeah, they, they do do well. But there is definitely you're fixing that incestuous training because yeah.
00:23:43
Harry: There's inbuilt behaviours it sounds like.
00:23:46
Frank Galli: Well because the military how they normally operate is they don't say you know you go, you go to combat like right now in today you went out you, you went to Afghanistan. Yeah. And you're a good troop. You did your job, everything was cool and maybe you had a mission and it gave you a little bit of a reputation. Everybody high fives, man. Harry did a good job. You come back to the States and they go, okay, so-and-so's rotating out of sniper school. We need a replacement here. He's a good dude. Get Harry over there. He slayed a bunch of guys. All right, Harry, you're an instructor.
00:24:29
Harry: Yeah.
00:24:29
Frank Galli: And it's like you never taught. You're 20 to 23 years old. You never taught anybody. You don't have formal education in this. You know, you're good. You're a good troop.
00:24:40
Harry: Sure.
00:24:40
Frank Galli: So they.
00:24:41
Harry: Hand you.
00:24:42
Frank Galli: Yeah, they hand you the same paper that they that they handed the guy before you.
00:24:47
Harry: Yeah.
00:24:48
Frank Galli: And they say do this, just talk about this.
00:24:51
Harry: Yeah.
00:24:51
Frank Galli: And it doesn't give you that. It doesn't give you that sort of next level. It's just it's regurgitating what the person before you did.
00:25:03
Harry: Right.
00:25:04
Frank Galli: I mean, because I don't know about you, I don't know your background as far as any military or anything. But I mean, if.
00:25:10
Harry: You have no military experience. No, unfortunately, I wish, but unfortunately not.
00:25:17
Frank Galli: I can tell, like my my combat experience is super limited, but it's there. I mean, it's it's tiny. It's a little raid. No big deal. I wasn't learning anything there. You know, you're not learning. You may learn what not to do. You may learn don't turn this way. Don't go that way. But I'm not thinking about my fundamentals. I'm not looking at how I run the gun. I'm not looking at these things. I basically neutralize that, get to point A to point B and get home.
00:25:52
Harry: Yeah.
00:25:53
Frank Galli: So it's. It's not it's definitely a good experience to have because it teaches you sort of, you know, this calm under pressure. It teaches you to to manage yourself. Sure. But is it really teaching you to run a gun? And that's why the military guys, you know, go to the civilian side where I don't have to worry about getting there from point A to point B anymore. I don't have.
00:26:21
Harry: To worry about supplies.
00:26:23
Frank Galli: Yes. I don't have to worry about scuba diving. I don't have to worry about parachuting. I don't have to worry about ruck march. And all I have to do is shoot my rifle better than the next guy or be able to teach the next guy how to shoot the rifle better than the other guy.
00:26:41
Harry: Right. And you have the freedom to keep innovating? Of course. Yes. Because you're not hampered.
00:26:48
Frank Galli: Well, and then because I'm it's not a stepping stone where the instructors don't stay there, which you don't want them to stay there, really, especially in that environment. So. I can then focus and go, okay, we're teaching everybody this. Maybe it's the middle ranging stuff. You know, we're going to flash, flash, middle of target. Yeah. Okay. Well, what's an easier way to teach it? Well, we could do that rapid target engagement with the number system. Like the weaponized math that we've been doing.
00:27:25
Harry: Yes. So that sort of bit of that.
00:27:28
Frank Galli: Right. So we can sit there and go. All right. So like to to give everybody example of like the weaponized math we're talking about, we created a ballistic calculator that doesn't use any calculations. Really. It's just one number that we're multiplying. We created a single multiplier and we actually just put it in a hard copy chart form so you don't have to actually do the math. But it's a percentage base because we figured out doing these classes as much as we did that it's X percent from 300 to 400, it's x percent from 400 to 500. Right. And it doesn't matter caliber. It doesn't matter anything. Meters, yards, the multiplier is going to work to within two decimal places. Really.
00:28:21
Harry: Is it a constant. Is the multiplier constant or is. Yeah.
00:28:26
Frank Galli: Because like and this happened recently. I'm teaching a class and I teach my Alaska classes with my platoon sergeant from when I was in the Marine Corps.
00:28:38
Harry: Oh, wow.
00:28:39
Frank Galli: Him and I are still friends. We work together. He was a scout sniper instructor, went to instructor school. He was with me. And all the deployments, we reconnected and we teach. Well, he was in our classes. I record your dope. We have a guidebook. So for us. As a student, I'll come up and say, all right, here, you know, we're going to do 300 yards, put a mil on the gun and we'll get you fine tuned in. So we put a mill on your rifle, you shoot 300 yards and maybe your point, 8.8. Harry, write that down. That's your number. Well, I just wrote down for you, 300 yards is 0.8. So we we we took all this data and we were looking at it and we found, regardless of caliber, it was within a percentage point.
00:29:35
Harry: Wow.
00:29:37
Frank Galli: So yeah, it was very eye opening. And so Mark flushed it all out, gave it to me, and I shot it and did it. And then we had guys on, snipers hide. Look at it. We said, Yeah, hey, everybody. I mean, now sniper site is big, right? So there's there's half a million unique people, 8 million viewers. So we have a big audience.
00:30:00
Harry: I was going to I was going to ask about that. Yeah, that's that is big.
00:30:04
Frank Galli: Yeah. So. I can throw information out on there and say, check my math.
00:30:11
Harry: For sure.
00:30:12
Frank Galli: And then people are able to come back to me and say, hey, it works for me. Up it was off right here for me. Okay. What we what we found is there was only a 10th difference between 800 to 1000.
00:30:27
Harry: Right.
00:30:28
Frank Galli: So now without a ballistic calculator, without knowing your dope, without knowing anything, you can take this weaponize math. And all you need to know is the target you hit before. Right, right. Right. Exactly. Your data on previous engagement. So if I know I use 0.8 to hit at 300, I do my multiplication for the four hunter. It's going to give me a number and I guarantee I'm going to be within a 10th at for Hunter.
00:30:58
Harry: Wow.
00:30:59
Frank Galli: And it's hard.
00:31:00
Harry: That's never been done before. No one. No one's. Notice that before.
00:31:06
Frank Galli: No. Never been done. It's it's a it's a percentage of base. And I probably have a data book behind me somewhere and I can grab and even give you the numbers off the top of my head because I don't have them quite memorized, but. It. Yes. And so now when we teach a class, I have a laminated copy of this chart and you could be Mill or Moa, you could be whatever. But then I'm helping you learn because I could say, all right, you're an Moa guy, all right? You used ten and one half Moa at 500 yards and it's like, All right, use ten and a half. Well, what's your six? Multiply that by this. That's your six. I go to the next next student and I go, okay, you were mils and you were using 3.2. Multiply that for the next and that'll give you your 700, you know, and it's going to.
00:32:00
Harry: Be does it work like our to, you know, an infinite distance or is there a point at which you run out of all the multipliers no longer accurate? Like if you get like 2000, 3000 yards, does it stop working?
00:32:14
Frank Galli: We've only done it to 1000.
00:32:16
Harry: Right. Okay.
00:32:17
Frank Galli: So we haven't played the multiplication beyond that. You know, you start, like I said, at 800 because I'm I'm at 5000 feet above sea level. Right. It's it's about a 10th off of the other or it's a percentage point off, actually. So I have to manipulate the numbers to go out farther. We'd have to start manipulating numbers and it would be in the atmospheres are kicking in so much. Yeah. It would become different for everybody. You would be different from me.
00:32:53
Harry: Right, right. Okay, fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. I've been watching a few of your videos, you know, just to just to get a flavor for the way you teach and everything and you take probably because of your marine background and also because of, like the amount of training and immersion in the subject that you have, you take so much into account. But one thing that blew me away as well was the amount of math that you you can do in this and how many things you can take into account, which kills me because I'm not a numbers guy. So it's so easy to fall back on the Kestrel or the ballistic calculator or something, but I'm following your videos and trying to do it manually. Is that something you always teach is to get people to do it manually first, or are you happy for people to use the calculators?
00:33:49
Frank Galli: A little of both. And it is because think about this. If I have a handgun, right, I take my hand gun and I can do my gun finger, right? So I got my finger out, my index and I point at something. So here in my office, I'm going to point at a picture on the wall. If I have a handgun in my hand, I'm going to hit it. Yeah, for sure. If I'm going to do a car being inside a room, if I'm going to do a car being pretty much inside that 100 yards, if I point my finger, I'm going to hit it.
00:34:18
Harry: Yeah.
00:34:19
Frank Galli: Great. And there's a mechanical offset for the car being I get it. But at the end of the day, if I if I didn't, if I'm going to go inside a room with a car being a point I hit.
00:34:28
Harry: Of course I'm going to go.
00:34:29
Frank Galli: If I'm going to go, be inside my house. I point I hit.
00:34:33
Harry: Yeah.
00:34:33
Frank Galli: With my precision rifle. It could be, you know, 1200 meters away. Yeah. And I'm going to be oh, I'm going to be about 18, 25 feet above it. Yeah. And then I'm going to be another ten or 12 feet to the side of it.
00:34:53
Harry: Right.
00:34:53
Frank Galli: And now I have to figure out where in space, 18 feet high and, you know, ten, 12 feet to the left or right. I need to point my rifle in order to hit it.
00:35:06
Harry: Of course. Yeah. Yeah, of course. So useful.
00:35:09
Frank Galli: Yeah, yeah. You have to understand the math, but I'm not opposed to using the calculator. But what I do. Do what everybody with a calculator is. I do. I call it, you know that don't get distracted by your dope. And with our phones and our computers, they're they're a distraction. Because I'll go into my philosophy on this for you. Yeah. So what happens is here's the mindset. Guy goes out and he's going to get a new he's going to buy a Tica six five Creedmoor He's in my attack. Tacky one. He's going to put a Steiner MX five or something on it and he's going to go out, shoot. And he's a happy camper.
00:35:53
Harry: Yeah.
00:35:54
Frank Galli: So. He goes in and he buys the rifle. He he gets a couple of ammunition. He orders this scope. And it's going to be in the mail in a week. Well, what's the first thing he does when he gets home? He downloads a ballistic calculator.
00:36:14
Harry: Yeah.
00:36:15
Frank Galli: And he starts putting numbers.
00:36:17
Harry: In it around. Yeah.
00:36:18
Frank Galli: He strikes. It's on his phone. It's a game.
00:36:21
Harry: And he's going to yourself.
00:36:23
Frank Galli: Right, right, right. Now, he doesn't know anything about shooting or very little, I should say. Yeah. So then he goes to the range the first day to zero the scope and he he struggles, maybe he takes a whole box of ammo to zero and now he's going to start doping it out. And 100 meters, he's all good. Maybe even 200 meters. No big deal. It's, you know, 2 minutes or he's a 0.5 over something like this or 0.3. So that dialing up 0.3 is no big deal. He can he can see that. Sure. Now he goes to three hunter and he's nowhere near and he doesn't know what's going on. And he looks at his ballistic calculator and the ballistic calculator says, Hey, man, you need 1.5 and he puts 1.5 million. And he can't find it. He's nowhere.
00:37:05
Harry: Near there.
00:37:05
Frank Galli: Yeah, right. Because he had a half mil over the target because he really needs like 0.8, you know. And so he's struggling and he's looking at his phone and he goes, But my phone says, but my phone says, I read on the Internet that this ballistic program is the best program I can get. And my phone says 1.5.
00:37:26
Harry: Yeah.
00:37:27
Frank Galli: And he struggles. But if we explain to you and we say, listen, here's how my class goes on first on this that morning, we're going to dope out the rifles. We put everybody on the line. We give them that weaponize math. Right. Or in the past, they were getting the number from me. Right. You know, what do I do for 400? Here's your number. What do I do for three? I'm giving it to you. What are you learning when I give it to you?
00:37:53
Harry: Right. And that's a baseline you're giving them.
00:37:55
Frank Galli: Yeah, well, I know, like, what, a 308? It's from 300 to 6, 700 yards. It's one mil every hundred yards. If you have a 300 at a mill, at a mill, at a mill, you're going to be close. Right. You know, if it's a65 creed .8.8.8. So I can I can get you there.
00:38:15
Harry: Yes.
00:38:16
Frank Galli: And but now with the weaponize math, we're giving you a real number and you're learning something. So I have you write down your actual dope. So now we've shot for the last 4 hours, you have from 200 to 1000 meter doped out. No phone, no calculator, no kestrel.
00:38:34
Harry: Yeah.
00:38:35
Frank Galli: Now let's take that numbers because they're good. We know what they are. We just did it. Let's go in the classroom now. Let's true your computer. So your.
00:38:46
Harry: Data.
00:38:47
Frank Galli: Yes. Your computer has to match your rifle. Your rifle can never match the computer, you know what I mean? And so.
00:38:55
Harry: Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:56
Frank Galli: We're we're trying to put this logical order for you to follow rather than you fight the system, trying to get, you know, struggle with the computer where. It. It's instead of somebody playing with their computer for a long time, it's done really quick.
00:39:17
Harry: Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:19
Frank Galli: And. And one of the things we do because we don't. We do like I tried every method. To start people off immediately with their software.
00:39:32
Harry: Right.
00:39:32
Frank Galli: What I would do the 100 yard zero, I would chronograph every rifle. Yeah. And then we would plug into the computer and then it's still be off because we've got to true it.
00:39:45
Harry: Right. Okay.
00:39:46
Frank Galli: Well, then we tried a 300 drop method where we did all that 100 yards, zero, we chronograph to your rifle and then we shot with no dope on the rifle. Three hunter. In measured the drop with a ruler.
00:40:01
Harry: Right.
00:40:02
Frank Galli: Wasn't right for every rifle we. I had a Valkyrie that shot. Point of aim point of impact. It's like what the heck's going on? Because there will always be one student in the class.
00:40:14
Harry: Yeah.
00:40:15
Frank Galli: That didn't work. So then what we started doing was. No chronograph. Throw the chronograph out the window. If you're reloading and you're doing all that great by a chronograph, if you're just going to go out and shoot, use 600 meter dope your rifle to 600 meter, and then line the muzzle velocity on your computer up with that.
00:40:44
Harry: Right. Okay.
00:40:46
Frank Galli: So now you take your 600 meter drop line, your muzzle velocity up in your computer, because problem is if I chronograph my rifle. The computer is going to change that number anyway.
00:40:57
Harry: Right?
00:40:58
Frank Galli: Because that's how they. True. So why bother going through the effort when I'm just going to. So, you know, some guy gets 27, 50 and the next thing you know, the computer wants him to use 26, 80 or 28, ten. You know.
00:41:14
Harry: It's funny because they do a lot of people online do push the chronograph and, you know, talk about it. It's essential, you know, or I'm not saying professional people do it. I'm saying, you know, just commentors.
00:41:26
Frank Galli: You know. Well, it's it's it's a product. Everybody wants to buy it. But the thing is and the reason I say if you're if you're reloading and if you're creating your own round, it's essential.
00:41:37
Harry: Yeah, of.
00:41:38
Frank Galli: Course. If you're a casual shooter and you're going to depend on a computer, the computer's going to change that number anyway.
00:41:45
Harry: Right?
00:41:46
Frank Galli: So what you would do is you would put your muzzle velocity of 600, then go to either 800 or 1000 and shoot again. So now you've got a 600 yard drop and you've got to either an 800 or 1000. Well, when you get your 801,000, if it needs to be adjusted still, if you need to fine tune your computer, well then you use B.S..
00:42:10
Harry: Right?
00:42:11
Frank Galli: So I've tweaked my muzzle velocity to make the computer happy at 600. At 800, I tweaked the B.S. to match the two. Now, if I move around, if I travel, if I do anything, think of a set of scales. Screwing your computer is two scales. You got a left hand. Right hand in the pan of the scale goes up and down. Yeah, well, if I only depend on muzzle velocity in my left hand and I put more weight on that will muzzle velocity with more weight goes down, the BC side is going to go up on the scale. Sure. So. So now I have like an imperfect. True. Well, if I take an imbalance, the muzzle velocity and then bring that beak back into alignment, I've now balanced the scale again.
00:43:03
Harry: Right.
00:43:04
Frank Galli: And what we found is it's a lot less variations when you move location. It's a lot like because for me being in Colorado but you know, mile high of sea level. Yeah if I go to Florida which is almost below sea swamp.
00:43:21
Harry: Yeah, yeah. Right.
00:43:22
Frank Galli: If I go there, I have to retrieve my computer in the old if I, if I, if I follow the instructions that Castro puts out. To the public. I have to be true. If I manually do it the way I just said I don't. And they actually kind of tell the military to do both. Edie Yeah. And so like I just said, they kind of give a little different instruction to the military than they do the civilians. Yeah. So here's the other problem. If you're going to use the complete Castro functions to true, you need like for a65 Creedmoor, you need about 12 to 1400 yards for the subsonic part.
00:44:15
Harry: We. We're ready to get. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry.
00:44:19
Frank Galli: Go see. Where do you get 4500 yards to shoot through you?
00:44:27
Harry: Like, maybe Scotland. You know, that's about it. Why was this pretty empty? Not where I live.
00:44:35
Frank Galli: Yeah, but if you look at the dsf, when you go to put that number in, it's beyond the range most people have access to.
00:44:44
Harry: Yeah, for sure.
00:44:45
Frank Galli: Our way of doing it sort of cheats the system, but in a way that most software worked prior to this. You know, because like I said, I have software that goes back to the 2000s and stuff that was on Palm Pilots and things like that.
00:45:01
Harry: Sure.
00:45:02
Frank Galli: And we've always trued both elements and never just one. And yes, there was a period of time where the software people said, oh, just do this with muzzle velocity. And it sort of works. Right? But the deeper we get into it, the more variety we put behind it, the less we see it works without doing it again and doing it again and doing it again.
00:45:28
Harry: Just constantly resetting it.
00:45:30
Frank Galli: Yeah. So that's I'm not anti software at all. I have every piece of software ever made probably.
00:45:36
Harry: Yeah, sure. I suspect you get sent a lot of stuff all the time. Like, try this, try that, try.
00:45:42
Frank Galli: I do. You know, I have two phones just because one of them is 100% just for software. My my android is just to run software because I'm an Apple iPhone guy. Sure. And so a lot of times software writers will write for Android first. And so for me to run test stuff, I have a phone just for that. I have I have like test setups when people do send things.
00:46:11
Harry: Yeah. Yeah. Because Android is a more open system, isn't it. And Apple's quite sort of restrictive on what they allow on the App Store. So from what I've heard, yeah, yeah.
00:46:21
Frank Galli: And even like for you guys, I have a Windows phone as well. I don't have. Yeah, yes I have.
00:46:28
Harry: No they still made them.
00:46:29
Frank Galli: They don't really. But it, it doesn't have a SIM card in it, it just hooks to wi fi. But my windows phone runs cold bore, which is from Patagonia ballistics out of Argentina.
00:46:40
Harry: Right. Okay. Yeah.
00:46:41
Frank Galli: So he his his software only runs on cold bore. So I have a phone that I just turn on and off and connect to wi fi but doesn't make any phone calls. But that's that's the system that it needs to run that software.
00:46:56
Harry: Do you think? Because I mean, you've sort of answered the question about the importance of software. It is important, but but also do the do the analog version. But there's I'm seeing a huge shift in the industry and I think you referenced this in one of your videos that post 911, the long range shooting industry, the civilian side changed massively. There was like a lot of development, a lot of changes happening where the old style of like to use your phrasing just now, the kind of Vietnam War, World War Two style of stuff went away and you started developing these new systems and with it came a ton of new technology and a ton of new accessories. And now you look at the market like I was at Shot Show in January and you look at the there's so many different stores where they're developing one tiny piece of the rifle system or of the software, but they're developing it into this to the nth degree. And if you want, you can go out and spend 50 grand on gear like tomorrow. But obviously you don't need all that gear. There's two questions out of that. One, what is the essential gear for somebody in long range or is moving into long ranges? Do it a little bit and wants to get serious about it, but not blow the bank. And to where do you see that going in terms of the US gun industry? Is it good for the industry? Is it creating confusion? What are your thoughts?
00:48:30
Frank Galli: Yeah, it's money. You know, the military invested so much money and, you know, like the Special Forces guys were getting unlimited budgets early on. I think it took like forever for Canada to finally go to their SF guys and you know, hey, you guys have to give us a budget because we can't keep going unlimited for you. But yes. And so. That it is changing, it is going electronic and it is biting people. So there is a downside to electronics and now essential gear and to be serious yet. That's that's a loaded question in a lot of ways. Sure. You know yeah. You need your rifle you need you need a good good rifle. Right. You know, and like I said, I'll go back to the tech platform. I think it's a great platform. Yeah. So you get a you get a tech attack. A one. Yeah. Or even at3.
00:49:23
Harry: Yeah.
00:49:24
Frank Galli: T3x. Right. And, but I'll stick with the tech one because it's more of the military look with the chassis system and it's more of a crossover. You buy that now you want to get a good scope put in top it. What a good scope. What a usable reticle. The reticle is the key point of a scope. Now there's two elements really. There's your elevation, your usable elevation. You want to make sure that has enough for the caliber you're shooting. Yeah. And then you want the reticle and sort of that adjustment system that works for you. So the radical and the turrets have to match and you want the one that when you look at it, your mind says, yes, I understand this because you're it's a ruler, right? So you don't want a ruler that's in a foreign language to you. You want a ruler that's going to speak to you. So that's an essential thing.
00:50:17
Harry: Yeah.
00:50:18
Frank Galli: Well, then from there, right, you need good ammo, a rear bag. And then I always advocate I'm a I'm a bipod slob because I've seen bipod matter. So you want a good bipod? You know what I mean? A stamped sheet metal Harris is your lowest common denominator. Does it work?
00:50:40
Harry: Absolutely, yeah.
00:50:42
Frank Galli: Are they out of square? Are they out of spec? Do they bounce on the springs? Are they, you know, hard to deal with? And are you going to do more than you should on your side of the rifle because you're running a Harris? Yes. But will it work? Absolutely. You know, so you want a good bipod in that, you know. So I'm definitely in that essential equipment then like bag wise. Starting out. You need one bag, a good rear bag.
00:51:13
Harry: Okay.
00:51:14
Frank Galli: Okay. So you need the rear bag. Now, as you progress, you're going to want to go into the competitions or do something even on the military side, if you're going to be serious and you're going to move to the next level. Well, then there's there's a two bag solution. So one is a Saracen, a war horse type, a game changer, the heavy. The. It's a support bag. Okay, so you need a support bag for the rifle?
00:51:43
Harry: Yeah.
00:51:43
Frank Galli: Then the one is you need the pillow or the support bag for you. So to me that would be the essential products right there. Is that now the last missing part is you either need the data book or you need the computer.
00:52:02
Harry: Yeah.
00:52:03
Frank Galli: Well, if you're going with the computer, you better have some kind of backup hard copy piece of paper, I think. Hard copy. Hard copy to me is always going to beat a computer. Because of weather conditions, things like that. Now, if you're if you're a guy out there listening and you're strictly a phone guy and you're going to run software on your phone, I will tell you, if you come to my range in August and if you put your phone down and you shoot your first yard line and then you get your dope for your next yard line, and then I say, okay, hey, we're going to talk about this shot we just take. And I and I spend 10 minutes talking to you and then I send you back to your rifle. Your phone's going to be shut off.
00:52:45
Harry: Yeah.
00:52:46
Frank Galli: Because the heat.
00:52:47
Harry: Oh, oh, really? 3 minutes just got the screen has gone off. You mean the heat's going to kill it?
00:52:53
Frank Galli: Yeah, because I'm a mile closer to the sun. It's going to be 90 degrees, and it's going to go into thermal mode immediately. Wow.
00:53:01
Harry: Okay. Yep. Well, there's the weakness in the system straight away.
00:53:07
Frank Galli: Right now, your kestrel is better because it won't have that happen. But then, you know, you might run into cases where, you know, you get out of your car, you're walking over, you dropped your kestrel and your guy drove by, your buddy came, pulled up. And right when you dropped your kestrel, he drove up and rolled and drove over it.
00:53:24
Harry: Yeah, for sure.
00:53:25
Frank Galli: Now, you just broke Kestrel. What are you going to do?
00:53:27
Harry: Oh, you screw it. Go home. Yeah.
00:53:30
Frank Galli: Or you're spinning it to get the atmosphere as you're spinning it and spinning it. And you let go of it and you fling it and it breaks, you know, maybe, maybe not. But anyway, so I always consider a hard copy backup. To me, that's essential gear that gets everything done. Now, then from there, you can look at laser range finders. I'm a big fan of them. I honestly don't see. Yes, you know, middle ranging is a legacy skill, but it's 600 metres and NW.
00:54:02
Harry: Yeah.
00:54:03
Frank Galli: It was for your personal danger space. It wasn't meant to range something at 900, it was meant to read something at 500.
00:54:10
Harry: So it was originally a military technique.
00:54:13
Frank Galli: Yeah, because it was artillery for me. I have a 600 metre danger close window. Yeah. I have a radio. Yeah. A well. Inside 600 is my personal danger space. I'm, I'm I'm. I'm threatened by everything inside 600.
00:54:32
Harry: Yeah. So you going to take it out.
00:54:34
Frank Galli: Right after that? Not so much. I have time and opportunity to do my job. I can I can look at the map. I can do all kinds of things, reference points. I can throw artillery out there if I want.
00:54:49
Harry: Yeah.
00:54:50
Frank Galli: You know, I could drop a drone, I could do whatever I have to do. But inside, they're going to be a little more hesitant. I better be in trouble before they're going to drop it.
00:54:59
Harry: Right.
00:55:00
Frank Galli: You know, so that's why there's different ways of doing the job that way that people don't have the context. You know, because we only see an image of, you know, just like, you know, you do by pods. So people always look at the pictures of the snipers from my era or shooting off their backpack, their ruck.
00:55:22
Harry: Yeah, sure.
00:55:23
Frank Galli: So I'm going to throw you guys at Bergen, right? So I'm going to throw my Bergen down. I'm going to. I'm going to put it on top. I'm going to drop on top of it. And I'm going to get my shot off. And then I'm going to pick up everything and I'm going to go. Well, what they didn't know is my sniper rifle, my m4a1 didn't have a bipod and had no way of putting one on it. Even if they had one. Really, there's no there's no mount. So what we used to do is we used to make a tripod out of our tent stakes with 550 cord.
00:55:54
Harry: Oh, wow.
00:55:54
Frank Galli: If I was going to be in a more permanent position, I can make a little tripod with my tent stakes. I can I could take my three tent stakes because I'm going to carry them anyway. I can wrap them with 550 when I get to my location. I just turn them to the side and I create a tripod and I can put my rifle on it. What if I'm moving and I'm moving a contact? Well, then I'm not going to take that out of my pack. I'm not going to put all these things together. I'm just going to drop my pack down. I'm going to shoot off it.
00:56:21
Harry: Yeah, yeah.
00:56:23
Frank Galli: No more than three shots from any one position and displace.
00:56:27
Harry: Oh, really? I didn't know that. That's interesting. Well, that's cool. Tradecraft.
00:56:32
Frank Galli: Yeah. I don't want to catch an artillery round.
00:56:34
Harry: Right. Of course. Yeah. Water or something? Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:39
Frank Galli: You know what I mean? I don't want to eat a tank round or something. It's in. I actually know somebody who. It was the ah I was, it was a friendly fire situation, but there was a sniper on overwatch and the infantry saw him. And what's. What was the counter? They sent the tank round after him and actually kind of hurt him a little bit. Ouch. But they use a tank, you know.
00:57:04
Harry: Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. They're not going to risk themselves. Just put a shell in there.
00:57:09
Frank Galli: So context with precision rifle is the lacking part of it. That's the missing element.
00:57:19
Harry: You've been listening to the Tier one podcast brought to you by Tier one, makers of the world's finest rifle accessories. Find out more at Tier one U.S.A. and tune in for more great insights on the next episode.
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Topics:
Long Range Shooting, Precision Rifle, Caliber Selection and more
www.moderndaysniper.com
Caylen is Speaker 1
This is a full transcript of the interview with Caylen Wojcik, founder of Modern Day Sniper, long range shooting trainer and all round awesome guy.
00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Tier one podcast. Bringing you interviews with the brightest minds in the shooting industry. Get unique insights to help you shoot better, survive longer, and outperform your competition brought to you by Tier one, the world's best shooting accessories.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, welcome back. Thank you for tuning in. This is episode six. I think we're up to episode six. On this episode, we've got Caylen Wojcik. Caylen is the founder of Modern Day Sniper. He runs website Modern Day Sniper Dotcom and a hugely successful podcast. Definitely check that out. It's also called Modern Day Sniper. It's on Apple Podcasts, I believe it's also on Pod Bean. I think that's where it's hosted. He hosted that with his co host, Phil Vallejo, and it's packed full of really, really cool stuff. So we get kind of a condensed version of that in this in this episode, Caylen is now an instructor in the art of Long Range Shooting, and his mission is to create well rounded rifleman. As you'd expect from an instructor, there's lots of tips and tricks and things you can do, things you can avoid, drills that you can run this afternoon after listening to this. Or, you know, if you're going on a range day soon, all sorts of things you can take out and actually put into practice. So a hugely actionable episode here. A couple of funny stories as well about being put on the spot and asked to snipe a sheep at 700 meters in 700 yards in windy conditions. So some cool stuff like that. I think you'll really enjoy this episode. I certainly did enjoy recording it. So without any further ado, I think I'll hand you over to Caylen Wojcik of Modern Day Sniper. Thanks for tuning in.
00:01:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I appreciate the opportunity. First and foremost, this is this is awesome. I love I love being able to do these things and communicate and share with with other audiences. And and again, thank you for the opportunity to do that. And so.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: My passion.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: For you guys that my background is I started on this, on this path when I was a Padawan. My parents, my dad did not hunt or shoot. So I kind of taught myself how to do this. I started hunting when I was 12. I've got big guns when I was like ten, and I started to shoot birds and squirrels and stuff in the backyard. And, and that eventually led to actually. I think I bought my first. I bought a shotgun and then I bought a center fire rifle because I read a lot of books when I was a kid, voracious reader, like I was reading Tom Clancy by the time I was like 12, 13 years old.
00:02:52
Speaker 2: So big books. Yeah.
00:02:55
Speaker 1: You know, it was just like I had my my brain needed that. I needed that. And once I, like, open the book and started to turn a couple of pages, I always was super fascinated with the military. I have a lot of lineage in my family from military members. And so I was always really intrigued by it. And it was it was this glorious, you know, this glorifying thing. And so I wanted to just consume as much as I could. And then I started to read about snipers. And then I was like, Well, that's pretty much my cup of tea, because I love being in the woods. I love I love hunting. And that's really all snipers do is you are you go on hunting trips. That's pretty much what it is. And so I bought my first fire rifle when I was 14, and I lived in a rural portion of New York state. And I would take it out to apple orchards and and and like I taught myself how to shoot it at distance. Like, I would say, okay, well, if I can hit a pie plate at 300 yards, cool, then we're going to move that apple bin back another 100 yards and see if I can hit it again. And I started loading my own ammunition because, you know, at 14 years old, I didn't have much money to buy loaded 36 cases. And so, yeah, man, I joined the Marine Corps when I was a couple of months shy of 18 years old. And that's when the path started, man. And and I spent time in the Marine Corps, pretty much my first enlistment or my first half of my first enlistment. I was just I was a regular infantry guy, which was really good because it allowed me to learn how the infantry worked. And it allowed me to better support the infantry as a sniper, because it's pretty much all you do as a sniper is you are an infantry Marine, but you're there to support the main effort of the actual of the rifleman.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: So does that sorry to interrupt your flow set you up with good fundamentals as a rifleman in the Marines, or did you learn that later?
00:04:57
Speaker 1: Well, the Marine Corps teaches you the Marine Corps does teach you how to shoot very well, as a matter of fact, especially like from the standpoint of like when you're at boot camp, they have to have a system in place. And being being a firearms instructor for 20 years now in one way, shape or form, the only way that you can get students to progress is to is to give them a system. And the Marine Corps has figured out at that point in time anyways, I think it helped that I had a desire to learn. Right? I think it helped. Like I was super pumped to go to the rifle range. I was like, sweet, we could actually go to the right and shoot. And so like I poured everything that I had into listening to everything that my primary marksmanship instructor told me and knowing that I had a baseline established. But I also went into it with like, I don't know shit and I'm just here to learn and these guys are going to help me achieve my goals. And that's and I think that's part of being a good student too, is like, yeah, you know, releasing, releasing the ego aspect of it and saying, All right, well, I'm just here to learn. And so when I got into the sniper program, honestly, like, I didn't know a fraction of what we know now in terms of shooting and in terms of the science of shooting. And so we we learned a lot and we didn't just kind of really was going through the motions. A lot of institutional inertia was happening and we were like, Ah, we're just doing this because that's the way it was done before. And then when I got into when I, when I, when I became an instructor at the basic course, that's when I really started to dive deep into like, okay, I need to get these guys to pass. Like, I need to get them. I need that. Like, my job here is to make snipers, so I can't just fail people. I'm here to. I'm here to. To pass people.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I want it to be good, right? Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, that's my job.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Effective.
00:07:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so know we like, I, I started implementing the ballistic computer programs from like the Sierra Ballistics and X Ball in 2001, trying to figure out better ways of, of getting students to a to the end goal. You know, like if I didn't have to spend three days or four days shooting yard lines to get data and I can only do it in one. Perfect. Let's do that because I can really use those three days to work on moving targets or wind calls at at distances beyond 500 yards and things like that. So that's where my mind was. And then I did a combat deployment in 2004 and quickly realized that although the knowledge was there, the application was not even close to being sufficient.
00:07:54
Speaker 2: Really?
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, not even close in terms of like something as simple as, like, data management. Well, all right. We had our dopes memorized every hundred yards, but. Shooting a 308 at 700 to 800 yards. It's a big difference in terms of drop value from 708 hundred yards and splitting. The difference isn't always going to work. It'll get you in the ballpark. But when I need bullets to hit targets like not not hitting steal, but like I need this to I need this guy to stop doing that changes everything.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: And I need that first shot. You need you need first shot accuracy or you do get two shots in that scenario or what are you aiming for?
00:08:39
Speaker 1: It really depends. Like in, in most in most combat applications, you're going to have extremely limited exposure targets. I mean, you're only going to be shooting at a part of of a of a silhouette. You might get a muzzle flash. You might be shooting it like the part of somebody's face as they're trying to peek out around behind a corner. And so your your ability to be not only surgically precise, but fast at the same time, it was like, whoa. And like moving targets as an example to like. There's a big difference shooting a, you know, a silhouette target that's walking at three miles an hour, you know, on the rifle range to somebody that's literally running for their life across this.
00:09:25
Speaker 2: As.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: Fast as they can. And you still have to be able to hit that. Like the whole bull. It's all bullshit. The one shot, one kill stuff. It's bullshit. It doesn't. Yeah. We want to achieve. We want to get as close as we can to first round impacts. But in a in a combat scenario like. I'm looking to get you to stop doing what you're doing. I want to remove you from the fight. So if that means. If that means I hit. If that means I put a bullet into. If I miss low and hit somebody in the hip.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: Who cares? Right. That's just.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: Going to.
00:09:58
Speaker 1: Stop. They're going to stop and it's going to require more people to go retrieve that guy. And so it's all that's where that's where that is.
00:10:07
Speaker 2: And so.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: But when we went to combat, we realized, like, whoa, okay. So these loads that we're carrying never trained for that, didn't train for that. Things like body armor. We didn't have body armor until we went overseas. And then it was like, oh, here's another £15 of shit to carry.
00:10:26
Speaker 2: And the and you got to lay on it. It's like.
00:10:29
Speaker 1: Right.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: So you're up when you're prone, right?
00:10:31
Speaker 1: All of these things, all of these things started to contribute to, okay, we need to rethink this, we need to rework this. And that just continues to develop and drive content, drive curriculum and producing better, more efficient snipers. And that's, you know, and so like after I did that deployment, I got hurt on that deployment and those those that injury caused me to have in my career. So, yeah, so I got out of the Marine Corps in 2005 on a medical discharge and. I moved up here to Washington State and started teaching for teaching precision shooting for a bunch of security companies doing contract work. I started a couple of businesses on my own kind of small time stuff, which eventually led me to work for Mac Apple. And then from Apple started my own business, which is now modern day sniper.
00:11:29
Speaker 2: Right. And how long is modern day sniper been up and running now?
00:11:33
Speaker 1: Modern day sniper has been a brand since last November.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: So it's pretty new.
00:11:38
Speaker 1: It's very new.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's taken off.
00:11:40
Speaker 1: It's taken off. And really the only people that we have to thank for that are our followers and our listeners, really. You know, you guys are the ones that are that are helping us push this forward. And we've you know, I've got a fantastic team. It's really just myself and my wife. My wife has a lot of background in business. Her name is Cassandra and she absolutely kills it. She crushes it. And she's also got she's got a small team herself that she knows. Like she she's the project maestro, right? She's the she's bringing a lot of the stuff together and yeah. Which is allowed us to do the things like the online training stuff that we just released, which is fantastic.
00:12:24
Speaker 2: Right. So I was going to ask you about this later, but now's a good time as you brought it up. You I think it's called the schoolhouse.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: The online schoolhouse. Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: Yep. So tell us a bit about what you're doing there.
00:12:36
Speaker 1: Cool. So the online schoolhouse, what we wanted to do, I wanted to do something different with online training. And I think a lot of our marketing in this space is quite antiquated. And the reason that I realized that it was antiquated was I started to look into other areas of business or other industries that my wife was exposing me to, and she was like, Hey, look, see how these people do it over here? And I would look at I'd be like, Whoa, that's super rad. Like, what? What? We're not like.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Why is the gun industry not doing this?
00:13:08
Speaker 1: Exactly. And it's like, it's okay. It's a progression. And it's, you know, it's and I don't even think we're there's no trade secrets here. Like, all you got to do is do some research and and start looking at things and applying them. And and she does a lot of online courses. And she's she's also she's a yoga instructor. She's a yoga teacher.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: So. Oh, awesome.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: Very, very accomplished as well. Like, she's done a lot of a lot of training. And so I started to look at how that industry was organized and structured with regard to how they presented information. And I was like, okay, all right, this is that's the inspiration right there, because I like doing things very systematically. And a lot of online training in our industry now is is pretty much like, all right, we're either going to subscribe, you're going to do a monthly subscription and you're just going to kind of have access to whatever video it is that I decide to throw up on the on the World Wide Web this week. Yeah. That's cool. But there's no structure, there's no path, or it's like, hey, pay this amount of money and you have access to these 60 something videos that don't really have any direction. There's no curriculum associated, there's no path, there's no guidance. And that's what we wanted to do differently. I want to eventually my goal is to create an online course for every in-person course that we have because there is a barrier for entry and there's a barrier for entry to training because in generally speaking, it costs far more for a student to come train than the tuition itself. Actually, like 3 to 4 times more. We start talking about ammo, we start talking about travel, we start talking about plane tickets and rentals and food and lodging, and it's like it adds up. And so for somebody to say, I'm going to commit to a four day precision rifle course, well, that's a significant portion of your of your vacation then like that could be taking away from time with your family. And so, yeah, barrier for entry and we're going to change that and we're totally like, I wish to completely disrupt the marketplace with that.
00:15:20
Speaker 2: Because.
00:15:21
Speaker 1: Like if you, if you have the ability to organize and structure your an online curriculum, obviously the best thing is to be there to get that in-person coaching that's really, really important. But you can do you can do a lot on your own with with with dedication and discipline.
00:15:40
Speaker 2: My feeling is, is it's, it's in that last bit. I mean, you'd know better than me, but I feel like if the student has to come prepared and they have to be pre framed in the right way for that course to be effective. Right. If they and that's the problem that you've just mentioned of how courses are normally operated online. It's like there's the portal, there's the 60 lessons have at it, you know, and maybe you do three or four or five whatever, and then you sort of lose interest and you come back a month later and then you lose interest.
00:16:12
Speaker 1: Right.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: But if you it's almost like if you make it hard for that person, maybe that's the wrong phrase. But you get that commitment before the course. Yes. And then what you're teaching really goes in. You really actually have some effect on that.
00:16:28
Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. And so, like, when we look at it from that, from that point of view, we say, okay. I like. I need to take you through a progression. And that's why we started off with, you know, we have two free courses in there. One is like on rifle safety, which I think is obviously super, super important. Yep. Then you have also rifle cleaning. All right. So, yeah, rifle cleaning. Are there a gazillion videos on YouTube? Let's talk about rifle cleaning. Absolutely. They sure.
00:17:04
Speaker 2: Are.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: Who has the time to sift through all that stuff, to find out what's what's what. And I'm not saying that modern day sniper is the end all, be all. I'm just saying that we want I wanted to put that into one place A to Z. And so that way it's not something that you have to go fish around and say, you know, whatever.
00:17:21
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: And then we started off with the circle of components. And the circle of components is probably one of the biggest things that people take for granted in this sport of of precision shooting is not understanding how your rifle is assembled and all elements that actually go into making a precision shooting system. That's something that we wanted to focus real hard on. And the circle of components course basically will allow you to build your own rifle, provided that you have all the components we take you from A to Z. This is a pile of parts. This is the stuff that you need to know about a barrel. This is the stuff you need to know about an action. This is how we put a barrel onto an action. This is how you set headspace, all those things. And so.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:05
Speaker 1: The end goal is, all right, now we have this rifle. I'm going to teach you how to test the ammunition, figure out what what ammo shoots best are your rifle. And we got it zeroed. Then we cut that course off. All right, now we got that stuff done. Next thing that we do is to teach you how to shoot it.
00:18:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:24
Speaker 1: And we release fundamentals of marksmanship and so.
00:18:28
Speaker 2: So fit.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a drip. It's a progression, right? It's. It's exactly the same way we progress in our courses and our in-person courses. Yeah. I'm not restricted by time, I'm not restricted by saying, okay, well I only have four days with these guys and I can't spend 5 hours talking about how a precision rifle is built, but I can on the Internet. All right. So now you have that. Now you have that stuff for life, you know?
00:18:54
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:54
Speaker 1: And that's the cool. Like the same thing with the fundamentals. Like our fundamentals course is 5 hours of content.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: Wow. Just the fundamentals, just fundamental.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: And so like, like if you want to focus on your grip, there's, there's 12 minutes, 15 minutes of me talking about the grip of the shooting hand, right? Really. Yeah. So it's so it gives you an opportunity to to have this, this evergreen content. What I mean by evergreen means is it's going to last forever. It's going to knowledge. You've purchased it. It's there forever. And we we also the pricing aspect of things is like we're learning as we go here. This is our first foray into this. And so we're trying to figure that out. And like it is what it is. There's a cost to to develop this content, right? There's a cost associated with it. So yeah, it's not a small cost either.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: So yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: And I really didn't realize what I was getting myself into until we sat down and I started writing down the curriculum and I was like.
00:19:55
Speaker 2: Oh shit. How is your commitment to because.
00:20:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're done. Yeah.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: Your listeners now.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like stepping off. It's like stepping off an airplane. As soon as you snooze, that one foot leaves the airplane, you're like, All right, dude, this is it. We're going for it.
00:20:10
Speaker 2: So yeah.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. But it's been a blast. It's been a lot of it's been a lot of fun to do. It's been a learning experience in terms of like video production. It's been a learning experience and like editing and it's awesome. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah. So we got some super cool stuff coming this fall. Super cool stuff.
00:20:29
Speaker 2: So I'm oh, very good. So I'll ask again at the end. But what's the website that people can find that at.
00:20:35
Speaker 1: Just modern day sniper dot com go to modern day sniper dot com and you'll see a link at the top for the online schoolhouse and click there and it'll port you over to our online training website, which is the online schoolhouse. And the reason it's not on our website is we used we used a website, a web platform that's specifically designed to administer online training. Yeah. So yeah. And it's very, very, it's, it's well done because now we have the ability to each module like we have a class of course, fundamentals, marksmanship and inside that are seven modules of learning and each module is broken down and each module has an associated student handout that you can print. Each module has an associated checklist that you can print out, right? And so there's supporting materials. And what we want to do is create the most comprehensive, all inclusive package that you could just be like, Oh, shit, it's right all here. It's all right here.
00:21:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it a great thing for you, I suppose, as well as and for the customers. You can keep adding to that like all the stuff that's there stays there, but you can add more value and they're still subscribed.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: Exactly. Now we are charging like we are charging in like we're charging for each course individually. Yeah, but we are working on a subscription based service at the moment. So it's just going to be one of those things where.
00:21:53
Speaker 2: So people can pick and choose the module they want, but in future you'll probably go full access for the monthly fee.
00:21:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. We'll, we'll like, we'll see how that works out. That's what I'm trying to, I'm just trying to iron it out and. Make sure that that when we do release it, that it's the best experience for our customers can have. That's what we're going to do.
00:22:11
Speaker 2: I like the idea of that because I think the thing with YouTube is that there's a lot of information out there, but you can never really. There's a there's a lot of different people with opinions. And how do you validate that instructor as someone who knows what they're talking about? And then the next video tells you something completely different. It's a.
00:22:35
Speaker 1: Tough one, and I think that's there's a valid point there. And it all depends too on like how that individual, that company structures their YouTube page, how do they organize it. And like we kind of stayed away. Like I wasn't really super big on YouTube because, you know, first and foremost, like, I don't really I don't wish to be controlled, right? I don't want my content controlled by another entity that can just be like, Yeah, you know what? We don't like that. We're going to shut that off. So I resisted the YouTube thing for a long time and we're starting to populate our YouTube page. And it's it's more along the lines of it's there for brand awareness, but we want all of that content to live in an environment where we can control it, where like, I don't have to worry about somebody saying, you know, I don't like that video, let's just not.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Publish it was censor it.
00:23:25
Speaker 1: You know. So that's not what we want to do.
00:23:27
Speaker 2: So. So. I think you've already answered a question, but your mission now with school house, with modern day sniper, what is it? Is it to reach more people? Is it to improve the quality of instruction? You know, precision rifle instruction generally? Or what is it that we want?
00:23:49
Speaker 1: We want to.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: Go.
00:23:50
Speaker 1: We want to create the most well-rounded rifleman out there.
00:23:54
Speaker 2: Right.
00:23:55
Speaker 1: We want to create a rifleman that understands that there is a balance between art and science. Yeah, we also like one of our messages, like our main tagline is, is also putting mindfulness behind the rifle.
00:24:07
Speaker 2: Right.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: And what that means, a lot of people are super confused by that. They're like, what does that mean?
00:24:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I.
00:24:14
Speaker 1: Understand. And it's and it's more along the lines of of understanding that. That I think, you know, a societal progression in terms of like more this, more this, the gear race here, the gear race there. We have to have this in order to be successful. You don't need that. You need you don't need any of that stuff to be successful provided that you have a solid baseline. In order for you to become a proficient shooter, you have to have a solid baseline of understanding. And in order for you to do that, you have to have mindfulness. And mindfulness is also where it's wrapped into a lot of things, right? It's wrapped into what is your intent? What is your what is your intent to learn these skills? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to learn these skills because you want to win competitions? Are you trying to learn these skills because you just want to be a better shooter? Are you trying to learn these skills because you don't want to let that buck walk again this year that you had to let walk last year, you know, things like that. And then, okay, now we've got that ironed out. We've got the y figured we got the Y figured out. Yeah. Now. Where are you at with your mindfulness and being present to learn? Because that's all associated with ego. And ego goes into this as well. And so we have I mean, I have conversations with a lot of people over things like that. And especially in the competitive space, I think the competitive space has really helped drive a lot of innovation with product and and innovation with techniques like we're constantly redefining what is capable of the rifle based upon all different kinds of things, shooters, proficiency, the equipment that they're using, the challenging stages that match directors are having to come up with now because the equipment is driving this. And so it's a constant evolution and it's all along the lines of like, okay, well if I want to learn this, like we always talk about to like being present, what does that mean? And that's associated with being mindful. Being present means that I'm not focused on anything other than what is happening right now. Like I'm engaged with you in this conversation. I couldn't be present with you if I was thinking in the peripheral about like, what do I have to do after I get off the phone with with Harry Palmer? Like, that's disrespectful to you, number one. And I'm not fully present into this conversation and and being 100% with you and 100% with the audience. And so that's part of what we teach as well, because a lot of times, like how many times have we heard shooters, as soon as they miss a target at a shooting match or even at a course, it's almost like they have to let you know that. Either I meant to do that, or.
00:27:14
Speaker 2: They knew that.
00:27:15
Speaker 1: By saying some obscenity or, you know, or like self-deprecating behavior, like I'm an idiot or whatever. And it's just like, No, you're not being present right now. You're either future trippin or you're focusing on the past, none of which none of which is contributing to helping you make the best decision possible right now to correct.
00:27:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:27:37
Speaker 1: And so, you know, that thing's gone as soon as you touch. As soon as that bullet is fired, man, it's gone. And you just have to separate you've got to separate yourself from that. And and just look at it objectively and say, okay, if I missed. Let's figure out what I need to do to hit, and then we'll focus on the why afterwards.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a strong ego element in shooting, without a doubt, because I've heard it referred to as all sorts of different things like the Y chromosome factor, the whatever it is, if you if your bodies are watching you shoot a certain way, if you're on your own, you should shoot a different way. Yeah. If you've got Caitlin standing over my shoulder and I'm taking that first shot, I'm sweating bullets, you know, I'm panicking, and I'm shooting a different way, like a third different way. So it takes an intense mental discipline to be able to shut out all that noise, man, as they present.
00:28:41
Speaker 1: Really, really important. And that's like I got a great example of that a few years ago, actually, probably more than a few years ago now, the Washington State Fish and Wildlife had a sheep, a band of sheep, the local band of sheep that had been infected with pneumonia. And they needed to call that herd or that band of sheep to prevent them from infecting others other sheep before the breeding season, before the rut happened. And they had they were able to contract a bunch of a bunch of hunters to get the majority of the band eradicated. And they had three sheep that were giving them problems. And these sheep, sheep are pretty cagey critters in that they have very, very acute eyesight. They're hyper aware of everything that's going on around them. And they're if they don't want to let you get close, you're not going to get close. And so this one you had had like not allowed anybody to get within 500 yards. And the hunters that they had were like, Ah, 500 yards is kind of like my limit. Yeah. You don't want to keep shooting at this thing because it's just going to make it worse, right?
00:29:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:29:51
Speaker 1: And so I got a phone call and said, Hey, are you willing to help out with this? And I said, Sure. And so they gave me a phone call one day and said, Hey, we've got this sheep bedded down and it's at this place in in town called Windy Point and it's called Windy Point for a reason. It's like this sounds ominous. It's a it is ominous, man. It's a giant slot canyon that comes right out of the mountains. So it gets all of all of those wind flows that are coming out of the mountains that are rushing the cold air that is rushing in from the mountains.
00:30:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
00:30:22
Speaker 1: And it always rips through there. And so I show up and this sheep is at 760 yards and she's bedded down. And I brought along a65 Creedmoor and shooting. At that time, I shoot 140 grain burger bullets and I had like eight people there watching this thing. I was like, You have to be fucking kidding me. Like, Are you serious?
00:30:44
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, she's a sniper, though.
00:30:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, the stress is on, right? Like, man, this sucks. So I. I lay down, I arranged the sheep, and it was almost like she knew it was the gig was up because, like, right as I closed the bolt, she, like, looked at me through the scope and stood up and got all super tense.
00:31:04
Speaker 2: Right?
00:31:04
Speaker 1: And everybody was like, Oh, you better shoot. I shoot. I touched the first round off and I probably could have watched the hair fly off the top of her back because I missed.
00:31:16
Speaker 2: Just a skosh.
00:31:17
Speaker 1: High and she kind of bounded up the hill about ten, ten, ten bounds. And I just put it on. I just I was like, okay, well, she's another 25 yards. I'm just going to hold top of her back, send it and just crushed her second. Yeah. Boom.
00:31:34
Speaker 2: And like, nice.
00:31:36
Speaker 1: That stress is there, right? Because you don't want to screw up. You don't want to, you know, your reputation and all that stuff. But then then again, like I look back on that now, like, who cares, man? It's just it's just shooting. It's just it's just shooting.
00:31:52
Speaker 2: It's almost worse, though, isn't it? If you if you miss. But you're you're professional and you set up the next shot and you set up the next shot, and you do it. You do the system, but your reputation is intact because you've been a professional. If you if you miss and you go, you start messing around. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think that seems to be the difference. Do you think that this might be an obvious question, but do you think your military experience prepared you better to do that than the average civilian?
00:32:26
Speaker 1: Perhaps, perhaps. I mean, I think that has everything to do with with individuality. A lot of times a lot of times people believe that, like if this person if this human being participated as a member of this organization, they obviously have these types of traits. That is not necessarily always true. And the reason I say that is because it's all individual based. You're a volunteer and we're also not looking there's a balance there's a fine balance there between saying, okay, I need you to have the discipline to do what you're asked to do. But at the same time, I also want you to have the ability to to think independently and be able to make decisions on your own based upon what you know is the end goal.
00:33:15
Speaker 2: Right.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: And so that is a definite balance. And and when you come from the infantry, which means you're not thinking on your own, you are literally doing what is told to you. The Marine Corps focuses on decentralized command in a lot of ways, meaning that like if this fire team leader. Doesn't have a doesn't have a squad leader, doesn't have a platoon sergeant, doesn't have a platoon commander, but yet he knows what the commander's end intent is. He can he can accomplish that mission with his team. And he has the leadership abilities to to maneuver his team, taking advantage of the team's capabilities with their weapon systems and their ability to communicate and move. That's the end goal.
00:33:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:34:00
Speaker 1: But being a sniper is a little bit different because you have a lot more stuff going on, right? There's a lot more stuff going on. You've got to be way more aware of what the big picture is.
00:34:10
Speaker 2: Right.
00:34:11
Speaker 1: So we do want people to think independently. And so what that means is we do have people that that have a lot of those those traits, but they're all independent human beings. So they're all going to make decisions on their own based upon what they believe to be the best scenario or the best response to a certain scenario. And so I.
00:34:32
Speaker 2: Go.
00:34:32
Speaker 1: Well, in terms of like what that situation, it's calmness. It's it's just it's just understanding that like, och yeah, if I fucking missed. So I need to put another bullet down range before that sheep bounce up over the hill. And I really look like an asshole.
00:34:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, yeah, yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker 1: Like I'm making a 760 yard shot under field conditions and winds that were 18 to 22 miles an hour. Yeah, like on a live animal. It's not a piece of steel. It's a live animal.
00:35:02
Speaker 2: And the animal's aware it's moving away.
00:35:04
Speaker 1: It's. Yeah, and I just missed. I mean, I made a good wing call my dope. My elevation was off by, like, a 10th. A 10th of a mil or 2/10 of a mil.
00:35:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of things that are going on in that scenario. And in a, in a regular hunting scenario, I would never have shot at that animal in a regular hunting scenario.
00:35:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:22
Speaker 1: That really pushed my limits at that point in time in my my shooting career.
00:35:28
Speaker 2: Okay. Do you? I've scribbled a note wildly over here that I can barely read. Because you touched on something important. I thought that you talked about the. Everyone knows the end goal. Do you think this is the problem with. I'll assume that everyone who is a shooter is a student forever. They're always learning and anybody who's on YouTube is there to learn. Do you think that there is so much information in so many different now ways to apply that knowledge? You've got press competitions, you've got bench press competitions, you've got hunting. There's all sorts of different ways. Is it the case that there's too much information? People have lost sight of what their goal is, and that's impacting their learning and their ability to progress as a shooter. Is this something you see?
00:36:18
Speaker 1: Good question. There is there is a lot of information out there and there are a lot of different trains of thought about how to get to the end goal. What is the end goal? The end goal is to hit targets with intention at whatever range you feel comfortable with making those shots happen at. Obviously, shooting at steel is it's like a it's the lowest risk possible. Right, in terms of what's going to happen if you miss. And so what I see, though, is that I'm a I'm firmly in the camp that in terms of like what is being taught is nothing is proprietary in terms of like the actual information itself. We're still teaching the same stuff that like if you look back at, well, Flint, like the days, like the very early days of a firearm, the Spanish conquistadors. Right. They still had to teach those dudes. Okay, well, we have to get a musket ball to hit what we want it to hit. Right. So there was they understood certain principles of marksmanship even way back then. And so we're still we're just building on that and we're building on that in in ways that we're still the foundations are still there. It's just the way that it's delivered is unique from teacher to teacher to teacher and what they believe to be their own truths. Right. With with results. Right now, there's a bazillion you know, there's a bazillion different ways that you can go about achieving the end goal. But realistically, man, it all starts to funnel very narrowly. Once you get to the end, once you're starting to get to the end, it's like, Oh yeah, like everybody's kind of doing the same thing here.
00:38:04
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:38:05
Speaker 1: The process.
00:38:06
Speaker 2: Itself.
00:38:08
Speaker 1: Like as an example, validating trajectories. We've seen that progress over the last 15 years greatly in terms of what is quote unquote standard practice to to log your information into a ballistic computer program, observe and interpret the results downrange, and then manipulate the, the, the the variables in the computer program to make everything line up. There's some do's and there's some don'ts. And right now, there are a lot of people that are still doing this the wrong way and and they don't understand why they're doing it the wrong way. And so, yeah, things like that, like and this is always going to constantly progress. It's never going to remain stagnant for sure.
00:38:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Gary was on the podcast before last and he said a similar thing about ballistic calculators that people are doing it the wrong way around. You know, they're getting their calculate, they're playing with it, they're entering the data, and then they go into the range and then see how it plays out and why is it off? You know, it's instead of working backwards from what they're seeing downrange, what effect that rifle is actually having.
00:39:21
Speaker 1: And that's where we go like the circle of components aspect of it, because there's so much that we need to grab a hold of up front in terms of variables to define them before we start screwing with anything else.
00:39:37
Speaker 2: So I'll touch on this and then because I keep telling myself back into the same subject. So and I know we've got limited time, but I'm finding it very interesting. You've got a quote where you said so many people are trying to learn the tricks of the trade before they learn the trade. And I thought that resonates with me because that's the same everywhere with this availability of information. I don't I can go and find a pro in any field and they'll tell me all their secrets. And then I feel like I've almost cheated, like, oh, now I'm at that level. And what just to touch on this lightly, what are the biggest kind of what are the tricks that people are trying to learn that they should just forget about buying? What is that?
00:40:25
Speaker 1: They're buying forgiveness.
00:40:27
Speaker 2: With new gear. Mm hmm. Yeah, right.
00:40:31
Speaker 1: And I'll equate this to all. Equate this to an experience, like, because, like you said, it goes it goes everywhere, right? It's in everything that we do, whatever skill it is that we're trying to progress in and and achieve greatness or or what we perceive to be greatness.
00:40:47
Speaker 2: And yeah.
00:40:49
Speaker 1: We have to start with a with a foundation, a foundational principle, right? So as an example, there's how many people out there go to the Precision Rifle blog when they're getting ready to shoot and they're like, okay, well, I'm going to go shoot. Competitions like this is a lot of fun. Yeah. How many of those guys literally go to that blog purchase? Exactly what the pros, the quote unquote, what the pros use. Yeah. And they got okay, well, I've got this I've got all this expensive stuff and you've got these dudes that are that are just brand new into shooting and they're like, Oh, now I've got a fire form cases, and I got this amp and dealer and I got this £25 gun. And out of.
00:41:32
Speaker 2: That.
00:41:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't even understand where you're at first.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Where's your base? Yeah.
00:41:38
Speaker 1: You don't even have a baseline established. And so case in point, like, and I know like we've mentioned this in a couple of episodes in the past and I refer to it only because it's real. So at an event the gun works Monster Lake challenge that that fill fill fill Vallejo established and.
00:41:58
Speaker 2: Set up a co-host.
00:41:59
Speaker 1: He's the co-host on the Modern Day Sniper podcast. He set up a stage where in order for the shooter to accrue points, he had to use a gun, works 30 nozzles and. Using a Reebok optic. And it was it was like these Yeti targets and they were spread out from like 580 to 620 and there were six of them. It seemed like every fifth shooter that would go through that stage would complain that the gun works rifle was not shooting.
00:42:28
Speaker 2: Well and really.
00:42:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so like I went over there at least a half a dozen times to shoot the stage. Yeah, no different. Right. I'm just using the mic, I'm using the scope with the range readouts, six for six every time. And the reason that they were complaining is that they are not understanding that you have to you cannot be lazy behind a 39 DSLR that weighs £10.
00:42:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
00:42:59
Speaker 1: You can't shoot that rifle the way that you shoot a £25 six millimeter with a four point muzzle break. And if you expect to be able to do that, you are not going to understand why you're not why you're why you're missing. Right. Because so and those foundational principles that you can that you can get away with not applying with that big, giant, heavy 20 plus pound competition rifle. Not going to happen with that other platform.
00:43:25
Speaker 2: Yeah. Because it's bolted down and.
00:43:28
Speaker 1: Pretty much waits on your side.
00:43:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: So, so but then when you go to a 39 DSLR that weighs ten, £11, that's going to knock the snot out of you. If you don't have if you don't have a consistent if you don't have a consistent baseline for that rifle to recoil against, meaning you're not fully connected to it and you're not really, truly doing that toes to nose checklist, that shooters checklist. Like if you miss, it's going to bite.
00:43:57
Speaker 2: You.
00:43:58
Speaker 1: And it's going to bite you in the form of a miss. And you can, you can say, oh, yeah, I pressed the trigger with the radical center and the target. That's cool. But if your body position is screwed up and if you're not properly connected to that rifle, doesn't matter.
00:44:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. Or you're inconsistent. I think you've summed up neatly there when you said buying forgiveness. Yeah. And I think it ties in because the the companies are they know what the customer wants. Customer wants performance. They don't want hard lessons. Right. When they go out and spend that much money.
00:44:35
Speaker 1: I learned I learned that. And I actually learned that in the skydiving community. That's one of my hobbies outside of shooting. And when I learned how to skydive, I learned from military instructors, the guys that like that, they do it literally every day, all day, all day. And I was like, super jazzed. I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna learn how to free fly and like, like, fall through the sky on my head and on my, on my, on my feet and all that stuff. And they were like.
00:45:00
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
00:45:02
Speaker 1: We get a couple of hundred jumps under your belt, fly be a really, really, really proficient belly fly or be able to put your body anywhere you want it in the sky, then go into free flying.
00:45:14
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:45:14
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, well that resonates. And they said, here's why. Like how many times we've gotten a bunch of military guys that are civilian skydivers on the side, they've got four or 500 skydives, but then they come to the freefall course and they can't belly fly.
00:45:29
Speaker 2: Really? Yeah, because it's boring.
00:45:31
Speaker 1: As soon as they got their license, as soon as they got their license, they're like, Oh, I want to go hang out with all the cool kids and free fly.
00:45:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
00:45:37
Speaker 1: Well, we're not free flying here. We're belly flying. And you need to learn how to belly fly. And if you can't do that, then it's going to like now you're jumping with equipment, you're jumping on the oxygen or rucksacks and all this sort of shit. And it's like you have to have those foundational baselines to do that well, and it pays off in everything that you do. I mean, even if you're like a house framer, man, like if you don't if all you've ever done, like I've got a hilty I've got a hilty laser level here in the house and borrowing from a friend of mine. But if you don't understand the principles of how to use a spirit level and.
00:46:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
00:46:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. And a plumb bob like, you know what I mean? Like, you got to understand those core principles first.
00:46:18
Speaker 2: Like you make the.
00:46:20
Speaker 1: Hilt is easy button, right?
00:46:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. You gotta know what, if the hilt is out of battery, what are you going to do? You have to stop. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. I can understand that. In fact, it's it's great because it's every single episode we've done so far, the guest has said fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You know, stop stop worrying about the esoteric point 5%. Grasp your fundamentals because almost certainly you don't have that as locked down as you think you do.
00:46:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, we see a lot of that, too. Like, you know, people refuse people. It's almost like they refuse. They're like, okay, well, I spent almost 15 grand on all this gear.
00:47:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:47:06
Speaker 1: Why am I missing? Well, you're missing because you are. Now. Now? Now we have all these other excuses out there, right? We have all these other avenues to take. Like if a shooter if a shooter says, well, there's a possibility that your scope doesn't track. No fucking kidding me. Now we're going to blame it on that shit or a barrel that speeds up like I watched a guy miss a 500 yard full size ip6 silhouette. And I could see his Mrs. his Mrs. were literally all over the target highlighted left, right, wherever. And he comes off flying. He's like, oh, my barrel must have sped up.
00:47:42
Speaker 2: Right. What do you know?
00:47:46
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this. So then. But you have to show them. You have to say, okay, well, if your barrel sped up at 100 feet a second, even if it sped up 100 feet a second between shots, that only equates to this many miles. How tall is that target from center to the top of the head? It's this even if you still hit the target, if you were breaking center shots.
00:48:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:48:07
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? So. And, like, it's just. It's like, no, dude, you're not shooting well. And you bought a bunch of gear that you thought was the easy button, and it's not.
00:48:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It got you out of those few situations where you were. You were missing out before, but then a new situation comes along and it's like you've not covered that thing. One of the questions I had to ask you is I'll flip to it now because we're on the subject. Do you think the training with a really heavy gun, like a lot of people, are now getting into pure style that seems to be driving a lot of the innovation. People are training with very, very heavy guns, but they want to go hunting. And I know you do this as well, right? You you like hunting and you also like precision rifle competitions, matches. And the the the rifle is set up completely differently. One is very, very heavy, very forgiving in that respect. You can see very clearly where that bullet has landed. It's giving you that information directly. But you can't take that gun on a mountain hunt when you have to track because it's £25. So you take a lightweight rifle, which then performs well, not complete differently, but quite differently to that thing. That's going to be a different caliber.
00:49:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. So here's here's the thing I just did. I just posted a video on, on the social media feed of a shot. I was talking about developing time standards, like how do you develop your own individual time standard? And so long story short, I chose to do this. It was five positions, one target that was 2 minutes of angle at 400 yards. So an eight inch plate at 400 yards. And first run, I shot it with a308 and my 308 is a work gun with a £3 trigger, 18 inch barrel with a suppressor and it only weighs like £12.
00:50:01
Speaker 2: Right.
00:50:03
Speaker 1: It's what I use for military and law enforcement courses. I shot that run clean 66 seconds, not pushing myself at all like the time is no no factor. That's not the purpose of this. I saw every single one of my impacts and I was able to spot my own trace on maybe half of those shots. Well, then I did the same thing with a competition rifle with a gun works verdict stock. It's a gun werks built six five PRC and now it's got a44 it's got a four point muzzle brake on it. Different, different optic. I shot that exact same run completely clean at 77 seconds and I was able to spot my trace on all five of those shots in a65 PRC. So the whole thing about like, I need to have this lightweight recoil or this this super small cartridge with a big muzzle brake and a super heavy rifle. You don't need that. You don't need that. What you need is to learn how to shoot that rifle. Yeah, that's what you need to learn how to do. You need to learn how to shoot that rifle. I'm going to go shoot that PRC at at the sniper side cup this weekend. And I know where I'm going to be up at in Colville, Washington. I've shot there before. I've ran some training courses out there with with Carl Taylor of In Motion Targets. And I know what that terrain is like. And it's all mountain, it's all mountains. So your ability to read wind, there's going to be far less wind indicators out there. The winds are going to be far less predictable. And I want a bullet that is going to perform really forgiving in the wind.
00:51:46
Speaker 2: Yes, the.
00:51:47
Speaker 1: 65 PRC, I'm shooting 147 grain bullets at 3000 feet a second. And and people people are like, how would you shoot that in PR? It's not for PR's, dude. I mean, I can go take that rifle. I've taken that rifle to half a dozen press matches and I'm always in the top 15, top 20. Really, I don't care about winning. That's not my point. My point is to validate my training. And so like and I don't feel as though that if I if I didn't have that cartridge. That I'd be at a disadvantage. I don't feel well. No, not at all. Now, if I wanted to go, if I wanted to go in that and say, okay, I'm going to go compete, and I wish to place truly place in the top five or top or even like go to winning the match then. Yeah, it's a little bit scary because there are some stages that are set up. Because of the gear race that we're seeing, match directors are kind of forced to have these things and have really, really tough, tight stages because that's what all the top level competitors are shooting. And so, therefore, if you don't if you don't have some really, really hard stages put in place, you're going to have so many tiebreakers in place. It's ridiculous.
00:53:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:53:05
Speaker 1: And so for that game, yes, absolutely. You really like if you wish to truly win, then you kind of got to play the game.
00:53:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fine. The margins at that very top end, I guess. Yeah.
00:53:16
Speaker 1: So, so like even guys that shoot like 308 at a lot of matches like, like Jim see over in the Midwest elite accuracy. Jim's a frickin awesome shooter, man. Like, I haven't actually shot with him, but I know that he's a really, really proficient shooter and he shoots a lot of 308 and he shoots a308 and he's really, really good at it. And so he'll frickin drag the rest of the field through the mud with that thing.
00:53:42
Speaker 2: That's funny because speaking to the like the last, last few guests, we've had Chaz from Warhorse, we've had Nick Robertson, who is currently a marine sniper and competes. We had Frank Galli. It's almost like six. Five is the religion, you know, and anything else is heresy. Now you're saying there's this guy is shooting 308 and killing it and you think, well, there it is again. It comes back to your skill with that weapon.
00:54:16
Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. And like I have, I've already shot probably about this year alone. I've already probably shot about 4000 rounds out of my 308. That's what I train with. Yeah, that's what I trained with because that's like, that's the for me, that's like once I go from when I go from that rifle to a competition rifle that like my six millimeter Creedmoor, I don't even I don't even have a rifle. As heavy as the pros use terms like 17, £18 and like going from the 308 to that thing is like, this is ridiculous. Yeah, I can get away with all kinds of crazy shit with this thing.
00:54:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's forgiving for sure. I mean, I can see both sides, like if I was getting into it, which I'm sorely tempted to do, hard as that is at the moment in the UK, I could see I'm tempted. I want the six five because I want forgiveness. I don't want to be at a disadvantage and humiliated.
00:55:13
Speaker 1: And even even then like the majority of the crowd nowadays is shooting six. Mm. They're all going back. It's so funny too because you look at it and like the six Mm crowd with the bars and the bras and stuff like that, it's like y'all aren't doing anything new. Like that stuff's already been done by the bench rest guys, 35, 40 years ago.
00:55:32
Speaker 2: So yeah.
00:55:33
Speaker 1: It's all they shot and you know, and it's like you guys realize that that a typical bench press rifle back then that was shooting a six bar was £25.
00:55:43
Speaker 2: Right? Just naturally.
00:55:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's like and then people would look at that and be like, oh, that's not shooting. It's like.
00:55:50
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:55:51
Speaker 1: That's kind of what you're doing now, right? Like, yeah, so I'm taking I'm taking this rifle and I'm throwing it on a bag. I'm balancing it on the bag. And aside from wind calls, I mean, that's obviously really, really important. And that's really what separates that's what separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to stuff. Is there ability.
00:56:10
Speaker 2: Quality of the winkle.
00:56:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's big time because you are throwing a little six. Mm. 105 grain bullet out there. That is not really the best performer in wind rye. So you know the six five depending on how fast you push them, right? So they're actually fairly equal like a six 540 grain bullet at 2850 is going to replicate pretty closely the performance of a six millimeter bullet at about 105 grains at 3100 feet a second. They're going to have roughly. Okay.
00:56:42
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:56:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. Even though one of them has a higher beak, the other one has a has the velocity to make it or beak breakthrough. Yes.
00:56:52
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:56:53
Speaker 1: So and that's another reason why I shoot like in the hunting world, I shoot seven millimeter because nobody can argue with the ballistic effectiveness of a seven millimeter projectile. Not even there's no six five bullets. There's no 30 cal bullets. The seven millimeter is I mean, after that, you've got to jump up into like the 338 and 375 and stuff like that.
00:57:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's if you're, if you're hunting big game, what do you shoot sometime. Oh right. Okay.
00:57:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. And if I didn't already have a seven song chambered when this barrel is probably shot out of that, I'll probably build another rifle in 6:05 p.m. four for hunting. Yeah. I took the, I took the six five Creedmoor to Africa several years ago and on a coal hunt. And I was absolutely blown away by the performance that we had.
00:57:45
Speaker 2: With that thing. Really?
00:57:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. Phenomenal. There's literally nothing in North America sans a sans a grizzly bear that super pissed like a grizzly bear that that you've got some standoff on. Totally. I would have no problem killing that thing with a65. Really? No. No problem at all. It's all shot. Placement is everything to do with where you put the bullet and the bullet design.
00:58:06
Speaker 2: So.
00:58:07
Speaker 1: I mean, we're shooting zebras at 550 yards with a65 Creedmoor and crushing them with one shot.
00:58:13
Speaker 2: Really? Wow. And it's like, see, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have thought that, but yeah.
00:58:19
Speaker 1: That's and like cartridge size, cartridge case size and caliber does not Trump shot placement.
00:58:27
Speaker 2: This is the thing. I think I would take that into account. And if I if I know I'm shooting in a grizzly bear that's pissed off.
00:58:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a different story.
00:58:35
Speaker 2: 50 cow.
00:58:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, like, if you're going to be hunting a grizzly, like, grizzly bear really up close now, disclaimer I have not had a grizzly bear. I've had grizzly bear encounters that.
00:58:47
Speaker 2: Like, less scary.
00:58:49
Speaker 1: That's not fun, man. Like, it's not for having a really pissed off grizzly bear. Charge you and stop charging it ten, 15 feet away from you like that shit's not fun.
00:59:00
Speaker 2: The.
00:59:00
Speaker 1: Moment you realize you're like, Okay, yeah. I need something that has a massive amount of kinetic energy.
00:59:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:08
Speaker 1: This thing stop doing what it's doing. And that's when we start jumping into, like, 4570s and shit like that.
00:59:13
Speaker 2: So yeah. Yeah. Yep. So looping back in a little bit on into what you do, because a big part of what you do is as an instructor. Mm hmm. And Frank Galli also instructs and he was saying, when he does the training, he is training clones, is how he put it. So he wants everyone lay in the same way. He wants everybody's body position the same way. He wants everybody's trigger discipline exactly the same. And then they work from that. Are you doing this? Are you doing that or are you adapting to different people?
00:59:46
Speaker 1: Styles Different? To an extent. So like different body styles also require special attention, but the foundation still remain the same. Like I want the student to be squared up behind the rifle. I want them to be able to, because what we're doing is we're eliminating variables. We're eliminating the possibility of of the rifle's recoil impulse being different from shot to shot, notwithstanding things like trigger control. So yes I do want students to be to Frank's got it. If he said if he said the word clone that's a fantastic description for it because do you want everybody to be the same so that way you can very closely analyze. So like once I like my my style is once I get everybody on a baseline and I'm like, okay, body position looks good. Rifle to rifle to body connection looks good. Now I'm now the next thing that I'm going to start focusing on is the grip. The grip is a really big the big area that a lot of people end up kind of taking for granted. And then obviously with grip is trigger control.
01:00:57
Speaker 2: Whereas the trigger control I so trigger discipline that trigger control.
01:01:01
Speaker 1: So that's a big deal. And even even myself like I notice I get to I shoot the sniper side dot drill quite a bit the 21 drill. It's super challenging.
01:01:13
Speaker 2: I heard you talking about this. Yeah, I've not seen it though. Go. What is that?
01:01:17
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a it's a paper target that's designed to be shot at 100 yards and it has 21 one inch dots. There's a top dot and then four rows of five and each dot. The first dot is two shots in a time limit of 30 seconds from the prone position. That's kind of like your dot to just make sure that your zero is good and wherever. Okay, make your adjustments as necessary. Then the next, the first row in a time limit of 30 seconds, one magazine, three one magazine and 230 seconds. Shoot one round in each dot. Reload. Clean up the last two dots to last two rounds in 30 seconds.
01:02:02
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:02:03
Speaker 1: One inch dot. So that drill is I did not design it. That's that's J. That's Jacob Bynum. And Frank Galli designed that drill. And it's really a good benchmark for your ability to shoot, not on your time, but on somebody else's time. The next road down is support side 30 seconds, one mag of five. You put your transition over to your support side that screws up everybody because nobody shoots support side. And the thing that generally suffers on the support side is the rifle to body connection because your your brain is not functioning and your brain is not following all of those checklist items because.
01:02:47
Speaker 2: It's.
01:02:48
Speaker 1: Geeking out. It's like, Oh, this is super weird. Like, I don't understand. This all feels differently. So you start and when you miss those things, you see it on the paper. Yeah. I would encourage all of you guys that are listening, figure out the last time you saw it at a competition where people were shooting on paper at 100 yards, surgically at surgical targets. It's not happening anymore. It's not happening anymore because people don't like it. And the reason they don't like it is because they suck at it and they don't practice it. And it's a lot easier to say, Oh, well, there's a two minute angle piece of steel out there at 400 yards. Yeah, I got a hit. Well, if you tried to do that, same thing at a two minute angle target on paper at 100 yards.
01:03:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:03:32
Speaker 1: Or one minute of angle. Like telling me that your rifle shoots you point two all day long, provided you do what you you do your part. We've all heard that. All right. Yeah. I'm not talking about shooting. I'm not talking about shooting a pretty little three or five shot group for Instagram, man. I'm talking about actually applying fundamentals to this rifle and making it work the way that you want it to.
01:03:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:03:55
Speaker 1: And so the rest of the drill is, is like it's standing to prone and then standing too prone with the rifle in your hands. So it's challenging. I like to shoot it with half inch dots because the smaller the aiming point, the actually easier it is.
01:04:11
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:04:13
Speaker 1: Like things like, all right, well, I know when I choke up on the trigger, and I know I get too aggressive on the trigger. Yeah, my shots go left every single time because I'm actually pulling the rifle to the right, which then because we're on a bipod, the muzzle goes to the left.
01:04:31
Speaker 2: Is that specific to your physiology or is that something that everyone will do?
01:04:36
Speaker 1: It's this it's your trigger.
01:04:38
Speaker 2: Finger, right? Right.
01:04:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. So like how much trigger finger you have on the trigger? Which direction are you truly pressing it? Straight to the rear, you know.
01:04:46
Speaker 2: Things like that. And is that the same every time.
01:04:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. Because that's what we're trying to achieve. That's, that's, and that's the purpose of that that drill. And it's super humbling. Super humbling.
01:04:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's because there's so many things to remember. You can't consciously remember it. You have to. My take on it is you have to practice so much, it's subconscious, and then you use the conscious awareness to do the checklist. You're like, Yeah, yeah, I've done all those things. Because I know I do those things all the time, and it just takes like a glance.
01:05:21
Speaker 1: Well, that's a good that's a great topic, man. That's a great that's a great thing to talk about because. When we're training, what we're trying to do is build those. We're trying to build those neural pathways of that checklist. And most people try to do it too fast. I don't have the patience to do it slow. You have to do it slow. You're basically what you're doing is you're rewiring your brain. You're wiring your brain to do what like what you want it to do. And that takes time. That takes a lot of time. So, like, as an example, like the first time I made a skydive, it was like that 55 seconds went by, like, literally in a heartbeat.
01:06:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:06:05
Speaker 1: Now it's like now my brain has slowed down. It's a process, information environment at that speed. And still allow me to consciously think.
01:06:17
Speaker 2: That.
01:06:19
Speaker 1: The four levels, the four levels of progression, which is unconscious incompetence, meaning you don't know, like you're completely unaware of what you don't know, right?
01:06:29
Speaker 2: Yep.
01:06:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have conscious incompetence. All right. So conscious. I know that. I know that I'm lacking in this particular skill, and I'm conscious of it. And I understand that I am incompetent. And incompetent is not a bad word. And incompetence. Incompetent. Incompetent just means that you're uneducated in this particular topic or area. And then we have conscience, competence, which means I can be competent, but I have to think about doing it in order to in order to be competent. And then the ultimate, the state goal is to execute these tasks with unconscious competence. Yeah, we want to be able to execute those fundamentals that checklist unconsciously competent. And the only way we're going to be able to achieve that is to force ourselves to wire your brain properly to begin with.
01:07:22
Speaker 2: Build those back. Just time behind the rifle. Or is that.
01:07:27
Speaker 1: Not just time? It's pointed. Pointed time with the purpose of understanding what you're doing. You need to understand that every action that I do with this rifle will be it through dry fire or just a range session. Is is reinforcing a specific neural pathway that your brain is utilizing to transmit signals to your body. Right. You see visual stimulus, your brain processes that information, and then your brain says, oh, okay, work the bullet now. So if I don't want my brain to work the bolt until I observe the splash of the bullet, you have to pointedly focus on making sure that that's the process you use.
01:08:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. Then you work on that part of it's like a sequence. You work on that part of the sequence until that's ingrained and you can progress to the next part of exactly it.
01:08:21
Speaker 1: And that's where I think a lot of people miss the mark. All right. And that's that goes along with pressing that button. Yeah. And if you're too quick to press that easy button, you're really not focusing on what it is that you need to to become a like a good baseline shooter.
01:08:39
Speaker 2: It all ties in. And I can now understand what you're saying by your what's kind of a mantra, which is the mindfulness behind the rifle. It's the pressure is on. If you go to the right with your mates, with your buddies, you want to perform well. If you don't perform well, you feel like you had a shit day to go buy more gear, and then you come back and you cheated it because you don't want to look like an idiot again. So, you know, and now you do it better and you're showing off your gear and you're kind of getting by. But you're not you're not really progressing. You're cheating yourself at that progression. You're you're lying to yourself, right? And you're never going to get any better. And you have to have that mindfulness or that awareness to know that that's what you're doing. Indeed. And what you need to do is get humble and go back and practice, practice, practice.
01:09:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, you know, there's it's we, you know, Philip and I talk about it quite a bit and a couple of other guys that I know that are that are really, really high level in terms of their proficiency and their job and what is they do, because it also involves a lot of high stress scenarios. I'm constantly talking to my to my my skydiving buddies because they're processing information at a extremely fast rate of speed. And we talk about that. We talk about like same thing with climbing. I climb in my off time.
01:10:05
Speaker 2: Right?
01:10:05
Speaker 1: And so like that is that's another one of those things that like, dude, you are in the zone, you are focused on nothing but that next placement and that you could be in that zone for hours, you can be in that zone for hours, and that's what it means to be present. Like, I am literally not thinking about anything else other than this because I know that if I make a mistake, there's extremely high consequences involved with that mistake.
01:10:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:10:33
Speaker 1: So we really have to be super laser focused and that's and that's like shooting is that like people don't realize that like shooting is that and if you're as soon as you connect yourself to that rifle and as soon as you obtain a sight picture, you should not be thinking about anything other than what is happening right now in that time. And and that's what it means to be present. And that's and that's that's it. And like a lot of people, too, like I'm going to throw it out there. Shooting is very yogic and all yoga is is a connection between your mind and your body.
01:11:06
Speaker 2: That's.
01:11:06
Speaker 1: Staying here.
01:11:08
Speaker 2: That's that means yoking, doesn't it? Yoga. It's like yoking the mind and the body.
01:11:13
Speaker 1: Exactly. It's unity. And so that's exactly what we're trying to do with a rifle. It's exactly what we're trying to do. There's no there's a parallel. And in yoga, my yoga practice has drastically helped me in that.
01:11:28
Speaker 2: Big time.
01:11:29
Speaker 1: Because in yoga practice, you're it's not necessarily about nailing a yoga pose. It's about it's about being connected to to one particular aspect of your body and saying, okay, I need you to do this in order to get it to this point. And that's exactly what shooting is like, even more so with positional shooting. And that's a whole different, whole different.
01:11:52
Speaker 2: Type of wax. And I'm sure it trains you to hold the the uncomfortable position as well. If you're in an awkward position to take that shot and you feel in a bit of pain because the yoga does does that, doesn't it.
01:12:05
Speaker 1: Well, it makes you it makes like a good yoga teacher will know exactly where you're at in that situation and they'll provide guidance to you to say, okay, well, if you're if you're feeling some stress and strain in the back of your hamstring, move your foot forward a half of an inch and you'll foot forward a half an inch and it'll go away. And you're just like, Joe. Okay, cool.
01:12:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. How did that.
01:12:31
Speaker 1: Happen? And so guess what? That's how I, that's how I teach people because I'm trying to progress my knowledge. I'm trying to progress my ability to communicate with my with my shooters. And it's like those are ways that we can have a better connection between us and the rifle. We're trying to find that moment of stillness and in a pose. That's the goal as well. I'm trying to find that moment of stillness where it's like for my particular body style and my particular. Abilities. Yeah, I've got it. I nailed it. And next time we're going to take it to a little bit different level, we'll take it a little bit higher. And that's the whole goal. And that's it.
01:13:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's that constant, steady progression with awareness. Exactly.
01:13:16
Speaker 1: Mindfulness behind the.
01:13:17
Speaker 2: Rifle. It's fantastic, man. Look, I'm very conscious that now we've eaten up a lot of your time, so it's fine.
01:13:25
Speaker 1: It's great. I love talking about this stuff. It's good stuff.
01:13:28
Speaker 2: Oh, me too. It's. It's fantastic. I could kill people's days with this. Can we wrap up on a couple of. I'll just see if I've missed anything critical here from my list. So just through throwing these things out there, I know there's sometimes a little bit trite because the answer can't really be said in bullet points. But for someone who's an experienced precision shooter, what can they work on? Maybe one thing, two things. What can they work on now to see incremental gains or to see they've already achieved a reasonable level, but to see that progression.
01:14:08
Speaker 1: Work on natural point of aim.
01:14:10
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:14:11
Speaker 1: Work on getting getting work on getting that rifle to point exactly where you want it to point with zero influence from yourself. And I'm not talking about free recoil either, guys. I'm talking about having a rifle connected to your body and using your body to manipulate and aim the rifle, because that's all we're doing. You're aiming the rifle with your body. And so working on natural point of aim, if it's any one thing that I tell my students when they come to to class, it is the the most, in my personal opinion, in precision shooting. The most important fundamental is to understand what natural point of aim is, how to obtain it, how to manipulate it, and what to look for.
01:14:50
Speaker 2: Would you say the same thing for a newbie? Absolutely.
01:14:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. Absolutely. Because if I if you start if you start shooting by chasing a wobble, you are going to man your your ability to progress is going to be significantly longer than if you would just stop, slow down and focus on finding that moment of stillness, letting the radicals settle onto the target. I don't care if it takes you 10 minutes to fire five shots, but those five shots, remember, what we're trying to do is we're trying to program your brain. We're trying to wire your brain.
01:15:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
01:15:28
Speaker 1: And that's the key. That really is the key.
01:15:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can see that. If you are if you if you are a user. A vernacular phrase. If you're pissing around a problem rather than solving the problem, you're creating the wrong neural pathway, which then has to be undone later when that problem resurfaces.
01:15:55
Speaker 1: And that's super it's super hard to rewire and it's really hard to rewire big time.
01:16:03
Speaker 2: Okay. What is a if you don't mind sharing some of your some of your techniques or some of your instructional techniques, is there a training drill or something that people could do right now or after they get off listening to this podcast, after they get to the range, maybe get home, that would help them improve in their mindfulness behind the rifle or they're just the fundamentals or their performance downrange.
01:16:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the drills that we focus on a lot in the course is is just a couple of warm up drills. And they're usually just fundamental, very simple, but also at the same time quite complex. The one that is that that I shoot a lot almost every day, that I either drive fire or actually on the range is what I call the consistency check drill. And so all that is, is we're not shooting groups, we're just shooting one single shot at a target. And I usually do no less than 15 reps. And the goal is to. Every single shot focus on that shooter's checklist. Go to nose to nose. Focus on everything that's going on. Get your body position dialled, sights, breathing, natural point of aim, trigger control, follow through. There's obviously there's some other things in there that are going on, but and every single time you shoot, you're going to disconnect yourself from the rifle. Then you reconnect yourself to the rifle, go through that whole process over again. That's how that's how we can wire the brain. And like shooting groups don't who I don't give a shit about how well you can shoot groups. I don't care about that. I care about is how many times how consistently can you attach yourself to the rifle, connect yourself to the rifle, and do it the same way every single time.
01:17:59
Speaker 2: So for that, people are they are they walking up to the rifle? Getting prone? Setting up.
01:18:04
Speaker 1: You can do it in the prone. Like if you're just learning and you're just starting, you can do it in the prone position at 100 yards. I actually have I actually have students shoot at really large targets with that because I also want them to focus on aiming. You throw a three minute angle target up at 100 yards. People are like, Oh, I can hit that. No problem. You'd be surprised at how many people don't because they're too busy aiming at something that they're like because there's aiming processes and things that are going on. But you can also do this drill in positions too. I teach a lot of it in position shooting as well. Like in our positional shooting clinic, we spend a lot of time at 100 yard line because that's my way of being able to identify what it is that you're doing without the influences of dope and wind. All right, so I can remove all of those variables at 100 yards and really, truly see what you're capable of as a shooter with your fundamentals. And so just do it in 100 yards. Just say, okay, well, I'm going to shoot some standing position, 15 shots, one shot at each target, and then you can go down range and you can look. And then if everything was done right, you've got a 15 round group.
01:19:09
Speaker 2: Right?
01:19:10
Speaker 1: There are 15 separate shots at 15 different pictures.
01:19:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And you can drive fire. This is.
01:19:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I recommend people that are dry firing to be to be shooting at a minute of angle target at.
01:19:23
Speaker 2: Least.
01:19:24
Speaker 1: An angle target if not smaller. It's it's that's just what I've found for me to to be able to identify, like things that I'm doing wrong with my sight picture or trigger press or whatever.
01:19:38
Speaker 2: Fantastic. That's awesome. And that's that's packed with good stuff. Thank you.
01:19:45
Speaker 1: You're welcome, man. You're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to chat.
01:19:49
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a pleasure. I like to round out with, like, a more profound question, if that's okay with you, which is what are your words to live by? What's like a mantra to be authentic?
01:20:06
Speaker 1: Just be yourself.
01:20:07
Speaker 2: Awesome.
01:20:08
Speaker 1: And that like, it's not it's not as simple as it sounds. Sometimes that takes sometimes it takes a lot of work. But just be yourself. Be authentic.
01:20:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, because.
01:20:20
Speaker 1: It's going to show up in everything that you do. I guess I'll just one last thing I'll leave you with. Like, we all have to have an ego. Your ego is your person. Like, your ego is who you are. But you can change that through awareness. Right. You can change that through awareness and and and identifying what your intentions are. Because when you identify what your intentions are, that means that you do have to get in touch with your ego. And sometimes that can be a little uncomfortable.
01:20:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:20:51
Speaker 1: To say the least. So.
01:20:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. True story. Yeah.
01:20:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
01:20:56
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Well, I'll let you go. You've been super generous with your time. I appreciate it. I think the listeners are going to hugely appreciate this episode because it's been really cool.
01:21:08
Speaker 1: I appreciate the opportunity, man. Thank you.
01:21:11
Speaker 2: No worries. Where can people find you? Is it modern day sniper dot com?
01:21:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, modern day sniper dot com. That'll take you to our main website and you can kind of cruise around there, see what we got going on. Instagram stuff. Modern day sniper is our Instagram handle. My personal Instagram handle is Caylen eight five, four one. And yeah, it's pretty much where you can find us. We do have a Facebook page. You can hit us up on Facebook. That's cool, too. But the majority of the information, I would highly encourage everybody to get on our email list if you haven't already done so, because that's where we're going. We are going to start pushing out like monthly newsletters at first and then eventually if I can get my shit together, we will start doing it bi monthly. So that means twice a month, right?
01:21:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
01:21:59
Speaker 1: So, yeah. And like, that's where you're going to hear a lot of news, a lot of information we're going to try to do is make the email our newsletters have like little tidbits, instructional information in there too that that way you.
01:22:10
Speaker 2: Can okay.
01:22:11
Speaker 1: With you. It's not all good and.
01:22:12
Speaker 2: They can sign.
01:22:12
Speaker 1: Up.
01:22:14
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone's got so much inbox spam that there's just no space for that is they sign up for your email list on the website, right?
01:22:22
Speaker 1: Correct. Correct.
01:22:24
Speaker 2: So so go to the website moderndaysniper dot com. Look for the sign up form. That's where you want to be. Bam.
01:22:33
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Tier one podcast brought to you by Tier one, makers of the world's finest rifle accessories. Find out more at Tier one Dash U.S.A. and tune in for more great insights on the next episode.
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If you’ve navigated the gun universe for any amount of time, you know full well that everyone has an opinion on every single piece of gear or accessory in the pew community and the tactical bipod is no exception.
Granted, it’s not quite as vigorous as the 1911 vs Glock debate or the AR vs AK discussion.
AR, obviously...
In the first part of this tactical bipod series, we’ve already covered how the military has widely adopted the use of tactical bipod and that it was a decision born out of combat during the Global Wars on Terror.
So if you’ve really got beef with the tactical bipod, then take that up with Marines.
For the rest of you, we’re going to break down some of the tactical advantages and utility of the modern tactical bipod.
Here at Tier One, we are not in the business of producing useless products. We put too much care and time into our proprietary manufacturing process to waste our customer’s time.
That being said, there is one argument put forward by the tactical bipod haters that I would like to acknowledge as valid.
Namely, if you are not going to use your tactical bipod or even try to understand its best utility, then there is no reason to weigh down your weapon.
Rifles like the AR are lightweight, magazine fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, and shoulder-fired weapons.
I too find it amusing when people purchase a rifle platform and then trick it out like a Christmas tree with every accessory under the sun and make it a heavyweight weapon...
We found this on the interwebs and were going to cite the source, but figured you'd rather stay anonymous...
The tactical bipod serves a legitimate function though, and if you have no intention of ever using the bipod, then it becomes nothing more than decoration.
That’s about as far as I can go with my tactical bipod hating gun brethren. So we’ll spend the rest of this article showing you the practical and tactical utility of a tactical bipod.
On perhaps my first night patrol in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps, I felt somewhat invincible. As grunts, we set out on foot armed to the teeth and with NVGs guiding us through the night.
Now, as remarkable as night vision goggles were at the time, they suck something awful at offering depth perception. This led me to step into a knee deep hole of what I can only assume was sewer water from the smell.
Thankfully, I had good trigger discipline and the only sound to ring out through the night was the splash and a few profanities that I threw out.
It was in this same waste filled alleyway that we then had a tactical pause which caused many of my fellow Marines to head down to the prone position, only to realize that they too were now laying in wastewater.
We paused for approximately 15 minutes until we got the word to step back out. The point of this entire story is that in combat, you will find yourself operating and fighting in some pretty shitty conditions.
In my case, that was literal.
If you put your AR in a sewer you're gonna have a bad time...
A tactical bipod offers you the ability to remain in the prone position for extended periods of time while keeping your weapon out of the dirt, mud, or well, shit.
If you have ever found yourself in the prone position for half an hour while the officers figure out where they are supposed to be heading, then you know of what I speak and you can see this passive utility of the tactical bipod.
Which leads us to the next utility.
For all the tactical bipod haters who complain about the weight, they often fail to recognize one of the most common functions in combat.
Namely, that’s pulling security.
This could be a fixed or hasty position, but pulling security can be grueling in length and boredom.
A Marine on post in combat stands ready to defend his brethren against any threat, but mostly, Marines on post are bored out of their minds. I’d like to tell you all the things that Marines do to pass the time, but this is a family website I suppose, so we’ll leave out the details.
Security involved remaining in a fixed position for an extended period of time while waiting on an enemy that may never arrive.
The tactical bipod keeps the weapon pointing down range and does not require any physical effort to keep it that way.
I’m sorry, but unless you’ve laid in the prone position for an hour or wasted away 8 hours on a remote post, you don’t really get to say that we should be holding that rifle up the entire time.
It’s not practical and never going to happen. I operated in an era before the tactical bipod and my rifle was leaned up against the wall 95% of the time.
I would have loved a bipod that kept my weapon at the ready and on target.
It is often said that a day of combat is 23 hours and 45 minutes of boredom followed by 15 minutes of sheer terror. I can testify that this is very much the case in my experience.
When those 15 minutes arrive, there is rarely a perfectly stacked set of sandbags at exactly the right height or soft and padded fighting position waiting for you.
The tactical bipod allows you to set up a stable fighting platform in a variety of environments. That means flat terrain, sandy terrain, rocky terrain, urban terrain, wet terrain, and I think you get the point.
Nice, comfy rocks
There is no question that bipods assist with accuracy which is why you see them used regularly in long range shooting competitions.
The military adopted the bipod because they wanted to replicate some of that accuracy in a variety of settings and terrains. If for some reason, the terrain does not lend itself to a bipod, then simply retract them carry on like normal.
However, for all the places you may find yourself in combat, there is likely to be a time and place where a tactical bipod would have done you well.
In general, we here at Tier One don’t really care how you pew pew pew, just so long as you pew. So while we have posed some tactical considerations, the choice really is yours. If I could make a final argument in support of the tactical bipod, it would be this.
We make some awesome tactical bipods, we really do. I know that is self-serving, but if you have found your way to this article then I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to what we offer.
Our Tactical Bipods are all engineered and machined on our own 5 axis CNC machinery in house. We don’t outsource any part of our production to the cheapest third world country and stand by everything we produce.
They are carbon fiber and lightweight which destroys the “bipods add too much weight” argument against them.
They are tough, resilient, and proven to operate under duress. So if you are considering a tactical bipod, don’t leave this article without checking us out.
With that being said, stay safe, train hard, and live free with or without a tactical bipod.
About the author:
Jeff Edwards is a United States Marine veteran of Iraq who served as an infantryman during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In addition to being a lover of the 2nd Amendment he runs the blog UnprecedentedMediocrity.com and regularly contributes the written word as a freelance writer and blogger.
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Author: Jeff Edwards
Welcome to the first part of a two-part series designed to discuss the modern adaptation of the tactical bipod on rifles.
Why a two-part series? Well, a bipod has two legs and it seemed somewhat on brand.
Not to mention that there is a lot to say about this topic as I understand that we are combatting decades and a generation of training that says bipods are only for larger crew served weapons.
Yet, peruse any modern photography coming from the front lines of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and you’ll notice the bipod has become more common than many of us older veterans would have thought.
Personally, I am a United States Marine Veteran who served in Iraq and apart from the M249 SAW or 240G, I never saw a bipod on a weapon the entire time that I was in country.
Granted, that was 2003 Iraq and shame on us if we have not learned a tactical lesson or two after the past two decades of combat.
So with your permission, I would like to invite you to join me on the evolution of the modern tactical bipod.
Perhaps the first clue that the tactical bipod brings genuine value is the jealousy many of us older veterans feel when we see them on modern rifles. It just seems like cheating.
At least that is the first emotion that popped into my mind when I began to notice them while perusing images of the war I long left behind. I confess that much of that is a bit of “old corps” nonsense that takes place from generation to generation. Yet, upon further analysis it is quite revealing.
Why should the modern generation of Marines get a stable platform from which to shoot when I had to balance it on my skinny elbow?
If you wanted to cheat, after all, that’s what resting the rifle on the magazine is supposed to achieve. Though we are trained to never rest the rifle on the magazine. At some point, we have to admit that criticism of the tactical bipod is nothing more than tactical envy.
I think back to every instance in which I laid in the gritty dirt or set up a position in the rubble of an urban environment, and it seems that I would have wanted a bipod 9 times out of 10. I’m jealous, you may be too, and it's best we go ahead and admit that so we can have an honest conversation about the bipod.
When I was younger, I used to think the use of the modern RV when camping was cheating.
Fast forward to my mid 40’s and the early arthritis the Marine Corps has gifted me in my back and an RV seems much less like cheating.
Moreover as the famous maxim goes, if you find yourself in a fair fight then your tactics suck. Or as it's been said, the most important rule in a gunfight is always win and cheat if necessary.
Using a rifle bipod is not cheating my friends and if it was, then who cares.
Fortunately, the modern adoption of the rifle mounted bipod is backed by more than opinion and envy. What we perceive as common sense is actually backed by a great deal of ballistic evidence.
Granted, the bipod doesn’t do anything to affect the bullet itself. Nor does it change the ballistic information of the rifle.
With a bipod or without, the rifle and ammunition will perform in the exact same manner. Rather, what the bipod does is bring consistency and predictability to the biggest variable of all during the shooting process. Namely, that would be the shooter.
Accuracy is by far the primary benefit of using a bipod.
I can remember training with my M16 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. We’d spend countless hours learning the rifle and becoming familiar with it.
After all, this is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine as the Rifleman’s Creed goes.
During the final month of recruit training, we head north to Camp Pendleton where we finally get to fire the rifle. Yet, before we did we were forced to spend an entire week aiming in on silhouettes.
The whole goal was to help us feel comfortable in the various shooting positions, so as to create a stable platform.
Finally, when it came time to shoot and qualify, we were taught how to take our rifle sling and essentially turn it into a tourniquet that tightened up our shooting stance even more. At the time, it seemed silly as there was certainly no chance that we’d have time to do as much in combat.
Yet, it was remarkably effective and your average Marine recruit was hitting a man-sized target from 500 yards out while shooting from the prone position.
All that work and now, they are issuing bipods to nearly every Marine. You see why I’m a little jealous?
The bipod accomplished a stable shooting platform that increases the accuracy of the shooter. That’s why you see them in long-range precision shooting competitions and that’s why you see them in combat.
Finally, and perhaps the strongest endorsement, the adoption of the modern tactical bipod came not from laboratory or war college, but from the gritty streets of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan.
As I mentioned earlier, my experience was from the early days of the GWOT wars and a significant amount of my training in the late 90’s was still littered with the remnants of lessons learned in Vietnam.
Apart from the brief fighting during the original Gulf War, there was just not much other opportunity to apply hard earned combat lessons.
My experience in Iraq taught me that a stable shooting platform was difficult to come by. That was partly due to the terrain, but also due to the fatigue that long foot patrols would place upon us. That fatigue made it difficult, apart from the rush of adrenaline, to maintain a stable platform.
Meanwhile, I look over at the Marine carrying the M249 SAW next to me and he is resting comfortably with his bipods deployed.
Whether you are setting up on a rocky berm in the valleys of Afghanistan or setting up in the window of a rubble littered house, a bipod gives you both a stable platform and the endurance to sit at the ready for extended periods of time.
The military has adopted the wide deployment of bipods because decades of combat experience has told them that it works. If that were not the case, you wouldn’t see them. It is little different than the wide adaptation of optics on your standard infantry rifle.
This too was a rarity in 2003, but today, you see optics on nearly every rifle. Combat does not lie and it is the 2nd place finisher in a gunfight that knows this all too well.
The objective consensus is that bipods increase accuracy. The combat informed lesson is that tactical bipods greatly assist your ability to gift a final dirt nap to the bad guys.
Personally, bipods have my endorsement because I figure if you can’t beat the cheaters, then join them.
They work, because they just do. Now the quality of the bipod does matter and as such, you’ll find only the finest engineered products here at Tier One.
We use space age materials including very high quality carbon fiber and 7075T6 aluminum. Not a single piece of the manufacturing process is outsourced to the cheapest third world producers. This is engineering without compromise at a level so high, we even provide the British Special Forces with some of our products. They choose Tier One because combat has informed them that our products work.
That’s it for the first piece in this series and we’ll pick up the next segment by highlighting the tactical and practical benefits of a bipod in more detail. Don’t miss it and remember to peruse the rest of our offerings here at Tier One.
About the author:
Jeff Edwards is a United States Marine veteran of Iraq who served as an infantryman during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In addition to being a lover of the 2nd Amendment he runs the blog UnprecedentedMediocrity.com and regularly contributes the written word as a freelance writer and blogger.
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Author: Jeff Edwards
Now, you may think it a bit absurd to insinuate that a scope ring bears any weight in a gunfight.
There is some truth to that as the battlefields of wars long past are not littered with men lamenting that if they only had the proper scope ring, that they would be alive today.
No, there are many factors that influence the outcome of a gunfight and the proper scope ring would not rank high above them.
However, scope rings matter a great deal when you consider that the average citizen far removed from war is likely to encounter perhaps one gunfight in their life, if even that.
Law enforcement officers can patrol the streets of America for 30 years and never so much as pull the trigger once in their entire career.
The first time you have to pull the trigger in the defense of yourself or those you love will likely be the only time, but please consider that gunfights are notoriously unkind to the second place finisher.
In that regard, there is no detail too small or factor to ignore in a firefight.
So let’s bring a little life to the conversation about scope rings and make sure you have the right one in place when it matters most.
When I was obligated to pull the trigger for the first-time in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps, there was never any question as to whether my M16-A2 service rifle would perform.
Six years of training with it, sleeping beside it, and cleaning it for hours on end, I was supremely confident in the rifle, because there was not a single detail of which I was unfamiliar.
If you can harken back to the famed Rifleman’s Creed you can recall the phrase, “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”
Since our inception in 2008, Tier One has catered to the shooter who lives and abides by that creed.
Scope rings can be found around the world, but precision 5-axis machined firearm accessories are more rare.
Shooters who care about the details purchase from Tier One and perhaps that is why we are blessed to call the British Special Forces one of our finest customers.
One’s confidence in their rifle rests in the knowledge that no detail was overlooked prior to pulling the trigger.
A 40mm scope ring might seem like an obscure detail over which to obsess, but remember that the Rifleman’s Creed also states that
“My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.”
Mastery presupposes a total and comprehensive state of control over oneself and one’s rifle.
The level of confidence I had in my service rifle is why the AR and its variants are my weapons of choice in civilian life.
There are a host of excellent weapons from which to choose, such as the AK, but I put my life in the hands of the rifle I know best.
The one adaptation I did have to make when I began shooting recreationally versus for national defense was the embrace of optics themselves.
I served in the Marine Corps as an Infantryman from 1997 to 2003 and during that era, iron sights were the order of the day.
During my deployment in 2003, optics were just now hitting the squad level and it was most often designated to one specific marksman.
So there was a part of my old and grizzled soul that scoffed when I saw optics on every rifle as the Global Wars on Terror picked up and dragged on.
However, upon further reflection, I realized that what was happening was a combat informed decision.
Adding optics to rifles was not some decision drawn up in a lab.
Rather, it was the sum of experiences born out of the streets of Fallujah and the valleys of Afghanistan.
There were lessons about target acquisition and fire accuracy that proved their worth when it mattered most.
So alas, though no longer in uniform, I relented and allowed the world of optics a proper place in my shooting experience.
I have to say, the military was right.
Optics, if done right, make a huge difference.
Choosing the right scope ring was less about size, which is why choosing between a 35mm scope ring or 40mm scope ring is merely a technical decision driven by the choice of optics.
However, the quality and the craftsmanship mattered greatly.
Combat is hard on a rifle and a weak scope ring is an unnecessary liability.
The scope ring had to be as durable as the rifle and the optic or else I might as well return to my beloved iron sights.
For proper training, I still teach my kids to shoot with iron sights as I think it is an essential part of the shooting experience.
However, the future of shooting rests in the advancement of optics and as such, the scope ring will always play a pivotal role in that future.
As we mentioned earlier, a gunfight in civilian life is a remarkable rare event. Just one that when it does occur, you don’t want to find yourself unprepared.
However, the truth is that gunfights come in all shapes and sizes.
When you find a prized buck in your sights on a cold fall morning, you are actually in a gunfight.
Just one for which the deer is woefully unprepared.
When you are at the range with a buddy and the worst shooter is responsible for the beer afterwards, you are in a gunfight of a different sort.
If the year 2020 has taught us anything, it is the fact that we must be prepared for a gunfight to come in all shapes and sizes.
It could be driven by food insecurity and supply shortages due to a global pandemic.
One could find themselves on the opposite end of an angry mob during an instance of civil unrest.
Let’s not also forget that the United States government acknowledged the existence of UFOs this year.
From an angry mob looking to hoard toilet paper to a pending alien invasion, 2020 has given us every reason to be prepared for a gunfight of any size and every variety.
Confidence in every aspect of your weapon is the key to navigating these troubled waters successfully.
That includes your scope rings, no matter how small a matter you may consider them.
We offer lifetime warranties on all of our products, because we have that much confidence in them and we want to give you that confidence as well.
To be honest, given that it is your life on the line, you would do well to second guess any firearm accessory that manufacturers are not willing to guarantee.
More specifically, the best product and the best firearm is always the one in which you have the most confidence.
If you find that comfort and confidence in our products and scope rings, that’s great and we are honored to serve you.
Just be sure that wherever you shop for your firearms accessories, that you emerge with that confidence in hand.
So don’t forget to check out the rest of our premium firearm accessories and remember, the trophy for 2nd place in a gunfight often comes with a toe tag and a long dirt nap.
So train often and be ready for the day that most people dread.
About the author:
Jeff Edwards is a United States Marine veteran of Iraq who served as an infantryman during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In addition to being a lover of the 2nd Amendment he runs the blog UnprecedentedMediocrity.com and regularly contributes the written word as a freelance writer and blogger.
]]>Author: Jeff Edwards
On a sweltering summer night in 2003, this particular author found himself in a dark alleyway in Al Kut, Iraq.
With rounds impacting around my position, I was about to learn a valuable lesson in immediate action drills.
As a young Marine, my deployment wasn’t much to speak of and I’ve long said that if a movie was made about my unit, it would be a comedy long before it would be an action movie.
In keeping with a long standing Marine Corps policy that says if you shoot at us, we will shoot at you back, I returned fire along with my fellow Marines.
There was little room to maneuver as a result of the tight quarters in the alley and with the enemy fire coming from the rooftops above, the situation was perilous to say the least.
That’s when my rifle jammed and the pucker factor officially hit a high 10.
al Kut 2003 credit: wikimedia commons
Without hesitation, thought, or analysis, I tapped the bottom of the magazine, racked another round and proceeded to fire the next shot.
Tap, Rack, Bang, as the process is known, came second nature to me and my lifelong love affair with dry fire drills began that evening.
As mundane as that story may be, it forever reinforced the value of proper training and a regimen that includes regular dry fire drills.
If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to walk through a few dry fire drills that just may be there for you when you need it most.
Remarkably, you’ll find some objection in the gun community over the notion of dry fire drills because they do not fully replicate the exact experience you will encounter in a gunfight.
Training like you intend to fight is indeed a valuable mantra, but following that mantra too closely will force you to miss out on some quality training.
There is no way to truly replicate the feeling and sensation of being in a gunfight.
The snap and crack of a bullet flying overhead when you are being fired upon is remarkably distinct and you won’t confuse it with your average encounter on the range.
So unless you are going to train Russian Spetsnaz style with AK-47 rounds fired over your head, you cannot always train exactly as you will fight.
Sonic boom or 'crack' of the rifle round
In a real gunfight, the adrenaline will kick in and regardless of what hopes and aspirations you had for yourself, you will not “rise to the occasion.”
Rather, you will fall to the highest level of your training and discipline. This is your floor and your ceiling.
You may not currently train like you intend to fight, but when you fight, you will do so in the manner in which you train whether you like it or not.
Dry fire drills can save you time, money, and perhaps even your butt when you need it most.
So let’s run through a few options to keep you upright in a gunfight.
In a 1910 interview, famed frontier lawman Wyatt Earp mused about gunfighting where he was famously quoted as saying “fast is fine, but accuracy is final.”
He went on to explain that,
“when i say that I learned to take my time in a gunfight, I do not wish to be misunderstood, for the time to be taken was only that split fraction of a second that means the difference between deadly accuracy with a sixgun and a miss. It is hard to make this clear to a man who has never been in a gunfight.”
Earp preached that accuracy was more important than the speed of the draw, though the draw was very important to accuracy.
That’s why dry fire draw drills are an excellent opportunity to hone this skill for both speed and accuracy’s sake.
Moreover, dry fire presents the opportunity to refine the process without the risk of a negligent discharge.
You can walk through the steps of the draw carefully as you focus on proper grip, a firm draw, and quick target acquisition.
I won’t tell anyone if you practice in the mirror and though few admit the fact, it's more common than you might think.
Just remember the words of Wyatt Earp as you train. “Fast is fine, but accuracy is final.”
The odds of you getting into a gunfight are remarkably low in modernity, so you might as well heed the advice of man who thrived in an era where it was a common occurrence.
Perhaps one of the most practical benefits of dry fire training is the ability to train repetitively with zero costs.
Ammo does not seem to be getting cheaper these days and if you can hone skills like target acquisition before you have to fire a shot, you get a great deal more training for your buck.
Target acquisition training offers a lot of potential as a regular component of your dry fire training regimen.
The key is to identify multiple targets at varied distances and then practice acquiring the target from a variety of firing positions.
Now, the basic rules of gun safety are not suspended during dry fire training.
So do not point the weapon at anything that would ruin your life if you actually shot it.
The family dog might make for a speedy target, but let’s keep young Fido out of our sights.
Target acquisition training is really one of visual focus. You want to practice seeing a full sight picture before you pull the trigger.
You can then practice moving from target to target and with repetition, you’ll find yourself able to do so at a faster pace.
Then, when the budget allows, you can head to the range for a live fire version that will allow you to use these same skills with less wasted ammo.
If you do want to spend some money, there are a host of dry fire training programs and kits available for purchase.
Proper trigger control is perhaps one of the most functional components to an accurate shot.
It does not matter if you have properly acquired your target and nor does it matter if you have a perfectly zeroed weapon with the finest sights on the planet.
If you move the gun through the process of pulling the trigger then you will be off target and far from center mass.
Dry fire drills that emphasize proper trigger control can do you a great deal of good.
The coin trick is an excellent drill that targets this particular skill set:
Place a coin, or perhaps an empty shell casing, on the front sight before gently pulling the trigger.
The delicate balance of the coin or the shell casing will instantly inform you if you are struggling with proper form.
If the gun moves too far in the process, the object will fall off.
Muscle memory is the object of this type of drill.
If you do it with enough repetition, your body will begin to remember the form and it will become second nature to you.
It was actually muscle memory and repetition that caused me to react with the proper immediate action drill on that evening in Iraq.
When it mattered most to me and the Marines around me, my body took over when my mind was engaged with other issues.
If you own a firearm, then you have a moral responsibility to train.
Saying that you do not have the budget for range time is not an acceptable excuse when dry fire drills are available to all for free.
Here at Tier One, we are in the business of offering precision rifle accessories that are engineered without compromise.
The notion that our gear and accessories will pick up dust in the gun safe is almost more than we can bear.
When you purchase a new piece of gear such as a Tactical Bipod, you would do well to start becoming more comfortable with that new piece of gear.
Dry fire is an excellent way to gain that familiarity with little time or money invested.
We do not cut corners in our production as every piece of gear is made in-house with our own 5-axis CNC machine.
Nothing is outsourced to the cheapest bidder and the British Special Forces have found our equipment reliable when they needed it most. So you too would do well to avoid cutting corners.
Schedule in some dry fire training today and be ready for the day that most people dread tomorrow.
Odds are that you’ll be in exactly one gun fight, if that, in your entire life and coming in second place is a less than desirable option.
So don’t forget to peruse the rest of our offerings at Tier One and give yourself the best chance to win that day.
About the author:
Jeff Edwards is a United States Marine veteran of Iraq who served as an infantryman during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In addition to being a lover of the 2nd Amendment he runs the blog UnprecedentedMediocrity.com and regularly contributes the written word as a freelance writer and blogger.
]]>Author: Will McElwaine
Three Gun shooting is one of the fastest-growing competitive shooting sports in the United States.
Three Gun is practical shooting while moving through dynamic shooting courses and shooting at a variety of targets.
Clubs and sponsors build courses limited only by their imagination and safety constraints.
Targets may consist of stationary sporting clays, steel gongs, or remote control moving targets.
Firing positions may include toilet seats, airplanes, and vehicles.
As the name implies, the sport includes shooting with three different guns: a pistol, a shotgun, and a rifle.
This means three-gun is a chance to grab all of your favorites from your gun safe and spend the day at the range pushing yourself in friendly competition.
Most shooters likely have the basic gear needed to get started.
Minimum gear includes a 9mm or larger pistol with a magazine, a 20 gauge or larger shotgun with a magazine, and a center-fire rifle with a magazine.
These are the basics, but to be competitive shooters will need semiautomatic firearms in each category.
Most serious competitors use a "modern sporting rifle" or an "AR" for the rifle stage.
If you do not yet have all Three Guns, partner with a buddy who has what you are missing and trade weapons as you work as a team.
At your first competition you will be amazed by the precision gear that some shooters have, but do not be intimidated.
As long as you have the basic gear and a willingness to learn and have fun you have everything you need.
After a couple of matches, you will have a better idea of which gear upgrades you want to make.
Competitive shooting is an exercise for the shooter and the guns.
Three Gun is a challenge that gets the shooter a bit of physical exercise while working through some mental gymnastics to plan and execute dynamic shooting stages.
Competition is also an important opportunity to realize the full potential of the premium tactical firearms that most shooters own.
A modern AR is capable of firing 800 rounds per minute and it can be accurate out to 600 yards.
Three Gun competition will not have you shooting at that distance or using that much ammo, but you will realize your rifle's full potential and you will appreciate the AR's rate of fire as you push yourself to shoot fast and accurate.
Firearm Safety
Safety is paramount in competitive shooting.
A safe shooter will “fit in” with the club.
The social norms of shooting are defined by safe weapons handling.
Shooters new to practical shooting will have to apply normal safety rules while handling the weapon in more dynamic settings, such as shooting from behind concealed positions, moving while shooting, or administratively traversing a course of fire to the next target while carrying a weapon.
Here is a quick review of the four safety rules most shooters are already familiar with, and a primer for how they apply to Three Gun practical shooting:
Follow these rules all of the time, every time to fit in like a champ. Local ranges may have particular rules such as the use of breech flags to indicate an unloaded weapon.
Try to find out about any unique rules before or as soon as you arrive at the range.
Do not be surprised or offended if a range safety officer gives directive verbal guidance in a loud tone of voice.
New shooters will quickly learn the customs and rules of a new range.
Building Your “Kit” for Three Gun Competition
The "kit" is the British term for the gear that Americans call accessories, deuce gear, or battle rattle among other terms.
These are the nice-to-have items that optimize your weapon and maximize your ability to improve your skills as a shooter.
Three Gun competition is divided into divisions based on the gear that shooters are allowed to use.
Shooters new to Three Gun may prefer to shoot in divisions that limit gear to the basics, or new shooters may already have many of the items that are only allowed in the more open division.
No division is better than the other, it is entirely up to the shooter's preference. Rulebooks at specific matches will vary because there are multiple governing bodies for Three Gun competition.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation uses the following divisions:
Rifle optics are the most important starting point when building your kit for Three Gun competition, and they should be the biggest investment besides the firearms.
Money spent on cheap, Chinese, mass-produced, optics is money wasted.
A bargain-price red dot may seem fine when testing it in your garage, but the red dot will be quickly washed out by the sun in competition.
Start with the scope's mount.
A quality machined single piece mount such as the Tier One Long Saddle Monomount is a great foundation for your optics.
The Tier One mount is made with the highest quality 7000 series aluminum and it uses sensible design features such as a large scope clamping area to withstand heavy recoil and other jolts while handling your weapon in practical shooting competition.
This mount is manufactured from a single piece of metal and it is built for worry-free use while keeping up with the demands of practical shooting in Three Gun competition.
Rifle optics should be low-powered or variable power with a wide field of view. Shooters must become accustomed to low-powered optics because many rifle targets are close-range and would be difficult or impossible to see with scopes designed only for long-range shots.
About 80% of rifle shots in competition will be at less than 50 yards, but most matches will have a few long-range shots in the rifle stage.
This is the time when shooters will need to slow down, build a good position, take advantage of a little scope magnification, and fire slow, well-aimed shots.
Lightweight, carbon fiber bipods are handy for these shots.
Bipods give shooters a fast and practical rest with maximum stability for long-range shots.
The Tier One Carbon Fiber Tactical Bipod is perfect for Three Gun shooters because it's carbon fiber construction maximizes strength at the least possible weight.
This bipod quickly snaps into position with two flicks of a finger, and it is available with a pan and tilt mount.
The pan and tilt mount is recommended for Three Gun because shooters will usually have to hit multiple long-range targets across the field of view, which means the bipod must enable the shooter to traverse laterally with ease.
Once shooters have competed in their first few matches they will quickly become familiar and comfortable with Three Gun shooting.
Shooters should look for opportunities to volunteer with the club to help run matches.
There is always a need for timekeeping and scoring, and it takes dedicated volunteers to build the creative shooting challenges that keep Three Gun shooters on their toes.
Volunteering helps shooters observe the sport from start to finish, and become more proficient as a shooter.
Shooters who wish to learn from the best can attend the Peacemaker National Training Center in West Virginia or the Gunsite Academy in Arizona.
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Author: Will McElwaine
Will McElwaine is an NRA Certified Rifle Instructor and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. He has earned the NRA Rifle Distinguished Expert Award as well as Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Expert Awards. He writes informative articles about adventure tourism and firearms and he is still serving in the Marine Corps Reserve.
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Modern rifle gear has evolved, but many shooters are still using marksmanship methods fit for 100-year-old gear.
Shooters who learned to shoot with grandpa’s rifle using dad’s marksmanship methods learned timeless rifle fundamentals such as trigger control and follow-through, but modern rifle design has evolved and rifle marksmanship methods must evolve with them.
“Offhand” shooting was the preferred marksmanship method when riflemen needed to fire from horseback in the 1800s.
Slings were the preferred method of support in the 1900s.
Today's rifle shooter needs to learn new methods to keep up with the proliferation of plastic stocks, carbon fiber accessories, and the invention of the Picatinny rail.
Modern cartridge rifle shooting started in the 1860s with the Henry Rifle and the ubiquitous Winchester Rifle that “won the west”.
These lever-action carbines transformed rifle marksmanship because they were reliable and fast repeating rifles.
The design of the Winchester Rifle in various model years 1866 through 1895 was perfect for horseback with features including a narrow design for a comfortable fit in saddle scabbards, open sites for tracking moving targets, and a downward lever for balanced reloading on horseback.
The downward lever and lack of stable firing positions made slings or bipods impractical and unwanted.
Instead of a bipod or sling, the Winchester rifle used a crescent-shaped butt to enhance stability for the shooter.
This design feature is subtle to the eye but important to the shooter.
The crescent-shaped butt maintains the rifle’s balance when pressed into the shooter’s shoulder, and allows for fast elevation changes, which is ideal for firing from elevated positions such as horseback.
Marksmanship methods of the time matched the rifleman’s gear.
Wide-open stances were important for fast target acquisition and tracking targets laterally.
Shooting positions favored rapid-fire over stability.
While Annie Oakley could throw a playing card in the air and “riddle it with bullets before it hit the ground” these marksmanship methods would become obsolete with the evolutionary design of heavier rifles in the 1900s.
Rifle marksmanship methods in the 1900s emphasized the two-point sling for support.
The British Lee-Enfield of 1895 and the American 1903 Springfield were the prolific service rifles of World War I and the interwar period.
These bolt action rifles replaced lever actions because bolt action rifles were considered more reliable and handled heavier loads for longer range shooting.
The lever-action rifles of the 1800s were mostly used for shots under 100 yards, maybe 200 yards at a stretch.
The 1903 Springfield is accurate up to 1,000 yards, but only with proper marksmanship methods and gear.
The rifle marksmanship methods of the 1900s that many of today’s shooters learned are based on the gear that fits the 1903 Springfield and its contemporaries.
Popular sporting rifles such as the Winchester Model 70 are based on a bolt action design similar to the service rifles of the time.
World War II brought semiautomatic actions with the M1-Garand and M1 Carbine, but marksmanship methods remained focused on using the sling for support.
Rifles from 1900 to the 1960s used wood stocks, which limited the ability to mount accessories.
Wood stocks do not maintain their strength well when drilled for accessory mounting.
Every rifle of the era was made with sling swivels, which show the importance of slings in marksmanship of the era.
Civilian marksmanship training in the 1900s was largely based on military training.
Military manuals, rifles, and ammunition were distributed through the Civilian Marksmanship Program (Formerly Director of Civilian Marksmanship) beginning in 1903.
The training manuals of the era give us insight into the importance of the sling. The U.S. Marine Corps Score Book: A Rifleman’s Instructor of 1912 teaches:
“The sling is used in all your firing. You cannot do good work without it, and you should never fire a shot without the assistance of the support of the sling.”
The two-point sling was the preferred marksmanship method for rifle marksmanship because it connects the shooter's arm and the rifle, forming a triangle with the rifle at the top of the triangle.
This creates a stable shooting platform using the shooters' skeletal support resting on flat, level ground.
This is how rifle marksmanship was taught on the range, but practical shooting in combat or while hunting often found the sling used only for carrying the rifle.
Practical shooting scenarios through a window or from cover often did not allow shooters to take the time to form a perfect “triangle” position with a sling.
The introduction of the M-16 in the 1960s brought more of the same shooting marksmanship methods and gear.
The early model M-16A1 used the same two-point sling swivels as the 1903 Springfield, and methods changed little with the introduction of the first service rifle with a plastic stock.
Revolution in Rifle Marksmanship
Two events prompted a revolution in rifle marksmanship methods in the 2000s. First was the invention of the PICATINNY RAIL in 1995.
The second was the expiration of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 2004.
The Picatinny Rail was an evolutionary upgrade over its precursor the Weaver rail, but the revolution was the ubiquitous adoption of the Picatinny Rail as the military standard.
The expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban allowed these rails to proliferate the civilian market.
The rail is important because it allows for mounting of accessories anywhere on the rifle.
These accessories include scopes, lasers, night vision, and the bipod.
The lightweight bipod revolutionizes rifle marksmanship because it makes the sling obsolete and necessitates a change to the shooter’s position by bringing the non-firing hand off of the rifle’s forestock and into a crossed-arm position under the rifle’s butt.
The application of carbon fiber technology to bipod design has allowed for strong, lightweight bipods like the Tier One FTR Carbon Bipod, with impeccable strength for its weight and an ultra-wide base for a shooting platform that is much more stable than a sling and the shooter’s elbow.
The Picatinny rail is important for bipod use on a rifle because it allows the shooter to adjust the position of the bipod for the shooter’s body.
Some bipods use an adapter to mount the bipod to a rifle’s forward sling swivel, but to be effective a bipod should be adjusted on the rail to fit the shooter’s body for comfort and stability.
This revolution in rifle gear occurred recently in the long history of the rifle, and shooters are just beginning to catch up.
Marksmanship methods based on the sling were taught for over 100 years and now must be un-learned.
Some of the best techniques for the use of a bipod may not have been written yet.
Competition and qualification rulebooks will need to catch up with the new gear.
Most rifle competitions prohibit the use of a bipod except as an adaptation for shooters with disabilities, but practical shooting disciplines have caught up.
3-Gun matches allow bipods in the Open and Outlaw Open Divisions. The F-Class long-range shooting discipline was born in the 1990s and allows bipods.
Shooters should expect competitive disciplines that allow bipods to proliferate over the coming decades as the rifle sling becomes a tool of the past like the lever action rifle.
Bipods are indispensable on modern combat weapons.
Bipods designed for combat like the Tier One Tactical Bipod are designed to flip out of the way when not needed, or quickly flip down to be used when cover and the shooter’s position allow.
As modern weapons become more loaded with optics and accessories, the bipod is also an important tool anytime the shooter wishes to set the rifle down in a safe and secure position; simply flip the bipod legs down and the rifle stands on its own.
Shooters in the 2020s are learning new marksmanship methods based on the bipod.
Shooters learn through practical application while game hunting, shooting in competition, or combat.
Shooting a rifle with a bipod is more comfortable than shooting with a sling, plain and simple.
The uncomfortable pinched-hand feeling of a properly tightened rifle sling has been replaced in practical shooting by a properly “loaded” bipod with just enough forward pressure from the shooter’s shoulder.
The pressure from “loading” the bipod creates a stable platform for shooting and recoil management.
Shooters MUST continue to put rounds down range using their bipods to experiment and learn how to fire a rifle with a bipod.
Hunters in the field should pay attention to finding supported firing positions such as stumps, platforms on tree stands, or ground that is comfortable and practical to shoot with a bipod.
The bipod allows for getting into an accurate firing position much faster than getting into position with a sling.
This utility necessitates slightly modified firing positions based on available cover and support.
The best marksmanship manuals on rifle shooting with a bipod have yet to be written, and top scores in matches and long-range shots will prove the best methods.
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Will McElwaine is an NRA Certified Rifle Instructor and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. He has earned the NRA Rifle Distinguished Expert Award as well as Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Expert Awards. He writes informative articles about adventure tourism and firearms and he is still serving in the Marine Corps Reserve.
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Wikimedia Open Source Photo Credits
Winchester Rifle https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winchester_Model_1894.jpg
M1 Garand https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/M1-Garand-Rifle.jpg
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This episode features the stunning Blaser R8 Ultimate Silence, a limited edition 'Conqueror' Grey Evolution Bipod and a Swarovski Z8i.
This limited edition bipod color is available only to our members. Find out how to join us today if you'd like to pick up one of these bad boys.
Click the image below to check out the video!
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Link: https://anchor.fm/tierone/episodes/1--Rex-Tibor--How-to-master-long-range-shooting-eaua78
What's up everybody, today we dropped the first episode of the brand new Tier One podcast featuring the awesome Rex Tibor from Rex Reviews and RexDefense.com.
You can find us on Spotify and PocketCasts or just at the link above.
This episode is all about the science/art of long range shooting, and is packed full of insights from Rex's long career as a marksman.
Some of the topics we cover include:
You can find Rex on any of the following channels if you want to reach out to him:
Training:
Rex Reviews YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TiborasaurusRex
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/rex_reviews/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/rexdefense/?hl=en
You can also see his early reviews of our bipods right here on this blog, just scroll back a couple months.
Thanks for listening!
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Author: Jeff Edwards
If there is one thing America’s vibrant gun community loves, it is a classic gun debate.
Just mention your love for the 1911 around a Glock lover and you’ll be in one soon enough.
So we are very aware that we have created a little controversy by saying that your beloved AR is the perfect deer hunting rifle.
If you’ve got a few minutes to stick with us here, we’ll explain it in more detail.
You see, the AR style rifle has become America’s rifle and it resides in homes across America from sea to shining sea.
Yet, far too many fail to appreciate its potential to drop mid-sized game and put dinner on the table.
The bottom line is that if you own the AR platform then you have the perfect deer hunting rifle right at your fingertips. So let’s dive right in.
America’s Love Affair with the AR Rifle
The AR-15 was born out of the U.S. military’s request for a lightweight rifle that could go toe to toe with the AK-47 in the jungles of Vietnam.
Originally evolving into the classic M16 that has since become the standard service rifle for the U.S., the civilian version was quickly put to the market as the AR-15 by Colt.
Over the next 70 years, Americans would fall in love with this rifle as they saw it as the Yin to the Soviet Union’s AK-47 Yang. The good guys carried the M-16 and the bad guys carried the AK-47.
Apart from a brief moment in history where the 1990’s assault weapon ban made their purchase illegal, the rifle has been a popular mainstream in the American gun universe.
Whereas we are pretty sure half the consumers purchase the AR-15 with a looming zombie apocalypse in mind, its function extends far beyond such scenarios.
It is a rifle well suited to secure and maintain the Second Amendment for decades to come.
It is a rifle that will serve up a very bad day to any bad guy that should choose to invade your home.
It is easy to maintain, fun to shoot, and yes, it can be a perfect rifle to take into the deer stand with you during those cold fall mornings.
Perfection in all the Possibilities
Perhaps the genesis behind our decision to sell premium accessories for firearms like the AR-15 is the belief that every gun should be a personal choice.
As the rifleman’s creed goes, there may be many like it, but this one is yours.
The AR platform is remarkably versatile and in this manner, it can quickly become the perfect deer hunting rifle with a quick modification.
Swapping out the upper receiver for the AR-10 or the .300 Blackout alters the capabilities of the rifle, while still allowing you to quickly switch back to the AR-15 when needed.
F1 Firearms, straight out of Texas with this sexy beast
After all, a gun is simply a tool and for every job, there exists the perfect tool.
However, in keeping with the fidelity of the title, we said the AR-15 can be your perfect deer hunting rifle and we meant it. If this were 1965 and you told us that you were purchasing an AR-15 to hunt deer, we might chide you for your poor decision.
Certainly, it will kill a deer, but there are better options.
In the present, advancements in modern ballistics have created .223 or 5.56 rounds that are specifically designed for hunting game like deer.
You do not have to swap out the upper receiver to pack a powerful punch with the AR-15, as advanced ballistics will deliver it for you.
Winchester offers up their Power Max Bonded 223 round that is designed specifically for game like deer.
They boast a proprietary bonding process that they claim delivers massive expansion, long-range accuracy and some serious power to knock down the animal.
Premium ammunition manufacturer Hornady has jumped into the game with their 223 Rem 50 Grain GMX Full Boar.
This round explodes out of the muzzle at 3335 feet per second and at 300 years out, it is still moving at 2071 feet per second.
It is a round designed specifically with medium sized game in mind and delivers in every way.
Truthfully, whether it is Remington, Black Hills, or Federal Ammunition, nearly all manufacturers have taken advantage of modern technology to deliver an AR round that will get the job done.
With the right ammo, your AR will not let you down in the deer stand.
Gun lovers can, and will, argue over which round is best. Yet, it is beyond contestation that such rounds do exist.
Hornady 'Full Boar' Ammunition
A Rifle for All Seasons
Despite the fact that the AR-15 loaded with the right ammunition will offer a clean kill in its own right, the true reason we believe the AR-15 is the perfect deer hunting rifle rests in its ability to do everything else you need it to do.
The United States military had all the funding it ever wanted during the Cold War and could have chosen any rifle to lead the way.
They chose the M-16/AR platform for a reason.
You have certainly heard the stories about the unreliability of the rifle to function in dirty conditions, but these were born out of early experiences in the Vietnam War.
By 1965, modifications were made and it would be America’s weapon all the way through the Global Wars on Terror.
Gun control enthusiasts may laud the AR as a “weapon of war”, but make no mistake about it, you will indeed have a weapon in your arsenal that is capable of fighting a war.
It will also drop that deer and put a little deer jerky in your pantry for an afternoon snack.
Personally, if the zombie apocalypse should come, the AR platform would be an excellent choice.
It is lightweight and accurate out to a very long range.
No need to fear the undead when you can drop them from over 500 yards out. It is also fantastic for giving Bambi the deer something to cry about when loaded with the right ammunition.
The cold hard truth is that the AR-15 is a rifle for all seasons, all budgets, and deer season is most certainly included in that resume.
So let’s talk budgets.
If money is no problem and your personal armory looks like a scene out of a Rambo movie, then spare no expense to get the best AR in your hands.
With a little over $2,000 to spend, you can pick up the Yankee Hill Machine Co’s Model-57 Specter XL Billet Carbine.
The Yankee Hill Specter is a mean looking unit, with silencer or muzzle brake.
It’s sexy with a rugged design and comes fully zombie apocalypse and deer stand approved. But you do not have to break the bank to find a capable rifle.
Smith & Wesson offers a host of options like the M&P 15-22 Sport. You can pick it up with an optics ready scope and bipod for anywhere between $500 to $1,000 bucks.
Load it with top tier ammunition utilizing modern ballistics and you’ll have venison on the table before you know it.
Yes, there are better options out there.
However, we are always of the belief that the best rifle is the one you can actually afford as opposed to drooling over in the gun shop window.
In Conclusion
The AR platform is one rifle with many options.
When you customize it to the job at hand, you will find no better option before you.
Hunting deer is just one job and the fact that the AR-15 can deliver on that job and stand ready to do many more makes it the perfect deer hunting rifle.
It is a weapon that is great news for the good guys and terrible news for the bad guys and deer alike.
Here at Tier One, we deliver solutions that are good enough for the British Special Forces and the American hunter alike.
Every product is made in-house with our CNC machines and we do not farm out a single piece of the manufacturing process.
We take the best materials on the planet to make the best accessories possible to give you the best shot when it matters most.
The new Tier One cantilever monomount is the perfect mount for any serious AR setup.
About the author:
Jeff Edwards is a United States Marine veteran of Iraq who served as an infantryman during the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In addition to being a over of the 2nd Amendment he runs the blog UnprecedentedMediocrity.com and regularly contributes the written word as a freelance writer and blogger.
]]>This is a repost from Precision Defense Industries - thanks for the great review guys!
The Tier One bipod out of the UK is a relatively new bipod that has for some time piqued interest in those chasing weight reductions for mountain rifles. The recent excursion to New Zealand gave us a chance to field test a number of new products including the Tier One Bipod in proper mountain hunting conditions.
On top of new products being evaluated for sale, we often try gear from smaller manufacturers, most of whom we have no sales relationship with in our quest to discover optimised products for particular applications. Tier One came onto our radar while originally offering high-end rings (which have impressed in the past), rails and monomounts. Now they’ve branched out to a broader range of products, of particular interest, especially for mountain hunters, is their Tier One Bipod, which might be just the ticket for some looking at shedding a few grams compared to our trusty favourite, the Atlas PSR.
Tier One Bipod in Packaging
There’s no question that the Atlas PSR is a fantastic bipod, if we could only own one, this would be it! It’s a relatively light unit (compared to the old Harris) and has fantastic versatility through its multiple leg angles, cant and pan functions. All these make it our ‘go to’ for PRS competition and general use. However, in the constant quest to shed weight on the mountain, we’ve explored other options, including the Spartan Javelin and Neopod lines of products (both of which we feel are no better than shooting off your pack). So far, the weight savings on the alternative products we’ve tried haven’t been enough to convince us to give up the Atlas’s rock-solid stability and versatility, which can come in handy in some terrain when hunting.
However, in mountain hunting, sometimes simplicity is a benefit, and weight savings almost always are. With that in mind, the Tier One unit with its pull-back 90 degree leg position (vs the 5 position Atlas that requires a release-button to be pressed) and its lever release sprung legs (vs the Atlas ‘lift-to release collar’) makes for simple and very quick deployment in hunting situations. Along with these relatively straightforward ‘Harris-esque’ features, the Tier One Bipod (depending on model) has both cant and pan functions and an ‘ADM’esque’ Picatinny/Weaver mount.
Chamois at 350m that was taken by the 7SAUM sporting the Tier One Bipod
We tested the Tier One bipod for the first time in the week prior to our trip to NZ, and were immediately impressed with the finish on the product, and then with how solid it felt under the heavy recoil of the 7 SAUM. The main function we needed to familiarise ourselves with, given the steep country we’d be hunting, was the cant. The standard Tier One cant control is a small knurled nut for finger tightening, which for some people might be sufficient but for our taste didn’t facilitate enough tightening for the relatively firm tilt adjustment we like.
Tier One offer two options to up the tension, one is their ’tilt tension key’, a nicely machined alloy block designed to give the shooter more leverage for a ‘one off’ tightening of the mechanism. The ‘key’ works well but given our limited time with the unit before a week of mountain hunting, we were unsure how well the tension would hold, so we went with option two, a nicely designed and very light (10g) pod lock. Range conditions didn’t really require use of the pan function.
In the mountains, however, the panning capability of the Tier One really showed its value. Brooky was able to easily track a chamois buck while maintaining his shooting position, as it rocketed down the hill after being hit, rapidly leaving the spotting scope frame. Ultimately a follow up shot wasn’t required, but even finding the animal could have been challenging without being able to follow it in the scope. It’s worth noting that unlike the Atlas, where the level of friction of the pan and cant functions are both controlled by the tension mechanism, the Tier One pan friction is set and only the cant is adjusted by the tension mechanism.
As with the simplicity of the Tier One’s panning mechanism, for hunting situations where time is of the essence, the one directional push of the legs to lock them at 90 degrees is quick and straightforward. If you need extra height quickly, the spring loaded legs with a simple lever release deliver it. The extension range of the legs is slightly more limited than an Atlas due to the Atlas’s ability to lock the legs at 45 degrees; the maximum height is similar, but the minimum height is greater on the Tier One Bipod.
While the Tier One Tactical Bipod is not as large a weight saving compared to the Atlas as the Spartan Javelin or Neopod are, in our opinion its performance more than justifies the extra weight compared to those competitors. This bipod has a brilliant blend of weight, features and quick deployment for hunting, and feels almost as solid as an Atlas under the rifle.
The Tier One Bipod is available in two leg lengths and in two constructions (all alloy vs alloy and carbon fibre). The model we use is the 180mm carbon, with pan and tilt adaptor. As with many small to medium manufacturers in the current market, Tier One seems to be currently struggling to keep up with the demand for their product, so you may have substantial wait times for some configurations; we waited months for ours and can honestly say it was worth it.
Our initial enquiries with Tier One were quickly and comprehensively answered; then followed a period of slower communication, which we assume corresponded with high work loads. Once the unit was ordered through their website, the confirmation and postage were extremely quick. The first unit sent had a faulty release catch on the rail mount lever, meaning it detached far too easily. To Tier One’s credit, their customer service was excellent and a replacement part (easily installed) was express mailed from the UK. Since then, the bipod has performed beautifully.
Overall our experience dealing with Tier One was positive; be prepared to make some allowances for dealing with a smaller, niche company without large stock reserves and huge production capacity… And on that note, thanks to those of you who have been patient with PDI while Bourney has been in the field testing gear.
AtlasPSR / Tier One Bipod / Harris
|
Atlas PSR |
Tier One Bipod |
Harris HBLMS |
Weight |
376g |
345g |
427g |
Height |
130mm (45degrees)/170 (90degrees) to 245mm |
180mm to 235mm |
185mm to 285mm |
Cant |
20 degrees |
30 degrees |
40 degrees |
Pan |
40 degrees |
40degrees |
N |
Leg release |
Sprung collar |
Spring lever |
Spring push button |
Notched Legs |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Leg positions |
5 |
2 |
2 |
Price |
RRP 540 AUD |
250GBP = ~480AUD |
220 |
Attachment |
Pic Rail with Lever |
Pic Rail with Lever |
Sling swivel |
Extras |
None |
Pod lock |
Pod lock |
For those looking to shave some weight off their rifle system and are happy for a slight reduction in versatility, the Tier One Bipod is probably the strongest contendor for your money and frankly it is a very impressive unit without the shortcomings of other carbon bipod attempts we have tested in the past like the Neopod and Javelin.
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Zeiss USA - Rings manufactured by Tier One right here in our facility in the UK. Using the same incredible attention to detail, precision engineering skill and high quality materials as we use in our own Tier One branded rings.
Check out more at Zeiss USA.
Introducing the new Zeiss precision rings
A smarter, sleeker and ultra lightweight ring for all heavy-duty hunting and shooting applications. Offered in a 1913 standard, and STANAG compliant design
This compact design is low profile and refined with non-snagging hardware and micro radiused on all machined leading edges to help protect the finish on your rifle scope and your investment.
Constructed using premium materials these precision rings are made from a durable 7075-T6 aluminum alloy with a hard anodised matte black finish, making them highly resistant to wear and abrasions.
The stainless steel T15 top cap screws have a black oxide finish for resistance to corrosion.
The recoil lug ensures a strong alignment and a secure zero, even under the harshest of recoil.
Optimal for a long range shooting solution.
These rings have an integral bubble level that is easily viewed from either left or right handed shooting positions.
Lightweight, and heavy duty.
Zeiss precision rings.
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It is not a process step that is considered a shooting fundamental, but it is the foundation of the fundamentals.
Even without correctly executing any other shooting fundamentals natural point of aim alone will at least get your shot on the paper or within the range of a spotters scope.
Do not try this at home or at the range, but if you could somehow ignore the fundamentals: breath wildly, close your eyes, jerk the trigger, and ignore follow through, if your natural point of aim is accurate your shot will still be in the ballpark.
Shooters often prove the inverse of this to be true by focusing on the five fundamentals without a proper NPA.
NPA drift is insidious because the visual cues or feel of NPA drift are very subtle. Further, maintaining NPA is a passive activity.
Shooters focus on breath control and trigger squeeze because those are activities that require positive action from the shooter and therefore take much of the shooter’s attention.
If NPA drifts while squeezing the trigger due to some change in the shooter’s body there is no cue to notify the shooter. Rifle scope bubble levels add a helpful frame of reference to maintain NPA.
Straight Talk About Cant
Cant is measured by degrees of lean from the vertical, either for the rifle or the scope.
Scope level with the horizon is an important point of reference for NPA because it shows that the shooter is not leaning around the target, that site adjustments will have the expected effect, and it forces the shooter to bring the scope to the eyes, not the eyes down to the rifle.
Rifle scope bubble levels are typically used for shots greater than 500 yards, but that oversimplifies their purpose.
Canting the rifle barrel has no effect on the point of impact. Because the bore is in the center of the barrel, and the bullet travels through the bore, canting the rifle barrel just rotates the rifle, but the bullet stays in the middle.
Canting the scope, however, does affect the point of impact.
Simply put, in order to fire an accurate shot the scope must be level, but scopes can be mounted so that the rile has a degree of cant.
A round scope with a narrow field of view that excludes the horizon and a round target presents a very difficult point of reference for maintaining natural point of aim because there is no reference for level.
Shooters in the final stage of the firing process will naturally become fixated on the target.
“Target fixation” is a phrase loaded with negative connotations, but at some point in the firing process target fixation is necessary.
Even in tactical shooting scenarios with wide field of view optics or iron sights the shooter must aim at the target, focus on one point in space, align the sights and squeeze the trigger.
It’s important to take the necessary steps prior to those moments when target fixation is necessary.
Setting NPA for the First Shot
Shooters build their position prior to firing the first shot in a series. NPA on the first shot does not carry the risk of insidious drift because setting an accurate NPA is an inherent part of building a correct position.
For any shooting position start as if you are building a house, starting with the foundation first.
Table 2 lists the cornerstones of each shooting position.
The cornerstones are the foundation of each position. Align these cornerstones as best you think will align to point the rifle at the target.
THEN start building your position on top of the foundation.
In prone that means bending the knee, bringing the rifle comb to your cheek, and bring the sights to the shooters eyes.
As you build your position it is vitally important to bring the sights or scope to your eye, use the scope levels to make sure the scope is aligned, and then look through the scope to check to see if you have built your position in the right place so that the target falls naturally into the center of the scope.
This step by step approach is necessary prior to each first shot.
At this point it is likely that you have built a stable position but small adjustments will be needed to point your NPA directly at the target.
Move each cornerstone of your foundation slightly and all together in order to align the rifle with the target.
After you adjust the cornerstones check the scope bubble level and bring the scope to your eye, then look through the scope to check if the adjustments brought the target into the center of the reticle.
Checking the scope bubble level prior to looking through the scope on the first shot accomplishes three things:
Maintaining NPA for Follow on Shots
The NPA process is different for follow on shots because the keystones are already in place.
Natural point of aim must be deliberately monitored during follow on shots because this is when unnoticeable creep starts.
It’s natural enough for any halfway conscious shooter to establish an accurate NPA prior to the first shot, but what happens over time after a few shots is a slow drifting in NPA that can have a dramatic and unnoticed impact.
This slow drift is caused by a handful of factors.
First is muscle fatigue; after a few minutes in any position certain muscles may begin to fatigue or strain.
These muscles subtly pull the shooter’s bones and move the cornerstones of NPA, causing the NPA to drift off target.
Second, the shooter may develop a case of the leans around the target due to target fixation.
This is especially likely in the case of a round target with a round scope and a narrow field of view.
When a shooter develops the leans the tendency is to rotate or lean around the target.
The third factor that effects natural point of aim for follow on shots is recoil.
With a proper NPA the rifle should settle right back on target after recoil, but if the position is imperfect the effects of recoil will cause the body and cornerstones of NPA to drift.
A feeling of “funny recoil” is a dead giveaway that NPA has drifted from the target, but at that point I tis too late.
NPA must be reassessed by a methodical process before each shot.
A proper habit pattern between shots is necessary for sustained excellent marksmanship over a long course of fire.
These steps are universal for any pace of fire, any size of rifle, any position, and any distance.
The degrees of importance of each of these steps and the time available for each step varies based on those factors, but the steps remain universal for any rifle shot.
As previously stated, these steps are universal regardless of the type of shooting.
If follow on shots are at a target that is in a different location follow through is still back on the target that was just shot, but NPA is established to point at the new target.
A methodical approach to each shot effectively maintains an accurate natural point of aim, which enables shooters to sustain accurate fire.
Rifle scope level bubbles are a valuable tool because they add a visual point of reference to this process.
Instilling this four step habit pattern prevents unnoticeable natural point of aim drift.
About the Author:
Will McElwaine is an NRA Certified Rifle Instructor and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. He has earned the NRA Rifle Distinguished Expert Award as well as Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Expert Awards. He writes informative articles about adventure tourism and firearms and he is still serving in the Marine Corps Reserve.
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As a shooter you can spend 100's of man hours drooling over top-end gear like the lightest Proof carbon fiber barrels, the new $3000 Schmidt & Bender scope (and so on and so on, it never ends)...
Amiright?
What’s amazes us at Tier One is how many people then strap on a set of cheap scope mounts and wonder why they don’t get consistent accuracy out of their setup.
The fact is, if you’re not spending that same effort and attention on the glue that holds your setup together – your scope rings or mounts - you’re going to end up with tolerances all over the place, a loose setup and poor accuracy down range or on a hunt when it matters most.
In this guide we’re going to take you through the considerations you need to make to find the perfect scope mount for your hunting setup, bench setup etc – one that allows for consistent repeatability, tight groups, and reliable performance after a 10k trek across hard country for that one shot.
The Essentials
What makes an ideal scope ring? We think the basics are:
1. Light weight:
Pretty much everyone can benefit from a lighter setup.
Maybe if you’re shooting .50 cal off of a bench you don’t care so much, but a heavy lump of ugly steel still isn’t as cool as a finely milled piece of aerospace aluminum.
2. No lapping required:
The inside bore of the rings SHOULD be precisely milled so that they can be anodised and so you don’t have to remove that anodising with abrasive compounds, exposing bare metal and reducing the lifespan of your rings.
Selling an incomplete product is unacceptable in our eyes – would you buy a lump of metal that you had to turn into a Ruger Precision yourself?
We mil spec anodise everything to 30microns and we expect that coating to last a long, long time.
3. The rings should match each other:
This is a no-brainer but you’d be surprised how many rings are stamped out in bulk, and the tiny variations between each one mean you can never achieve a perfect alignment.
This can potentially lead to issues with your optic as well if the tolerances are out too much.
The perfect scope mount should also;
4. Provide the right amount of recoil security for the calibre of your chosen rifle.
5. The rings shouldn’t shift out of alignment ever.
You need to take into account calibre, size of recoil and how often you fire the weapon, transport and general bumps and nudges that you might encounter in daily use.
Form Follows Function
If you care enough about looks then the ideal mounts will match your setup aesthetically.
But here's the thing, often if it looks better it's because it works better.
For example, a slimmed down hunting rifle generally looks nicer with a set of lightweight hunting rifle scope mounts and you'll benefit from the weight reduction.
An AR setup looks better with a rugged AR scope mount like a unimount, or 3-screw tac rings, or maybe a cantilever mount.
It also functions better because it can withstand the kind of knocks and bumps that tactical operators experience in their line of work.
With all the above in mind, here’s our guide to choosing the right scope mount for your application:
Bombshell One
There is no universal solution.
Sorry.
You’ll have to assess each setup individually based on things like, what rail you're using, where it's placed, whether you're shooting extreme long range at 2000yards, or hunting deer at relatively close range, etc.
But don't worry we've got you covered - let's start with rails:
Rail Fitting
There are several mainstream rail options available so it’s totally up to you (or perhaps your manufacturer if they integrated a rail system to your firearm).
Picatinny - The standard MIL-STD-1913 picatinny rail is a great option – most accessories are built to attach to these rails, or include a picatinny adapter option in the range.
It’s standardised so all rails should be the same, allowing you to switch one mount between firearms quickly and easily.
The keyword here is STANDARD - meaning it's repeatable.
This rail is what we recommend 9/10 times. We make our own picatinny rails to the same super high spec as we make our rings, check them out here.
Weaver – A little like a Picatinny rail but narrower recoil grooves and an older standard.
Looks similar to a picatinny and is partly compatible with one.
Pretty common in your local sporting goods store, you probably already know this one well.
KeyMod – Open source, universal interface system designed originally by VLTOR Weapon systems. Allows you to fit a 1913 picatinny rail anywhere on the KeyMod system.
Improves forend grip and can reduce weight. Quite a nice system.
M Lok – Designed by Magpul as a competitor to the KeyMod. Again, allows you to fit a picatinny rail wherever you like without having to have full length rails running down the forend and making the firearm heavy or reducing barrel ventilation.
This one is not open source however, so only registered manufacturers are allowed by Magpul to make accessories that fit them.
In summary – if you ask us what the best mounting methodology is, we’ll say picatinny rail most of the time. It’s standard, it’s solid, and it can be fitted to just about any firearm.
Crucially, most manufacturers make rings for the picatinny rail, and all our picatinny fitted rings are guaranteed accurate and come with a lifetime warranty.
Optic Tube Size
As you probably already know, a larger tube size has more adjustment in it and is better for long range and extreme long range shooting.
Bombshell Two: If you’re just hunting whitetail at 200 yds you really don’t need a super long range scope.
In fact, you’re more likely to hinder yourself as you restrict your field of view at close range, and if you miss your shot because your magnification was too high, well, you just made a very expensive noise.
So, long range shooters might want to go all the way up to a 40mm tube, and will need medium or high height on your scope rings if it’s a bolt action, or if the objective lens is over 56mm you definitely want high.
It’s important to get enough clearance over the fore-end so you don’t foul the optic, while maintaining a good optic over bore height.
Our Tactical Rings or Monomounts are ideal for this kind of shooting.
Our medium height rings will fit up to a 56mm objective lens on a standard hunting rifle.
If you're using an AR platform you will need a high configuration in order to clear the handguard, quad rail or whatever you have on the front looking like the terminator made it.
AND, more importantly, enough room to get your face down behind the optic for good eyeline and field of vision.
Think about how close to the comb you can realistically get your eye, and allow for that in your ring choice.
Choosing The Right Ring Diameter
This follows nicely from tube size and is less an art and more like 100% science.
If your optic tube is 30mm, you need a 30mm ring.
Nice and simple.
If you use a couple of different optics don’t worry: we also offer ring reducers on our most popular ring sets.
Eye Relief
The distance from your eyepiece to your eye.
If you end up with a black eye you need more eye relief.
This won’t affect the mount too much unless you have a pre-existing neck issue or something preventing you getting right down on the comb or the cheekpiece.
In that case, and especially if you’re using an AR with a flat plane from comb to barrel tip, you might want a cantilever mount and turn it around to point at you, allowing you to sit back further and not crane forward.
This is a rare thing though, most will want the regular cantilever configuration (we have cantilever monomounts on the way, you're the first to hear that).
Choose a rail and mount combination that will allow you to get the correct eye relief from your scope.
There is huge variety in firearms these days so it’s impossible to say X will fit Y every time, so just use your common sense and go with what feels right and allows for repeatable accuracy.
Receiver/Forend/Handguard Clearance – Ring Height
This is critical, you need to make sure you have enough clearance by your objective lens (the end you point at stuff you want to kill) over the fore-end of the firearm to prevent fouling or damage to what is probably an extremely expensive piece of glass.
I'm $4000 - for the love of God, don't drop me
Aesthetically right now it’s very trendy to have a gnat’s hair distance between your optic and the forend, which brings us onto the 3rd and final Bombshell: most people choose things because they look good.
In reality, a super low optic mount isn’t entirely necessary in all conditions.
If you like it, go with it. Just be damn sure you’re not getting any contact under firing between the optic and the firearm.
Some firearms (ARs or modern sporting rifles mainly) have a pronounced fore-end or handguard that could potentially protrude upwards and make contact with either the scope, or just prevent you using flip covers.
See the image above (of the Christensen Arms rifle) for what I mean, where the rail actually climbs up above the height of the receiver where you mount your scope.
Obviously if this is you, then you want to hook up a higher set of mounts.
In general terms you want to make sure that, under recoil, your optic is not going to impact or make contact with the firearm at any point.
AR/Carbine Scope Mounts
Is the butt stock or comb at the same level as your receiver?
Probably.
This is a common setup on AR platforms and you’ll likely need a higher mount to give you enough space to actually get behind the optic, and get your cheek down on the cheekpiece or the stock.
It’ll give your optic clearance over the handgrip and, if you use flip covers, it’ll give you plenty of space for that as well.
Ok it's not an AR, but you can see the same potential issue with a raised rail in front of the optic
The Tier One Monomount in short saddle or long saddle configurations will give you a really solid, recoil-resistant platform for your optic that can withstand all the kind of lumps and bumps your rifle will take in transit and in use.
It’s the most solid rifle scope mount that we make and it’s pretty much nuke-proof.
A lighter option would be our Tactical Rings – these are not monolithic like the monomount but they have 6 screws per ring giving you massive security.
Hunting Rifle Scope Mounts
These rifles are lightweight, streamlined, mainly bolt actions - they get treated a lot better than your standard AR.
Generally on this kind of setup your buttstock or comb is lower than your receiver to allow you to take the bolt out for cleaning, so you need to compensate for that dropped eyeline with a lower set of mounts.
There are aesthetic reasons that people choose the lowest possible rings too (we covered this ad nauseam by now - they look pretty cool).
We recommend our Picatinny Scope Rings for this kind of setup. If you own a Blaser rifle like an R8 we actually make Blaser Rings and Blaser Tac Rings specifically for that system.
Slimline rings on the R8 - gun porn
How Low Can You Go?
We have had people request even lower rings than we currently make but eventually you get to a point where it’s impossible without compromising the structural integrity of the rings.
If you really, really can’t get low enough consider raising the adjustable cheekpiece (if possible) or add a cheekpiece to get that additional height.
There are a bunch of great options out there in leather, neoprene etc.
Lapping
As I covered earlier in this guide – you should not need to lap your scope rings if you have paid for a premium product and are using a high quality picatinny rail.
Doing so will only damage a very finely manufactured piece of precision equipment, so even if you enjoy the process (which is fine, it’s fun to play with guns), please resist the urge with your Tier One rings.
If you bought cheaper rings however, it’s a different story and you will probably need to lap them to get a decent match.
Too Long; Didn’t Read?
Don’t lap them rings – just buy quality.
Pick a mount with enough clearance over your fore-end, quad rail or handguard, and the right height for your eyeline:
AR/Carbine setups need higher rings
Hunting rifles or bolt actions need lower rings
If you are using big calibre then consider a 3 screw set of mounts for extra security.
Hunting rifles look nice with streamlined, lightweight hunting scope rings.
ARs and sniper rifles like chunky, heavy duty scope rings, and they take more punishment.
Worried about weight? We manufacture all of our rings out of 7075T6 aluminum alloy so everything is super lightweight, even the chunky mounts.
Tier One Quality Guarantee
Every set of rings we make at Tier One is done with our "One Hit" machining method, meaning that the most important dimensions are machined in a single setup.
We offer a lifetime warranty on all our rings.
Additionally, we use only high-quality, lightweight, durable materials that are tough, have competitive strength to weight ratios, and we make our own screws to match our gear.
Everything is done with precision in mind.
In addition to scope mounts, we also offer class leading bipods, optic levelers, and much more. Check out the range and see you in store.
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Tier One get onto the range with Richard Utting, the country's premier shooting coach before this year's trip to Azerbaijan in search of Dagestan Tur.
Listen in for some great tips that you can apply to your own long range shooting!
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Evolution Bipod Review
Our friend Rex at RexReviews checks out the Evolution Tactical Bipod in a preview video right here. Big thanks to Rex, and hope you enjoy!
You can find the Evolution Tactical Bipod on our website right here: Click to Shop
And Rex's Youtube channel is right here: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqymwlCbVwpMnSLrd-NAQJQ)
Full transcript of the audio below:
--
Howdy guys, Rex here.
Tier one bipod, this is from Tier One USA is the name of the website, they’re actually made in England, this is a new model, or at least new to me. One I had not seen yet so we’ll check it out.
The idea here is I like lightweight equipment for certain applications, take a look at this super lightweight axial precision rifle, it’s got a carbon fibre proof research barrel, 6.5 creedmoor, the sock, this is axial’s own proprietary carbon fiber shell stock with their fill in it that’s really really lightweight so it weighs like a feather.
That stuff is nice when you’re doing any kind of kinetic applications, hunting, tactical, stuff like that. Ounces make pounds very quickly and equipment just cumulatively being lighter is a nice feature.
Tier One is something that has established a reputation so far for being very good quality, I know that like a lot of the British special forces have been fielding these on some of their rifles, I’ve seen it. Least that’s what I’ve seen.
Packaging is always pretty nice. Ok so this design goes on a picatinny, and we have our quick detach throw level here, ok.
This kind of works like an american precision or american defence like cantilever, throw level deal. And then these legs they just fold straight down and then they’re locked, so we’ve got that locked in there.
Then we have cant, and the cant we can adjust this here, and lock it up and we can loosen it up a little bit, and we have a certain amount of cant here. That’s nice to have tensions in here, you press the button to refold the legs.
So you gotta push the button, now there’s a decent amount of smooth, high quality friction, ok? Friction is good if it’s smooth, in my opinion, in terms of keeping things consistent, now this was kind of built specifically with accuracy in mind, from what I’ve read on the websites, ok.
And the idea here is they wanted stuff that’s very tightly made so that the internal ballistic anomalies that you have happening when the rifle is reverberating on your recoil before the bullet actually exits are minimised.
So that’s why the Harris design with the spring actually yworks pretty darn good, because the spring kind of tensions everything.
This is just built kind of tight, and so let’s see and you can see the uh, stance, this you have your picatinny down here so that the legs are actually coming up towards the axis of the bore and the barrel of the rifle and you get a lot more stability although the angle of this isn’t as wide as some models, um, but it certainly is pretty stout.
I mean, carbon fiber is pretty tough stuff, let’s actually see how tough this deal is, ok so I’m gonna put this down, and I’m trying to get flex out of it.
This is why, this is like exponentially less flex and a lot stiffer than a Harris, that’s for darn sure, and it weighs very little.
They are a little pricey, compared to like a standard bipod but carbon fiber isn't cheap, especially for good stuff, and lightweight components like this is not super cheap. Let’s take a look at what they have in the bag here for accessories, I believe they have some different kinds of feet in here.
So we have some spike feet, some very pointy carbide tips for different foot preferences for different bipods. Actually I like skids, this is not a bad idea, skids are good for different environments.
We’ll give it a try and see how it is out in the field. Then of course you have the rubber legs which are very standard and then we have a throw level, which looks like probably threaded for right here so you can just replace that lower profile deal with this if you want a quick, hand-tightenable for a little more leverage. You can really get a nice tight throw on that.
Again what’s impressive about this is the rigidity. For being as lightweight as it is, I’ve got pretty strong wrists guys, I’m twisting it, trying to get it to flex with the legs fully extended, yeah, that’s pretty darn tough, that’s gonna work.
Let's see if this still works. We’re still in business man, I didn’t break it! I should quantify how much am I twisting on this, it’s a lot!
One thing I was good at was a mercy, you ever played mercy? So this bipod ain’t gonna give me any mercy.
Yeah it’s very rigid, is as best as I can explain it, at least qualitatively.
Alright guys, check it out, Tier One USA, expect to see a lot more of this as we go ahead and find a weapon to marry it to. Alright guys catch you on the flip side.
You can find the Evolution Tactical Bipod on our website right here: Click to Shop
]]>If you hadn't heard already, we recently manufactured some ultralight precision scope rings for Zeiss, here's the story and How We Made It:
]]>If you hadn't heard already, we recently manufactured some ultralight precision scope rings for Zeiss, here's the story and How We Made It:
Overview
We were approached by Zeiss USA to design and manufacture a brand new series of branded rings to fit their scopes and offered in their specific optic sizes of 30mm and 36mm.
These brand new rings are being rolled out across North America as we speak and are fully branded as Zeiss products, proudly made by us at our facility in the UK.
Back story
We’ve been making scope rings for 11 years now with the same ethos - always use the best materials available, and design our product with toughness, ergonomics and practicality at the forefront.
Craig - our CEO and the designer of all of our products - is an avid hunter and shooter, and we have also developed several of our products in conjunction both ex and current special forces soldiers, so generally we know what a hunter/shooter/operator wants from their gear.
On top of that we always try to innovate, not follow the crowd.
This has led to us garnering something of a reputation in the industry amongst people who really know their sport.
Products like the Short and Long Saddle Monomounts, Tac Rings, and more recently our range of bipods, have proved enormously popular and raised the profile of the brand worldwide.
Zeiss USA actually approached us directly at a gun show in the UK and, having seen our products on the stand and on their customers’ guns, asked whether we’d be able to design and produce an exclusive range for them.
Of course we said yes; Zeiss are a big name in our industry and having previously worked on white-label bipod projects for both Blaser and Sauer (check out the Blaser bipod and Sauer-pod - that was us), we felt well qualified to work with the big boys and produce the kind of ultra-high end gear they require.
Who are Zeiss USA?
Unless you live under a very big rock you already know that Zeiss USA is one of the world leaders in high quality optics solutions for the firearms industry.
They also make top end gear for the medical industry, professional photographic lenses and movie cameras, and tons more, but the stuff we care about is the shooting optics.
Specifically, the Zeiss Victory and Zeiss Conquest series of rifle scopes. You’re probably already familiar with these but for the uninitiated:
The Zeiss Victory scopes are the premium, brand leaders. They’re not cheap (can be upwards of $3500) but then they’re made to an extremely high spec so that’s to be expected from a premium scope.
The Zeiss Conquest series is an excellent mid range scope, coming in at around $1500, sometimes cheaper.
So Craig went to the drawing board and designed and prototyped, over and over, until he’d come up with a damn near perfect unit - light, ergonomic, streamlined - just like the scopes they're meant for.
Manufacturing started a few months ago and we’ve got 30mm Zeiss Scope Rings, and the slightly more popular 36mm Zeiss Scope Rings all designed to perfectly fit the existing range of Zeiss optics.
Materials
We generally use 7075T6 aluminium in our rings because it’s an alloy that offers a great strength profile while minimising weight and so we went with this again for the Zeiss project.
The reason we like ultralight materials is simple: when you’re hunting and trekking your rifle generally weighs enough already without a lump of steel hanging off the top of it, PLUS a heavy Harris bipod or similar digging in your shoulder.
If it doesn’t feel like much weight at the beginning, it certainly will by the time you’ve done a few k’s.
Being aware of these issues on our own hunts is what led us to develop lightweight and very ergonomic solutions, and this is clearly borne out in products like the Tactical Bipod and the Evolution Bipod.
Even the FTR Bipod which is a static bench bipod for F-Class shooting is ultra lightweight compared to the other ‘pods in its class, and all our rings are designed for weight saving while maintaining maximum strength.
Manufacturing Process (fair warning: it gets a bit technical here)
These Zeiss scope rings are designed from scratch in house by Craig, CEO and chief designer. The aesthetic is unique and differs from our own rings, but the quality and performance of the ring is identical - lightweight, ultra strong.
The rings are machined on 5 axis CNC machines from a solid billet of 7075 T6 aluminium. One billet = one set of rings. So there’s no loss of accuracy between the two rings and they match perfectly.
Billets of aluminum before machining
The advantage of this method to the shooter is greater accuracy and repeatability; tighter groupings, more kills. Obvious stuff really.
If you have to keep resetting the machine for a new operation or changing the tooling, that’s where the tolerances start to get messed up and you get small anomalies and irregularities building up between the two rings.
Once all the machining is completed the rings are then deburred in a specialised machine that submerges them in thousands of ceramic cones and shakes and shuffles them for several hours, knocking all the rough edges off.
The result is a surface that is microscopically smooth and burr-free, ready for anodising.
The logo is cut into the rings by the machine during the initial operation and then they get treated to a nice mil-spec, 30micron hard black coating to keep them weatherproof and rock-solid.
Zeiss scopes are super tough, waterproof and tested in temperatures down to -40 degrees C, so anything less than maximum toughness would have been unacceptable.
Screw It, Let's Do It
We also custom make the screws for these rings in house on a special machine so that they match the rings exactly - this is something we do across our entire range of scope rings and bipods but which, surprisingly, isn’t so common in the industry.
When you look at the cost of the machine and consider that all it does is make screws, maybe we can see why most manufacturers simply can’t afford it.
Quality is Everything
The truth is that if you’re buying rings cheap then you’re getting cheap manufacturing processes, rings stamped out en-masse and full of anomalies.
If those anomalies are pronounced enough you might damage your optic, in extreme cases, but even with small differences you’re going to have accuracy issues down range.
Tolerance stacking is a big issue for a lot of shooters and often they’re not even aware of it;
Basically all those tiny issues in a cheap set of rings stack up with all the other little tolerances across your platform; in the optic, the bipod, differences in your ammunition, etc.
When you add all those up, or ‘stack’ them, you find you’ve got a big margin of error and suddenly it makes sense why your groups are all spread out.
So don’t blame the weapon until you’ve checked all your gear - if all your accessories are made to this standard, and your optic is high quality, then your rifle has nowhere to hide…
Check out the brand new, Zeiss Scope Rings in store at Zeiss USA now, or take a look at our Tier One range of scope rings, made to the same standards and in a broader range of sizes.
Happy hunting...
]]>Check out the alternative Evolution Bipod here
Locking keys and accessories here
Lightweight Tactical Bipod Review
Hey guys meet the Tier One Tactical Bipod. The tier one tactical is constructed entirely from 7075 T6 aluminum and is available a couple of different ways; you can have aluminum sleeves on the legs or you can have as you see here carbon fiber sleeves.
It’s available in either a 7-9inch or 9-11 inch configuration. That’s 180mm or 230mm if you speak millimetre. The corresponding weights are 242g or 292g and if you convert that to American that’s 8.5oz or 10.3 oz, and those weights are with the carbon fiber legs. You can also get 50mm leg extensions if you need those.
One of the things that makes this system really versatile is that there are multiple foot options available including different spikes and claws and even skis.
The ones you see here are just the standard that come with it. And in addition to the feet, tier one also has a lot of accessories available, they have locks and legs and picatinny adapters, scope levelling wedges, even tools and hard cases. Just about every kind of solution that you would need for your rifle’s mounting system on a bipod, you can get from tier one. And full disclosure guys, tier one sent this bipod to me for evaluation and testing.
This tactical bipod has a retail price of 395 which definitely puts it in the category of high quality accessories. I used the tier one on an AR 15 and it performed perfectly. Its easy mounting and lightweight make it easy to attach when needed and barely changes the balance of the rifle. The bipod stays sturdy even at full extension, something I’ve noticed can be a problem for some.
Unlike the wobbliness that I have felt with some other bipods at full extension I didn’t notice any loss of support or control with this tier one unit. I also mounted the tier one on a much heavier Sig Sauer 556r that shoots the more jolting 7.62x39 round. And just as with the .223 round from the AR 15, the feet held their spot on the shooting bench and the legs of the bipod absorbed the recoil well and kept my scope on target between shots.
The quality of this bipod is apparent the moment you pick it up and look at it. It’s not an inexpensive piece of gear so you’re probably asking what do I get for my money.
Well from what I’m seeing from my evaluation and testing, is that you get top quality materials, well constructed and excellent design, simplistic operation and a great lifetime guarantee. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s very easy on the eyes.
I’ve been contemplating who I think this beautiful carbon fiber bipod is really for; if you follow my antics you know that I’m not really an experienced rifle guy, but when I do take long guns to the range I am very picky about how everything works. I think I have less patience with rifles or related gear that doesn’t function properly than I do for handguns and their related gear. That’s probably due to my lack of experience and confidence with them.
But that didn’t happen for a moment with the Tier One, not because it does amazing tricks that the others don’t, or because suddenly someone invented a two leg support system that’s revolutionary, nope. It’s just because it’s instantly simple to understand and use and it does exactly what you expect it to do. And on top of all that it looks awesome with all these finely milled aluminium parts and carbon sleeves. But then you know that I’m a bit partial to carbon fiber.
I did have one problem with the tier one which turned out to be my ignorance at work, but since it was the only element of the product hat for me at least wasn’t completely intuitive let me share:
The problem that I was having was that this tension lever controlled picatinny connection wasn’t always fitting the rail I was trying to put it on. It was a little bit too loose, and even through I can see the tightening nut right here as you can, it’s recessed just about flushed with the housing and I was having a hard time trying to understand how am I supposed to adjust that.
So I reached out to tier one and they responded quickly and didn’t even call me names, which they could have done. It turns out it’s really pretty simple as you might expect.
You put the lever in this position which is the unlatched or relaxed position, the open position if you will. And then you push it in, just push in on the end of the lever, as I’m doing here, and you can see that doing it with one finger is not that tough, and you can probably also see that screw then will come out. So that screw will not protrude and it will allow you to turn it in or out as you may need to adjust the tension.
And then once you release the pressure it goes back to being flush and it stays exactly where you put it. Turns out it’s really a pretty good and simple design, I was just too dumb to figure it out.
Once you’ve done that and you’ve gotten it adjusted you won’t likely need to do it again for a very long time if ever, especially if you’re using mil spec gear, and based on how quickly they helped me out and answered my questions, we can probably add great customer service to the list of what we get for our money.
So back to my derailed thought about who I think is the ideal customer; probably not the guy or lady who’s going to shoot the rifle occasionally or go out and do a little bit of plinking with it. This equipment is made for the more serious shooter, whether you’re a hunter r some sort of an operator. Maybe you’re a competition shooter that needs something that’s reliable, simple to operate and very lightweight, or let’s be honest, you might just be the person who likes to put the best accessories on their rifle and wants to make a fashion statement at the range. There’s nothing wrong with that either.
Tier One tactical bipod also comes with this very awesome case you can see if I turn it sideways here a little bit, you can see there their name and logo sort of embossed into it. Again it’s a nice case, molded custom fit for your bipod and has lots of pockets for accessories like spare feet and leg extensions.
Mounting and unmounting the bipod couldn’t be simpler, you just use this tension level which does have a lock on it so that it can’t accidentally be released even if you were to bump that level, pull back on that lock, flip out that tension lever and that’s it. Mounting is simply a quick reverse of that process. So I’ve used this tier one tactical bipod over the course of several range trips with several different rifles and it has met all my need and it works very well.
I really like the quick disconnect, I like that a lot as opposed to having to fish through my range bag for the right allen wrench or some other tool to attach or detach the bipod. The bipod also has a decent amount of swivel to it; you can see as I turn the head this way and turn the head that way, I don’t know how many degrees that is, I’m gonna guess that probably 15 or so degrees in either direction. And the head is also capable of cant back and forth, and this bring s me to the only thing that I really didn’t like using this particular bipod is that, this tension screw comes loose almost constantly so if you’re not always reaching down and retightening that the cant becomes so loose and wobbly then your rifles is going to fall to one side of another, sometimes with enough force that it could knock the whole thing over. So that was the one thing that I didn’t really care for. I wish there were a little better mechanism for tightening that and having it stay tight. Other than that I really have no complaints.
If you’re after a sort of minimalistic look or you’re after a really cool look it kind of fits both and I like that, that’s a tough balance to strike but they’ve really pulled that off. And it’s very simple and elegant, and yet very rugged and very efficient.
So for it’s high quality materials, and very, very precise construction and workmanship, and for its simplistic ease of operation, and yes, also for its aesthetic qualities I definitely give the tier one tactical bipod a thumbs up. It is not cheap, but if you are in the market for a bipod in this price range I recommend it.
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Get your Tactical Bipod here
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