AAR - MODERN DAY SNIPER
Overview - From September 5 – 8 2023, I attended a Modern Day Sniper at The YO Ranch Headquarters between Junction, TX and Kerrville, TX. This was an invite only class that became available through Rob Whitfield’s relationship with the organizer from Esense LLC. Students in the class ranged from instructors at the Recon Sniper Course out of Camp Pendleton to SWAT snipers from a local Sheriffs office.
The instruction for the classes was provided by. Caylen Wojcik and Phillip Velayo. Both former Marine Scout Snipers and sniper instructors. The instruction was excellent and the way they broke the information down was very digestible for someone with a limited precision shooting background (me).
VENUE – The YO was pretty nuts. I drove down with a hammock and a woobie in my truck because I didn’t know what to expect. Check out the link for pictures of the rooms and buildings. It wasn’t exactly roughing it. Also, they have exotic animals wandering around, which just makes things feel a little stranger.
GEAR – The class emphasized getting off your belly and shooting from other positions using a tripod for support. I didn’t own a shooting tripod so I bought a BOG tripod on the drive down to TX. I also used an Armageddon gear Game Changer as my shooting bag. I brought down a case of Winchester match 175gr .308.
GUNS – I started the class shooting my Tikka T3. The rifle has an old Leupold Mk4 3.5-10 (mil reticle) and a Surefire 7.62k. It’s an older set up but one I’m pretty comfortable with.
Unfortunately, the pin that holds the bolt catch in the receiver sheered halfway through the morning on T-day 1. That meant that every time I cycled the bolt, I would pull it all the way out of the rifle. Not optimal for anything with a time component.
Fortunately, I had thrown my Larue OBR and a company owned SCAR-H in a gun bag and brought those down too. Having a back up is always a good idea when traveling to a class.
I decided to switch to my OBR because I had shot that at the last long-range class I had attended, and it performed very well.
The rifle has an 18in barrel, Surefire break, and a Geissele trigger. I’ve got a Nightforce 2.5-10 with a mil-dot reticle mounted on top.
This rifle lasted about halfway into the afternoon on T-day 1 before I started having problems. The issues were primarily light strikes and live rounds stuck in the chamber which had to be mortared out.
When I started to diagnose the problem, I found that the firing pin had been punching holes through the bottom of some of the primers.
These “blanked” primers were blowing the small punched out piece back into the bolt carrier group of the rifle and either impeding the firing pin, or in a couple of cases, locking up the bolt completely.
This can be an issue with the firing pin depth (gun problem), chamber tightness (gun problem), chamber pressure (ammo or gun problem), or a combination of the three. I’ve got to get back out to the range with some other types of ammo to try and run the problem down but my current working theory, given the number of successful rounds I have through that gun, is that having ammo sitting in the Texas sun caused enough of a pressure change to cause the issue. TBD.
I finished the class with the company owned SCAR-H with a Vortex 1-10 MRAD. The gun functioned fine but the accuracy wasn’t up to snuff for a precision class.
POI – The first day of the class opened with intros and then off to the close range referred to as the “square range” which consisted of 2 shooting bays, with a third being built. The dimensions of each bay were roughly 200m long by 50m. Once at the Square range, zeroes were confirmed, with a short exercise in positional shooting from a tripod. After that we proceeded to the long range, which was a short drive, around 5-10 minutes to a hill that overlooked a valley with targets ranging out to 1200m and then went right into a shooting Known Distance exercise using different tripod positions we just went over. After that we had a class on wind, wind process, and gun number. And then closed out the day shooting at various targets from tripod positions on our time to collect data.
The second day opened with 16 dot drill on a timer meant to test the shooter’s ability to deploy his equipment and hit a 1.5 moa dot at 100m against a par time, done at the square range. After that we headed up to the long range to shoot moving targets. The moving targets were provided from a third-party vendor in the form of a mannequin with acoustic sensors mounted inside on top of a robotic wheel base. The targets worked very similarly to the Army rifle qualification targets, as they would fall when shot, though moving instead of stationary and were placed at ranges from 200m -500m. This proved much more challenging than track targets because the targets bobbed, stopped, changed speed, and would go behind cover/ concealment, which all provided a more realistic shooting experience. The shooting day was closed out with an Unknown Distance exercise on a mix of moving and stationary targets. We then proceed to the lodge to get a class on how optics work from Michael Baccellieri, a representative from Leupold, that lasted about 4 hours. It was extremely in depth and very informative into how the scope industry works and all of the engineering and science that goes into quality glass
The final day opened on the long range with open shooting for data collection which then led into a competition between shooting partners for Known Distance, moving/stationary targets. The final exercise consisted of a hike and shoot with you and a partner. It involved two separate stages, the first being walking to a ledge and engaging targets from the standing tripod and then moving position and engaging a second set of targets from the kneeling/sitting tripod. The second stage began with setting a frame shoot on a stationary and then engaging two other moving targets until they stopped moving (the sensors could be set for multiple hits before the target would stop). After that a debrief and a short class on using two tripods for a shooting platform and then an open shooting, untimed exercise in its application. Last remarks were made and the Modern Day Sniper course ended.
LESSONS LEARNED –
Reflecting on the issues I had and what I could have done to mitigate them, I’ve come up with the following:
The sheered pin on my bolt gun wasn’t something I’ve ever run into before. I have ordered a replacement and a spare to keep with the gun when I travel.
I should have ordered a known round for the class. I went with the cheapest round that I could find that met the following criteria; new (non-reloaded), brass case, match grade, known manufacturer. The Winchester met all the requirements and was about $.10/rd cheaper than the Federal, which I’ve shot a bunch of. I don’t know if I would have had the same issues with Federal, but it definitely would have been worth $100 to avoid it. Go with a proven performer if you have the option.
Other lessons learned:
There is an advantage to using a gas gun on movers. In this case we had movers at 200, 300, 400, and 500 (roughly) and when we were shooting on our own, I could spot my own hits, make rapid corrections, and fast follow up shots with the SCAR.
There really is a point where the gear matters in the precision rifle game. This is especially true with glass. Don’t go cheap on your scope and, if you’re going to take it seriously, upgrade as necessary.
Tripods are bad ass for shooting positions other than prone. Do some research and get a good one.
OVERALL – This class ate my lunch. I’m used to holding my own when it comes to marksmanship, but between the gun problems and the high level of the students, I really felt like I was lagging behind the rest of the group (because I was). That’s not where I usually live and I didn’t like it one bit.
That being said, the guys from MDS presented information really clearly, there was plenty of time and distance to play around with the concepts, the students were all class acts, the facility was awesome, and the food was good. If you like long gunning, take advantage of MDS if this opportunity comes up again