News From the Schoolhouse
April 2020 Edition

We’ve been waiting a long time to release our first newsletter. This is something that we took seriously, and we wanted to make sure we had a clear vision on what we wanted to achieve by pushing out a monthly newsletter. No one likes getting junk mail, and we certainly didn’t want to push out a newsletter that didn’t have any value in it for our subscribers. At Modern Day Sniper we’re in the business of communicating information and this is what we want to accomplish with our “News from the Schoolhouse” letters.

THE FORMAT IS SIMPLE.

What’s new in the world of precision shooting, some educational content, maybe a video link to a how-to video, links to our partners with rad gear and sharing solid, unbiased articles that are beneficial to your growth as a Rifleman.

We’re here to support all walks of life in the precision shooting community: Military and LE snipers, competitive shooters, hunters, and enthusiasts.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE COMMUNITY? 

There’s no question that we’re in some seriously trying times as a nation and as a community right now. With this crisis, it doesn’t matter where your feelings lie on the matter, this is the new normal for the time being and we’ve got to stay focused on what’s really important to us.

Spend time with your family. This is the time to do those things with your kids that we didn’t have time to do before. I’m willing to bet that a lot of you are taking a serious look at your level of preparedness regarding shortages of items that we would normally take for granted. Contingency plans are important. While I understand that your ability to prepare can be limited by where you live, the space that you have available, and the resources that you have available, we can still learn from this experience and adjust accordingly.

Be creative and think outside the box. Time isn’t stopping, and therefore neither can we. Get away from the news; it’s only going to cause your mind to wander and question. We have over 60,000 thoughts in our head every day, and 90% of those very same thoughts carry over into the next day. Unless you break that cycle, you’ll start living in the same headspace day in, and day out.

Try to spend the first 30 minutes of your day in silence and focus on what you’re grateful for. Then, set your intentions for your day. I promise it’ll make a difference in how you approach the world. Overactive mind? Can’t sit with yourself for that long without stimulus? Simply take notice of your restlessness, don’t pass judgment, just witness where you are at and then ask yourself if it’s healthy for your brain.

Change can only come from you.

With matches getting postponed and rescheduled, we’re all bummed out about not being able to hang out with our friends and enjoy the other benefits of this sport which is community. Now that most public ranges have been closed, we’re stuck. If you’re going to head out to public land to shoot, and it’s open, make sure you’re adhering to all the firearms safety rules and be aware of what direction you’re shooting in.

Be responsible and keep it safe, everywhere we go we’re representing our community. You’re always under observation. 

What are we doing at Modern Day Sniper to deal with this situation?

Our position is first and foremost to take care of our clients who’ve registered for classes with us from March through May. We’re currently postponing courses until further directed by the state of Washington. It’s unfortunate, and an inconvenience, but it’s the right thing to do. Regarding our schedule, we’re not even looking at dates yet because there’s too much uncertainty. If you’re a customer who’s registered for a class that’s been postponed, we’re looking at creative ways to get you the training you need. Be patient, as we think you’ll be really happy with what we’ve got coming up.

We’ll be posting information as it comes.

We appreciate your trust, and it’s at the forefront of our minds as we

navigate this situation.

What’s New?  

We’ve got a lot of movement behind the scenes that we’re really pumped about! If you’ve been listening to the podcast, you’ll know that we’ve got an online training program that’s coming to life. I honestly couldn’t be more excited about this, as I believe that we’re going to fill a much-needed gap in the world of precision shooting instruction with the way this is being set up and delivered to you.

We’re also in the process of fleshing out a monthly subscription-based service, as well as releasing a virtual version of our popular Mentorship Program. We expect to release the first online training course in the next two weeks. Watch your inbox, keep following us on the socials and when it drops you’ll know.

~Caylen Wojcik

The Modern Day Sniper RECOIL TV Channel and YouTube Channel

We’re finally up on YouTube guys! It took us forever, and we get that there’s some missed opportunity waiting as long as we did, but when we do things we want to do them right the first time. We’re also up on RECOIL TV, so expect to see content there as well. We’ll be using YouTube for gear reviews, tests, and other bits of open-source content. We’ll be populating that channel with some archived videos as well. Get subscribed!

The Modern Day Sniper Podcast has been simply unbelievable…

We’re stunned and humbled that we’ve captured such an audience in such a short time, so thank you from all of us here. I love the conversations, and love the questions we get from the socials. Keep them coming! We’ve reached an incredible milestone of 50,000 downloads and over 1,000 subscribers in just 10 weeks and 14 episodes. That’s powerful, and says how awesome you all are, so thank you! We’re going to keep at it and we’ve got some more surprise goodness in that regard coming up later this year. 

With the stay-at-home orders listed everywhere now, we’re relegated to staying at home for the most part. That means we’re limited to dry-fire practice. Dry-fire is awesome, and this is a time to get hyper-focused on your mechanics, and your shooter’s checklist. Making these things a priority now will pay off when it’s time to sling live ammo. Some dry-fire tips below:

• Get something to aim at. Use some kind of aperture limiting device on your scope if it won’t focus down to the distances you have in your home. You can do this using some tape over your objective lens. Play with the aperture size until you get it right, and make sure you’re lighting up your target really well.
• Work on single-shot presentations. Start from the prone position and set a time limit of 20 seconds on a timer. Go from standing to prone, address the rifle and strive to make it through your checklist and break a clean shot in that 20 seconds.
  • Repeat this 20 times.
• Next, work on lateral transitions, incorporating lateral movement that’s big enough to cause you to move your entire body and it forces you to re-establish a new natural point of aim without trying to squeak by.
  • Standing to prone, 2x shots, time limit of 25 seconds.
  • Repeat this 20 times.
• If you’re making your time hacks, incorporate positions.
  • Before you set a time hack, identify where you’re at regarding time. Have someone time you from start to finish, finish being a clean and not rushed trigger press.
  • Establish that time, then shave 3-5 seconds off of that baseline to push you just a bit.
  • Run the above drills using positions until you can make your time cleanly.
  • Once you make your time cleanly, start shaving off 3-5 seconds and repeat the process.

This is how we shave time and limit the amount of time we spend on a particular plateau that we’ve gotten ourselves into with fundamentals. Don’t slouch! Hold yourself accountable and accept nothing less than honesty!

CHECK IT OUT – Episode 0014

In our latest podcast, Caylen and Phil sit with Scott Satterlee and discuss handloading, a hot topic considering that we’ve been flooded with requests for a discussion on handloading.