Well as stated before I have had a firearm in my hand since before I can remember. My parents, both Marion County Sheriff's Deputies. My dad, expert marksman and was a scuba diver for the retrieval team, both evidence that people tried to dump and human bodies that had drowned or been dumped. Once mom got pregnant with me they both resigned, dad opened a gun shop and mom became a nurse. Some of my earliest memories are of me watching the shop while dad was in another room or something, I can remember customers coming in and joking with me that I was a little young to own the store, I must have been about 5 or so at the time, but I know I was 1 year old when my dad handed me a Mohawk rifle, and for the first time I was completely autonomous with a weapon in my hand. As I got older I not only got better at shooting, reloading and operating weapons in general but the types of weapons expanded. Dad started giving me more exotic ones like MAC-10, Tec-9, MP-5, Thompson sub gun, some WWII collectibles like an Arisaka that belongs to my uncle, a couple of Luger's, my first hunting rifle was a beat up old Mauser K98. when I was a teenager my dad got me a job with one of his friends named Bob Imel, he owned and operated P.A.W.S. which is a company that does firearms work for police agencies, as per the agreement he made with my dad, Bob never once paid me a dime. When he agreed to hire me dad negotiated my salary and that was a few thousand rounds at the end of the week that I could burn up on the indoor range with whichever weapon I chose and I pretty exclusively chose the full auto's. So at 15 I was spending my Friday nights on a range with a few thousand rounds of ammo heating up the barrels on MP-5's, Uzi's and a few dozen other SMG's and LMG's. I have used everything from pre civil war black powder weapons to some of the most advanced weapon systems in existence today. Even sniper rifles, now I am not claiming to be a sniper as that is a title that can only be earned by being in LE or Mil and earning it. I do however claim and with confidence that I can and have used sniper rifles, equipment and tactics when Elk hunting. To answer your question, yes I do understand that a sniper is not defined simply by the weapon. Important traits and skills for a 'Sharpshooter' to have since I cannot rightfully claim the title of sniper I will just use sharpshooter instead. The most important attribute for a sharpshooter is...... patience. Along with attention to detail, a good eye able to pick up subtle differences in color and hue to spot things in the brush that are out of place. Breathing, when your about to take a shot take one slow deep breath in, hold for a sec then exhale slow and steady when your lungs are about 80-90% empty stop exhaling and hold your breath. You have about 6 seconds to SQUEEZE slowly and steadily on the trigger before your body begins to tremble. You can increase that time with practice but first timers should expect 5-6 seconds. Keep both eyes open, learn to selectively focus on the input from one eye or the other and eventually it's like having one eye closed your brain is only focusing on the input from your scope eye but your exposed eye still sees everything. It helps with quicker follow up shots, seeing where the round splashed if you miss and also if anyone is on your weak side which you wouldn't always see if you closed your weak side eye and just focused on the scope with one eye open, makes it easier to be crept up on. Your right, I have no LE or Mil experience and I really wish I did. I would go apply for a job with the police Dept right now if I could. However, just because I wasn't there with a badge on my chest or tags around my neck doesn't mean I don't know people who were. Some of those people were instructors and experts that passed on allot of knowledge to me. So while your average Police officer or Soldier signed up when they were say 21 and then went through training for a year or so plus regular refreshers and updates to their training those officers and soldiers could be any age by now but lets focus on my generation which would put them in their mid 30's or so and if they joined at 18 that gives them the past 15-17 years or so of training off and on at the range, in Op-For exercises and even in actual combat. I on the other hand am 33 and instead of signing up at 18 and getting trained to use an M-16, SAW, M-4, M9, M203 or whatever I started at 18 months old. I have 31 years of constant persistent professional police instruction on a multitude of weapons systems from a little pocket .22 to a Barrett .50. In high school my cousin introduced me to a collector friend of his who collected Viet Nam era weapons and memorabilia. In his basement he had sandbag fox holes setup as a display to show off his seriously regulated heavy artillery and anti aircraft weapons. I wouldn't believe this if I hadn't seen it myself but he had actual AAA, M2 machine gun nest, browning .30cal machine gun, Maxim machine gun, live grenade fuses which I tried desperately to talk him into selling me one, he had a bag full of them I just wanted one lol. Mortars, an RPG tube, LAW rocket tube, anti tank and anti personnel mines, he even had tropical chocolate specially designed to not melt in the Viet Namese heat. My point is, even though I wasn't lucky enough to be able to join the military or police dept. I spent a longer amount of time with a wider range of weapons getting quality, professional instruction on those weapons at a level and for a length of time that surpasses what 99% of LE and Mil get. My dad being gunsmith was tantamount to going to armorers school. Not only can I handle these weapons with great safety and efficiency but I can and have them stripped down and cleaned regardless of the type of weapon it is. I have even repaired many types weapons and loaded my own ammo for handgun, shotgun, and rifle. Like I said though, I don't claim any title that I have not been awarded by someone who is in a place to award me with said title, I will probably never earn the title sniper or anything else for that matter because I can't enlist, but just because I don't have the title that doesn't mean I don't have the knowledge, skill, training and experience that qualifies one to have such a title. I'm not on this forum to start fights or cause drama, I hate drama. I just came here to learn, to find out the best ways possible for me to take the next step in my life. What training I need, where to get it and how to get employed after the training. I have nothing but respect for you guys and what you do, I'm sorry if I offended anyone that wasn't my intent. I wish I had been able to get the training I have by more traditional routes but that wasn't in the cards for me. So now I am here just trying to do the best with what I have and to better myself and my life for me and my family. Thanks for listening and sorry for the long rant.
