like one of the hardest ones I had to find was a protractor the clear square protractors that you use on maps was taped on the side of a brick wall sometimes they would put a hand grenade right in front of you like right across the line and that would be the only one you don't find because it's right in front of your face nine times out of 10 the hardest things to find can be the things that are right in front of your face what did you find the most challenging portion of army sniper School
to be Target detection that was the hardest portion of it stalking was easy I never like I was I could have gotten undergrad but I was being a ranger in a regular army school and off with my other Ranger guys and being sneaky doing stupid stuff so we were I wasn't allowed to get you know honrad from that but stalking was easy my last stock um so it's like a tradition where you wear whatever you want to wear and you do your fin stalk or whatever after you've passed all of them um like one of
our guys um keep his name I'll call him M Legend really really great guy good sniper he did his in like a yellow t-shirt and he stalked and made he passed his stalk and a yellow t-shirt so for me and my spotter we went in t-shirt and jeans and we managed to pass a stock and T-shirt and jeans and stalking was the easiest portion but Target detection was like the hardest for me hiding or finding the hidden objects in the in the field and dude that's just I don't know it takes a different and I'm
not the best describe it a little bit Yeah so Target detection would be imagine 10 military items um uh uh bullet casing uh Compass protractor dog tags uh boot lace things of that nature and they put it out 50 100 yards in front of you and they hide it in the woods or in an urban environment one example like one of the hardest ones I had to find was a protractor the clear square protractors that use on maps was taped on the side of a brick wall a white cinder block wall holy tape to the
side of that and the only thing that stood out which you had to look for as you're looking on the edges or the edge of the the building you're looking for that irregular it goes from hard Edge hard Edge smooth and now you have little ticks on that one let me focus in on that oh there's a protractor there but it's clear but I can see the the ticks on the protractor so okay I can outline that or taping a toothbrush to a branch in the in the woods or whatever and I'm looking for the
irregularity from crooked branches nothing in nature goes straight lines I'm looking for the straight line of the toothbrush I see that now I see the bristles on it that is the hardest portion of sniper School finding glints that's always easy it's the objects that don't have glint Blends in and you're only looking for a straight line or something that just does not fit and yeah that was the hardest portion for me that doesn't sound easy no man that was the most stressful I failed finding a clear protractor at 100 yards on a wall in an
urban yeah that was the do they give you any parameter or is 360° environment or no so there's like a a tape line in front of you and they give you your sectors you know left and right field of sectors and everything in front of you from the tape line to 100 yards or further whatever it's fair play there's 10 military items in there write them down identify them describe them and draw a picture of them of where they're at so you're looking for shape color description dimensions and you're putting all this down um sometimes
they would put a hand grenade right in front of you like right across the line and that would be the only one you don't find because it's right in front of your face but I took that I that mentality with me and I carry it to this day that sometimes things can be so close that you don't even see it or notice it it's like your nose you know if you focus on it you can see oh I have a nose right there but how often do we really see the nose that's sticking right out
in front of our face it's rare so most of the stuff that we're looking for nine times out of 10 the hardest things to find can be the things that are right in front of your face that no one thingss to see cuz they're too busy looking elsewhere so that was like the biggest takeaway I learned from sniper School interesting yeah hope it makes sense like that it makes perfect sense so you get done with sniper school you go to a couple more schools you went to a marine high angle course no we would send
guys to Marine high angle I didn't go uh to Marina I was one too long of a course and I had seniority at the time so I would I sent um one of the newer guys who came in right after me I sent him to Marine scout sniper and then he went to Marine high angle or where the green marays go um they have their sniper is that sodic sodic there you go yeah we would send a lot of guys to that I wanted to so bad but their course dude I was married I did
not want to do any more long schools so I passed it up looking back at it I wish I really do wish I went to that and Marine scout sniper I really do more so marine scout sniper cuz those guys are dude so badass man working with those guys overseas was like working with Carlos Hathcock what I think my idol at the time and I to this day think is the greatest sniper is Carlos Hathcock but who is that a marine scout a marine sniper with the 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam like one of the
deadliest ones uh his spotter had more but his significance the role that he played you know the reason why we have a Barrett 50 cal today is because of Carlos Hathcock he decided to put a scope on top of a the Mau and single fire the 50 count using a scope on mounted on top that he mounted to it dropped a guy with it too but so I think he's the best and his stalking story of stalking this NVA high value Target thousand yard stalk taking out his Target he was not supposed to come back
it was a suicide mission and his whole story about that dude it's like cutting slits in the back of his uniform to shove grass through to makeshift like a little ghillie suit and stalk in this guy and taking him out was just so badass man never got a chance to do anything like that but close working with the Marines the Marines I got a chance to see them work their good magic man and it was phenomenal let's go back just a little bit let's talk about the sniper yeah spotter relationship mhm how does that happen
in regular army there you have a traditional Spotter and sniper mhm in range of Battalion there is we call them spotters but they're snipers too there there is no um spotter in ranger battalion you're kind of both snipers just know how to do the spotter work you only practice spotting in Sniper school just to get qualified and to pass the course but after that there's no more spotter stuff we know how to do it but the work we're doing direct action stuff there's really no need for it you know it's more typical engagement is closest
I shot someone was like 20 feet and the furthest was like half a mile and but that was a extreme Rarity most of the engagements was which was an extreme Rarity the long distance half mile shot what would you say the average shot was 100 yards within 300 within 300 definitely within 300 average about a 100 yards yeah well before we get into your sniper work mhm you get done with the sniper School mhm you've been talking about being a sniper since you were a little kid yeah I mean how did that feel graduating sniper
school knowing that you're going to go to combat as a dude regimental sniper a dream man a dream no matter where you're watching Sean Ryan Show from if you get anything out of this please like comment subscribe and most important importantly share this everywhere you possibly can and if you're feeling extra generous please leave us review on Apple and Spotify podcasts
