Sniper's Hide

Volkmann Custom – Combatant Carry 1911

It’s not everyday you find buried treasure in your backyard, or for that matter, hidden talent around the corner. That is exactly what I found lurking in my local gun shop, the Gun Room in Lakewood, CO. Inside the Gun Room, shop owner George Horne introduced me to Luke Volkmann. Earlier in the year, George had told me about their plans to start building custom 1911 pistols; now the fruits of their labor were coming together as Volkmann Custom was cleared hot and ready to roll.

Since the first time I saw the Zeiss Spotter 60 at the Shot Show several years ago I have been trying to get one here in the USA. It was nearly an impossible task until Nathan Hunt of HUDISCo came along and began distributing the Hensoldt line of Zeiss Optics here in the US. We were lucky enough that Nathan attended this years' Sniper's Hide Cup at Rifles Only and brought the Spotter 60 for us to use on the line. Lucky for us, not so lucky for Nathan because I don't think he has seen his Spotter 60 except in pictures since that weekend in April.

TBG 80 from Optolyth with Mil based Reticle.

It seems like every week there are constant calls in the forum here at Sniper's Hide about a spotting scopes with reticle that will match our rifle scopes. For the longest time the only choices for the US shooter to get a spotting scope with a reticle built in was from Leupold in their Tactical Spotter line. At the time you were able to get that spotter with a Mil Dot reticle and then later from Premier with a GEN II upgrade. Several years later Zeiss began importing their Mil Reticle eyepiece into the US for their Sport Optic Spotter the 65 T. It seems strange considering for how long the sniper / spotter combination has been taught as the standard way of doing business. Yet there was a huge gap in the market for a spotter with reticle to match our rifles.

Several weeks ago, Nathan Hunt of Hudisco forwarded me a Hensoldt 3-12X56 FF to put through its paces at Rifles Only . This was a new venture for Nathan, being the importer for Hensoldt / Zeiss scopes here in the USA, it was great to be one of the first guys to have access to these scopes from Hensoldt. Here is the initial video we shot when the scope first arrived.

The NEW Huber Concepts® Tactical Patent Pending for the Remington 700®

At this years Shot Show, I was introduced to John Huber of Huber Concepts. During the show he introduced me to his Remington replacement Tactical Trigger, a simple drop in unit that I just couldn't wait to get my hands on. Ever the fan of the 2 Stage Trigger it was something my Remington Tactical Rifles were lacking, as I usually opted for a GA Precision Tuned version of anything else, mainly stock Remington triggers. Most of the aftermarket triggers out there don't hold up very well to the use and abuse we put our rifles through. In fact I would venture to say a faulty trigger is our second biggest problem we see down on the range at Rifles Only. The fine sand and grit tear the mechanisms up and the bolt guns go down failing to cock, or dropping the hammer when the bolt is closed. We see it a lot so a good tactical strength trigger is always in demand from us.

Uncompromising, the TAB GEAR "Elite Series Sling"

TAB GEAR / Elite Series Sling

The Sniper's Hide Cup officially ended on Saturday, I want to thank everyone for making it such a great event. The winds were strong the competition fierce and above all, everyone was safe.

The top three shooters were:

Terry Cross
John Sommers
Tim Long

A special thanks too all the sponsors, and please when it comes time consider these companies first when considering purchasing.

Sponsors 2009 Sniper’s Hide Cup

GA Precision
www.gaprecision.net
.243 Rifle

McRee’s Precision
www.mcreesprecision.net
stock

US Optics
www.usoptics.com

The weather is perfect, the winds almost non-existent, the sun is just coming up over the tower. This is where the butterflies start to fly, that calm before the storm.

We are only 1 day away from the start of the 2009 Sniper's Hide Cup down here at Rifles Only. Today we finished up the match Train - Up that started on Sunday afternoon. The shooters had some really great weather and heavy dose of the fundamentals of marksmanship in order to prepare them for the match.

Sniper's Hide officially went online in November of 2000 and was recently incorporated as Sniper's Hide, LLC in 2004. The "Hide" was founded by Frank "Lowlight" Galli. During my years as a Marine Scout Sniper, then later conducting surveillance. I was able to grasp the difficulty surrounding a profession that combines both an Art and a Science. Long Range Precision Shooting with or without a scoped rifle has often been demonized, through education and understanding we believe we can lift that dark veil which has clouded so many.