How American Snipers Are Saving Military Snipers

July 16, 2024 Guest Blogger Comments

Most of our customers are probably familiar with the name, Chris Kyle. The author of the autobiography, American Sniper (which was subsequently adapted into a film), U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was one of the most accurate, deadliest, and respected snipers in the U.S. military. If you recognize his story, you’re probably aware of the struggles that military snipers need to overcome in war and civilian life. Thanks to one special group, the struggle of getting the best sniper gear is now less of an issue than it used to be.

American Snipers Organization Background

When a few American police snipers founded the American Snipers non-profit organization in 2003 (formally), they saw a real need to fill for military brothers around the world. While the U.S. military supplies much of what they need abroad, some snipers they were in contact with noted that they were lacking certain shooting gear due to budget cuts or just the extensive procurement process. There were just a few specialty items that would make them that much more effective in combat (and thus keep them and their fellow soldiers that much safer). It was a no-brainer for the group. They began fundraising in the local community so they could purchase these items and ship them overseas to those deployed. Due to lots of hard work and dedication (and generous donors and partners, of course), it spread from there like wildfire.

Today, American Snipers supports numerous branches of the U.S. military. In fact, after 20 years of fundraising and donations (as of 2023), American Snipers had supported over 1,300 military units in all branches of the military. From its humble fundraising beginning, that’s quite the accomplishment and something to be very proud of. Listen to Founder, Brian Sain discuss the origins of the group in the video below.

Importance of Specialty Gear

As mentioned, many military snipers don’t always have immediate access to certain pieces of gear that they might need. They can and do request it from their superior officers, but it often takes a long time due to government red tape and budgets. So they either need to go without that gear (potentially putting them at more risk), or use their own funds to buy it. That comes to the tune of thousands of dollars out of their own pockets. American Snipers is a great solution in these situations, directly shipping many of these items to our snipers abroad so they can fight our enemies and keep us safe.

So what kind of gear are we talking about? Think about it this way. For snipers to be able to successfully hit and put down an enemy target at long-range distances (including 2 full miles away), they need to consider every factor possible, including the speed and direction of the wind, temperature, and barometric pressure. Without plugging those factors into a ballistics calculator, which runs all the calculations and provides shooting solutions for the sniper, the chances of success drop significantly at those extreme ranges.

The Kestrel 5700 is a great ballistics meter that can do all those things mentioned above and grant you first-shot accuracy. The ballistics meter measures wind direction/speed, altitude, and other weather or ballistic variables to accurately calculate a good aiming point for long-range shooting, through the delivery of precise elevation and windage solutions. When a sniper can get a tool like this, it will help their accuracy improve dramatically.

Kestrel Ballistics supports American Snipers and is ready to help. Thanks to American Snipers for the generous work they do and in their mission to protect and enable our American snipers.

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