Modern Day Sniper
I’m a bag snob. No shame, just the truth! When my hunting partner and mountain hunting mentor showed me a Stone Glacier bag way back in 2013, I was intrigued and my inner gear geek was incessantly tapping me on the shoulder until I was able to get one of those bags on my back. When that day came, I knew I wouldn’t carry another bag into the mountains as a hunter. Since then I’ve watched Stone Glacier grow into a well-diversified company offering the highest quality backpacks, ultra-light backcountry shelters, and a truly awesome line of technical clothing, all of which I use and enjoy.
What first attracted me to Stone Glacier was the quality product, but what kept me coming back was the people and the culture. After having a chance to meet Kurt and spend time with him talking about bag design locked it in that he was my people. A hard-core sheep hunter himself with tons of experience, I immediately resonated with him and his ideas from my days of carrying leg-crushing loads with less than comfortable rucks during my time as a USMC scout/sniper. I had a vision of what I wanted in a bomb-proof ruck that could carry 120+ lb loads that was as light as possible while remaining comfortable, easy to fit, and multi-purpose. I haven’t looked back and I tell everyone that’ll listen to me! So much so that we worked together to create a bag specific to the rifle shooter that is equally at home on the range, in the mountains on a summer scouting trip, or on a day hunt. Enter the Kiowa 3200, and we called it good!
The culture of Stone Glacier is where we really connect. Whenever I visit their Bozeman, MT headquarters the office has a great vibe and everyone is there to do great things. Jeff Sposito, the CEO and maestro, is always smiling and has a passion for growth while staying tight with the company ethos of producing the best gear they can for the discerning mountain hunter. They’ve come a long way in a short time and it’s been super cool to watch!
Our partnership with Stone Glacier comes through a desire to produce the best possible product for our customers. Modern Day Sniper’s name is synonymous with snipers, but the parallels between mountain hunting and how snipers think and operate are undeniable. Planning a mountain hunt is in many ways the same way we plan missions, and surprisingly only 10% of our job as snipers involves shooting, maybe even less. As a mountain hunter myself, I noticed this on my first trip and I was instantly hooked. Snipers and mountain hunters alike can’t accomplish the task at hand without first getting where the opportunity for a chase happens. That’s the majority of the effort, and we need our best mind, body, spirit, and tools to get there. Wilfully subjecting ourselves to the mountain and Mother Nature’s fury to live where the animals are isn’t for the faint of heart.
What we’re working towards at Modern Day Sniper is to provide our customers with ways to learn this fascinating world of precision shooting, and all of the supporting skills that we need to have in order to be successful in precisely placing a bullet exactly where it needs to go. In that, we have multiple sources of information that are in constant growth. Our podcast is one of the fastest growing in the precision shooting industry, amassing over 100k downloads in less than 6 months. We’re working to continuously populate our blog, and welcoming outside vetted sources to contribute. Our real bread and butter though is teaching people how to shoot a rifle, and help them achieve whatever goals they have in that regard. We’ve got in-person training events that are happening throughout the US (soon to be internationally) and an entirely new Online Schoolhouse where we’ve drastically reduced the barriers for entry at in-person courses by offering the most comprehensive and all-inclusive virtual training program available today.
We’re extremely grateful to have the opportunity to continue to build on this relationship with Stone Glacier and cross-pollinate our individual expertises so that you can come away armed with not only the gear to help you get where you’re going, but to be able to bring it all together with undeniable confidence when the chase comes to a close. Before we know it we’ll be back at the chase, living as simple of a life as we can in the mountains. Until then, take the opportunity to prepare yourself for that experience so it’s the best one yet.
-Caylen W.
Founder, Modern Day Sniper
