A Girl & A Gun Sniper School is an immersive precision-rifle experience that brings riflecraft, fieldcraft, and snipercraft together over four days of training in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Rather than simply teaching you to hit a distant target, the course helps you understand everything happening between you and that target, including your rifle and optic, ammunition and ballistics, terrain, distance, wind, mirage, shooting position, observation, and communication with your spotter.

Pre-event virtual learning introduces concepts before you arrive so valuable range time can be spent applying them. At the Whittington Center, you’ll establish your zero, build and confirm DOPE, engage increasingly distant targets, learn to make environmental corrections, work through sniper/spotter exercises, and explore concealment and fieldcraft.

This is not a bench-rest shooting class. You’ll work in field conditions, move with your equipment, adapt to terrain and weather, and learn to solve increasingly complex shooting problems as the distances grow. By the end of the week, all of those individual skills come together as you reach for the ultimate Sniper School challenge: engaging steel at one mile.

Sniper School is designed as an all-inclusive training experience, so once you arrive at the Whittington Center, you can settle in and focus on the week ahead.

Your registration includes:

• Four Days of Professional Instruction
• Sniper School Curriculum & Course Materials
• Virtual Pre-Event Training
• Loaner Rifle & Scope, if needed
• Four Days of Range Fees
• Breakfasts, Lunches & Dinners
• Five Nights of On-Site Lodging

Participants are responsible for transportation to and from the Whittington Center and their ammunition.

This event is for A Girl & A Gun members. It is a women’s event open to individuals whose sex was assigned female at birth. Participants must be able to legally possess and safely handle a firearm, subject to age requirements and the policies of the organization and venue, and must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Not a member yet? Join today!

You don’t need to arrive knowing how to shoot 1,000 yards; that’s why you’re coming to Sniper School!

Participants should already understand basic firearm safety and rifle operation, but the curriculum is designed to build long-range knowledge progressively.

Sniper School is a moderately active training experience. Although long-range shooting is less physically dynamic than many other shooting disciplines, participants will regularly move between standing, seated, and prone positions and may spend extended periods behind a rifle or spotting scope.

Training also includes walking through natural terrain, carrying equipment, and repeatedly getting into and out of shooting positions while spending full days outdoors in the sun and changing weather conditions. The Whittington Center sits at approximately 6,300 feet elevation and extends higher into the surrounding terrain, so participants should be comfortable performing moderate physical activity at altitude.

You don’t need to be an athlete, but you should arrive prepared for four full days in the field and physically capable of safely participating in the activities.

Sniper School is taught by the instructor team from Defenders USA, led by Myles Standish, a former U.S. Army infantry sniper, assisted by Adam Winch, owner and founder of Defenders USA and a former law-enforcement officer and Military Police officer.

During five years in the U.S. Army, Myles attended sniper school after serving as a squad automatic weapons gunner and graduated as one of only five students from a class that began with more than 50. He later deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom before serving at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he became Alpha Team Leader of a sniper section. His military experience included long-range reconnaissance, fieldcraft, concealment, terrain use, land navigation, and precision rifle tactics, as well as training foreign military personnel during subsequent deployments to Kuwait and Iraq.

Adam brings another layer of experience to the instructor team. Before founding Defenders USA, he served eight years as a Military Police officer in the U.S. Army Reserves and Colorado National Guard and more than a decade as a police officer in Colorado, with assignments that included patrol, Street Crimes, and SWAT. He is a certified Long Range/Sniper Instructor and Rangemaster Master Instructor and has taught more than 20,000 civilian, military, and law-enforcement students throughout his training career. He is also a familiar face to A Girl & A Gun members, having served multiple times as an instructor and keynote speaker at the AG & AG National Conference.

Together, Myles, Adam, and the Defenders USA team bring real-world experience and exceptional teaching ability to Sniper School. Complex concepts such as ballistics, wind calls, positional shooting, data management, observation, and fieldcraft are broken into practical, repeatable processes that build upon one another throughout the week. Questions are encouraged, fundamentals are reinforced, and participants receive patient, individualized coaching as the distances and challenges increase.

The result is serious precision-rifle education delivered in an environment that is approachable, engaging, and focused on helping every participant understand not only what to do, but why it works.

Required Gear:

Hearing protection
Concealment clothing (see guidelines below)
Weather-appropriate clothing
Shemagh or scarf for sun and dust protection
Ammunition

Loaners Available:

Rifle & optic
Bipod/rest
Rear support
Shooting mat

For Your Stay:

Towels
Toiletries
Phone/camera/charger

Optional Equipment:

Scientific calculator
Kestrel/anemometer/barometer
Spotting scope/binoculars
Rangefinder
Infrared thermometer

For concealment training, start with an oversized BDU shirt that you don’t mind cutting and modifying. An Army/Navy surplus store is a great place to find one. During Ghillie Arts & Crafts, you’ll add yarn, netting, and natural vegetation to begin building concealment appropriate for the environment.

You will also want to bring a boonie hat that you can “decorate” as well.

Bring other apparel in camouflage patterns or colors appropriate for the terrain. Good options include arid/open-country camouflage with tan, sage, and brown tones such as:
• 3-Color Desert
• Multicam Arid
• Multicam
• A-TACS AU Arid/Urban
• Similar tan/brown/green palettes

Yes! The A Girl & A Gun Pro Shop has specialty items for you!

Shop: Sniper

The pre-event learning library includes nearly seven hours of video instruction, along with written CliffsNotes-style excerpts highlighting the concepts and terminology you’ll encounter at Sniper School.

Participants don’t have to try to master everything before you arrive. The goal is simply to introduce you to the language and concepts of long-range shooting so they are familiar when you encounter them again during class. Ballistics, DOPE, wind calls, optics, and other technical concepts make much more sense when you can connect what you’ve heard and read to what you’re actually seeing and doing on the range.

Watch the videos, read the excerpts, and come with questions. You’re not studying for a test; you’re giving yourself a head start so you can get even more from the instruction once you arrive.

Self-Paced Pre-Event Study: Sniper School

Nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the NRA Whittington Center is a premier destination for world-class shooting and outdoor adventure. Spanning 33,300 acres at elevations from 6,300 to 8,100 feet, the landscape isn’t simply a beautiful backdrop; its distance, elevation, terrain, wind, and changing conditions make it an extraordinary classroom for precision rifle training.

With breathtaking views, exceptional shooting facilities, wildlife, incredible stargazing, and plenty of opportunities to ring steel at distance, the Whittington Center is the perfect setting for an unforgettable A Girl & A Gun Sniper School!

One of the best perks of Sniper School is that participants stay together right on site at the Whittington Center. There’s no commuting to the range each morning, no hauling gear back and forth from a hotel, and no missing out when the training day turns into an evening of stories, laughter, and conversation.

Participants stay in dorm-style Competitor Housing, where each wing includes five bedrooms with two single beds per room, two bathrooms with showers, and a kitchenette. The wings connect to a central great room where everyone can relax and socialize, and the building includes central air conditioning and free Wi-Fi.

Staying together turns Sniper School into more than a training class. Mornings begin with coffee and conversation before heading to the range, evenings wind down in the cool mountain air, and the sweeping New Mexico landscape is right outside your door. It creates the perfect environment to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and fully immerse yourself in the experience.

Plan to bring 400 rounds of match-grade ammunition for the scheduled curriculum. If you would like to take advantage of any additional shooting opportunities that may become available, you are welcome to bring extra.

If you will be using one of our loaner rifles, bring 6.5 Creedmoor, 140-grain match-grade ammunition.

Because precision rifle performance depends heavily on ammunition consistency, please do not substitute bulk or standard practice ammunition for match-grade ammunition.

We understand that life happens, and sometimes unexpected situations can prevent you from attending. As the event approaches, many costs are already committed to our vendors and service providers, so we are limited in our ability to offer refunds. A $100 administrative fee will be charged for any cancellation. Within 45 days of the event, registration fees and event-related purchases are non-refundable. To ensure a positive and safe experience for everyone, participants must demonstrate the necessary skills and maintain safe, respectful behavior throughout the event. If a participant is unable to meet these standards, they may be removed from the event without a refund.