Caylen Wojcik - Military Long-Range Guru

Wojcik: "It's hugely wanning when somebody thanks me for my service and shakes my hand I view it as very humbling because it makes me feel like I've done something light."

Question: Speaking of being humble, pop culture often depicts snipers who brag about numbers of kills or long-range kills. In speaking with you, this doesn't strike me as being realistic. Is it?

Wojcik: "No. None of us walk around and wear 'confirmed kills' like a badge of courage on our chest. Combat is really weird."

"You could be walking down one street and be completely unimpeded by the enemy, and your comrades could be two blocks away in the fight of their life."

"Either way, you're no less of a man or a Marine. The people who post their kill accomplishments are, in my opinion, doing so for immoral purposes."

"Real snipers pride themselves on being silent professionals. We do our job, we bring all of our Marines home alive and in once piece, and that's the biggest accomplishment we can make."

Question: Let's talk about hunting. How did you become a hunter as a kid?

Wojcik: "I started to show interest in hunting when I was 12 years old. My family didn't hunt, but they knew a local guy named Bill Joseph who was a hunter, so they asked him if he would be willing to take me under his wing."

"Bill was, and still is, a very successful hunter; and he used 'tough love' to teach me how to hunt. He definitely taught me a lot."

Question: Do you remember the first deer you killed?

Wojcik: "Yeah, it was a whitetail doe, with my bow. I just remember wondering, 'What's going to happen after I turn this arrow loose?'"

"For me, the anxiety of the situation wasn't the deer standing there; it was the question of what would happen when I pulled the trigger. It was pretty straightforward—I made a great shot and she fell over and died!"

Question: You joined the Marines at such a young age. Did you hunt while you were in the service?

Wojcik: "I didn't do much hunting when I was in the Marines. I was so busy training that I didn't have time to hunt. There were some deer on our base in southern California, and we spent a lot of time glassing. I saw some nice bucks in some of the training areas, but I never hunted them."

Question: When did you depart from the Marines and start hunting again?

Wojcik: "In November of 2004, I took shrapnel through my right knee from rocket fire during Phantom Fury—the operation to push insurgents out of Fallujah in Iraq."

"This led to the end of my military career. Eventually, I moved to Washington and decided to start bow hunting again. Being from the east coast, the west was so big and intimidating."

"I was totally out of my realm with the spot-and-stalk style of hunting, so I befriended some area hunters in a local archery shop and they showed me the ropes."

Question: What's your favorite type of hunting these days?

Wojcik: "My number one passion is high-country, mule deer hunting. My friend got me into the whole backpack-hunting thing, so that's what I do now. You earn it."

"Anyone can drive a logging road for 12 hours and hope that something jumps out so they can shoot it. I just like doing extreme stuff; and with backpacking, it's all about relying on your own physical abilities."

"I took a couple of animals with my bow in Washington, but now that I teach rifle-hunting courses, it makes more sense for me to hunt with a rifle because it builds credibility."

Question: Where are you a rifle instructor and what/ who do you teach?

Wojcik: "I 'm the Director of Training for Magpul Dynamics Precision Rifle Operations. I lead two different types of hunting courses. One is a two-day Precision Hunter course—hunters bring their favorite rifle and I teach them how to run it to their maximum potential."

"The other is called the Backcountry Hunter course, which is the Precision Hunter course plus three days of backpack-hunting training in the Cascade Mountains. All the details are at www.MagpulDynamics.com."

Question: You're obviously a proficient long-range shooter. Do you prefer taking long shots as a hunter?

Wojcik: "I'm not going to complain about close shots at all. You see a lot of hunters on TV shows, shooting elk at 1,200 yards, but that's not what I do."

"Even with a 500- to 600-yard shot, there's a lot involved. You need to have the observation skills to locate the animal and the ability to get into a shooting position and make a responsible, ethical shot."

Question: What's your favorite rifle cartridge for big-game hunting?

Wojcik: "My go-to cartridge is the 6.5mm Creedmoor. It's an awesome mountain-hunting caliber.

"A lot of people might think I 'm crazy, but hunters often substitute improper shot placement for a big caliber. In my personal opinion, shot placement trumps everything."

"It's a flat-shooting cartridge, and I shoot Berger bullets with a high ballistic coefficient and excellent terminal performance. I get virtually the same energy with the 6.5 as I do with a .300 Win Mag, but with a fraction of the recoil."

Question: What's the most hardcore backpack hunt you've participated in?

Wojcik: "My buddy, Luke, scored a black bear tag for eastern Washington. We logged 40 backcountry miles in four days. Outside of the military, it was one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done."

"The area where we hunted was very steep, in order to cover any distance, we had to do a lot of climbing. On our fifth day, we packed up 12 shed elk antlers that we had found and we started heading back to camp."

"We had walked only 50 yards when we spotted a huge, cinnamon black bear at 370 yards. Within two minutes, the bear was down. We had to carry the bear out nine miles and about 2,500 feet of vertical elevation to get back to camp."

"I had to be on the road by 11 a.m. the next morning, so we packed our 12 elk sheds and camp gear—easily 120 pounds per man—and hiked seven miles to the truck, grabbed a few hours of sleep, and ran back down the hill the next morning to retrieve the bear."

"I bet we moved about 400 pounds of gear, bone, meat, and hide up that hill. I will remember those five days for the rest of my life."

Question: What's on your plate for future epic hunts?

Wojcik: "Luke and I found an over-the-counter Montana sheep tag. It's over-the-counter because you have to walk 12 miles to get to the sheep, and it's in grizzly country. We're planning that for 2015."

"We'll do a coin toss to determine who gets to shoot the first year; we'll take a year off and then go back the following year, and the other guy will shoot. There's no way we could manage getting two sheep out of that country in one trip."

Question: Do you have any words of wisdom to share with fellow hunters?

Wojcik: "Yeah. Understand why you're out there. Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons—that you're doing it because you love it. Don't take it so seriously that you'r e not having fun."

"Hunting is a right we enjoy as Americans. However; without the selfless service of men such as Caylen Wojcik—a real 'Celebrity Hunter'—our favorite sport would undoubtedly be nothing more than a privilege."