A candid conversation with Hornady team shooter Sean Dexter on competition, preparation, and the mindset behind success in the shooting sports.

Born and raised in southern California, Sean Dexter started shooting when he was eight-years old under the guidance and supervision of his father. Now a retired Sergeant of the Beverly Hills Police Department, he was their primary firearms instructor, who headed up range days and worked as their armorer. Sean was always a police officer who was into guns, working every assignment in a field capacity, up to and included S.W.A.T. and K-9, both as an officer and supervisor.

Tell us how you got into shooting.

I initially started competing in pistol matches with the old S.W.P.L — I.P.S.C., when I was a teenager at 15 years old. I started shooting in 1978, using a Colt 1911 in 45 Auto. It was my dad who taught me how to shoot. I started competing with pistols at local matches before I transitioned into 3-gun when I became a policeman. I’m actually one of the very few 3-gun shooters still around who actually started in the early Soldier of Fortune 3-gun matches back in the ’80s. After that I took a little break, but then I returned and I’ve been shooting ever since.

Did your competitive shooting skills help with your career in the police?

Absolutely, you learn stuff within the competition arena which you can take and transition into the practical police arena. Not everything, but there are certain things that are worthy of carrying over and it’s certainly assisted me in teaching officers throughout my agency.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from shooting?

To be capable and competent with whichever weapons I had to defend myself with as a police officer. It’s nice to know that pretty much all the guns I competed with were guns that I was able to carry as a police officer, so the carryover from that and certainly my weapons handling would show in the field. I was very confident in whatever I had to do, even when I came across potential deadly forces encounters.

Why did 3-gun appeal to you as a discipline?

I get bored with the one-gun type system and there came a point when subsequently I used shotguns, followed by rifles in the police force, so I just felt it was important to me to have above average confidence with all three. Later that even transitioned into sniper rifles because I ended up doing that function for the police department too.

Do you still compete in sniper competitions today?

I don’t compete in sniper competitions anymore, I used to compete in local competitions when I was still active on our team. You need to understand a big reason for that was because I was involved in protection details from President Reagan all the way to President Obama, plus Kings, Queens, Princes and other important VIPs. We would always have dignitaries in our city, which would require protection details, so it kind of made sense to put me on a sniper rifle and ultimately supervised that cadre of the S.W.A.T. team. What’s pretty cool is I don’t think there will be many competitive shooters who can say they have protected the American Presidents — you get worldwide exposure in Beverly Hills.

How do you prepare for competitions?

I shoot a lot of standards, I try to go out and work the basics. I believe everything falls back to the basics, plus manipulation and dry practice. I try to fire every time I go out, at least 200 rounds of pistol and rifle, plus 50 rounds of shotgun. I try to do that weekly and a month prior to matches I double or triple that. It becomes muscle memory and falls back to the basics at that point. I’m getting older, I don’t move as fast anymore but I still like to go out and compete, I feel I can compete with most shooters — certainly at the law enforcement level for sure.

Sniper rifle and 3-gun matches are quite different disciplines, have you ever found it difficult to change your mindset? How did you prepare for each?

You are correct in that the disciplines are different, but it wasn’t really difficult for me to change my mindset as there was some 3-gun matches that offered a precision rifle course. The transition is that you are shooting a smaller target at typically extended ranges, so it’s important to have equipment that could meet those standards.

Tell us about your set-up for 3-gun matches.

Currently I shoot for Steyr Arms, I just signed on with them in January, so I typically use a Steyr AUG in 223, which is very unusual or a match grade AR15. My pistol is a Steyr L9-A1 in 9mm and shotgun wise, I’ve used a 12 gauge Benelli M1 (Super 90) for the past 30 years — that’s what I had to use when I was working, so that’s what I use when competing.

Interestingly, throughout my career I also carried a Steyr AUG as duty rifle, including during the L.A. riots. As a duty handgun I carried a custom built Para-Ordnance; we were able to choose our duty handguns to a certain point but then policy changes limited us.

In terms of ammunition, for my Steyr AUG I prefer to shoot Hornady’s 55 gr 223 V-MAX; I find in my Steyr AUG I can achieve MOA or better with that load. For my pistol I prefer Hornady’s 147 gr XTP bullet and enjoy that because it’s helpful knocking down steel plates and making spinner targets move. When Hornady came out with slugs, it was great because I could incorporate them into my competition guns as well.

Tell us about your set-up for sniper competitions.

For sniper competitions I used the same gun I used for sniper deployment and that is a custom-built Remington 700 in 308, built by a company called Tactical Operations, in Beverly Hills. I run the gun with a 20-inch fluted heavy barrel, Burris XTR II scope in 3–15 power, with a Harris swivel bipod.

What has been your greatest achievement in your shooting career?

I have medaled in the Western States Police and Fire Games several times, I have several top five finishes in heavy metal division and various other division 3-gun matches, plus top five finishes in numerous police only matches.

It was always a goal for me to finish in the top 25 of the Soldier of Fortune matches and so at a point, when I was younger in my career, I was able to finish 21st overall, which was quite an accomplishment for me. It was constant training for that.

Typically, now if I can finish overall in the tactical optics division in the top 30 that’s a great finish. As I age and now I’m in a senior type division, I still enjoy getting out there competing and mixing with the American gun-friendly crowd.

Do you have any goals for the future?

There is a match called the Rocky Mountain 3-Gun Nationals, and for some reason I have never been really happy with my finish in that match and so, as is typical, it’s coming up in August, so I’m trying to train for that. I’m hoping for a very respectable finish because that’s a match that for whatever reason I’ve never done what I consider satisfactory at. I’m hoping for a top 30 finish, however it’s an extremely difficult competition.