By Melvin Ewing

This is perhaps the hardest post I have ever written for Sniper Central. Yesterday, our entire database was lost without the possibility of recovery. The details are too painful, and technical, to talk about here.

Those of you that have been following Sniper Central over the years know that I give my heart and soul to the Sniper Central community. It is not a job or even a way of life, it is something more. It is a part of me and yesterday, 20+ years of me died. Over those multiple decades I have been doing this, we have conducted a countless number of reviews and writeups and how to articles and had amassed a library of data unparalleled in the online universe. Yesterday, it disappeared. No, it was not a hack nor any malicious attack. It was technology used improperly. Backups were discovered to be incomplete. My dreams were ground into dust.

Obviously, there is no way for me to reproduce everything we had on Sniper Central. I’m not even sure where to begin to put something back together. Luckily, all of our rifle orders and student registrations for classes were stored on a different database, one we have verified has proper backups, so all of that important data is safe and classes and rifle builds will go on. But other passion, the articles, writing, and sharing of information is gone. I am so sorry everyone. I know this data was the main reason many people came here.

Sniper Central Ballistic Cards

So that leaves me with the question, now what? How do I move forward? I’m not ready to quit or give-up, that is not the American way or in my makeup. But what do I do now? So at this point…obviously…I have a clean sheet to begin with. So I pose the question to you. What do you want to see from Sniper Central? If its reviews and writeups, then I just keep going and start building again. If its something else, now is the time to change. More video? More rifles build options? More creative entertainment like short stories and art? Of course, it will all be about sniping, but what is missing out there that everyone wants?

So now, I need your help. I’m devastated as you might imagine. But I have always counted on the support of the Sniper Central community and now I need it more than ever. Comment here, or email me mele@snipercentral.com to let me know your opinions.

Mel
Sniper Central

37 Comments

Joe

Would love to read how to utilize my scope and turrets with calculations for different long distances. Mil and MOA

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Seth Roper

Just checked the Wayback Machine website. I was able to find your recent past site and all the of the website is saved.

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Andre

I’m terribly sorry to hear of your misfotune. You are well known across the globe and we here in South Africa base many of our purchase decisions on your reviews and ratings. I say just continue to do the same! Your reviews are outstanding! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help.
Regards. Andre – Longrangeclub.com

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Demetrio Montoya

There is a magic place that saves websites. It’s called the wayback machine dot com. Check out the link I sent in my prior comment.

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Scott Priestley

Just keep going. This will give you a chance to plot your direction without the baggage of history. Look at the community and how it’s changed. When I first read the title of this post I immediately thought it was a post for people new to the sport. That might actually be a great place to restart. “How to get started”, Chassis versus Stocks with review of some of the new hybrids options, Rifle Platforms for several budgets and purposes – 600 under $600, 1000 under $1000, new scopes, etc. Might be a good time to contemplate some of your personal biases and truths too. I’d be willing to bet most of your audience isnt active duty – perhaps that’s where you start – take a poll of who your audience is right now (or you may already have that data). Personally I love to see budget builds, reloading stuff, new calibers, etc. Best wishes on your grand new adventure!! Im kind of envious to be honest! A clean slate!!!

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Ryan Giuffre

Tough times don’t last, tough people do!
Just saw what happened this afternoon, sorry to hear about this. Keep your head up and focus down range!

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Clayton

Hi Mel: Sorry to hear about the web site. Cant blame you for being sick about 20 years of hard work research and great articles. As a sniper you Keep Tracking. Best of luck!!

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robbie george

Always remember why you under took this journey for the last 20 plus years…….For myself it has always been the a passion to be the very best at all my endeavors,and to be the best role model for future generations…..Your sight did just that! REBUILD! and Improve and most of all keep it real……….VINI VIDI VICI !!!!

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richroy

Wow, sorry to hear this. I don’t know if this would help, but I have made a few hard copies of reviews and misc. article on your sight that I was interested in. I would be happy to make copies and send them to you. Boy I am going to miss the info. you made available.

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mele-02

Thanks, I may very well take you up on that as I put all the pages back together. It looks like I’ll be able to piece a decent amount of the data back together based off of suggestions from the community here. I’ve already begun and it will continue until I can recover as much as possible.

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Travis

Hey there, sorry to hear. I have checked the site once a week for years now. I would keep doing what you have always done. I think that is why we all come here. Just remember unless someone close to you is sick or worse everything that is bad in life is just an inconvenience and can be worked out.

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Robert Moss

Although he is ‘Persona Non Grata’ I have always thought that Lance Armstrong’s comeback from cancer was a great lesson in the power of starting over. You have a clean slate and an opportunity, (better than looking at it as a setback), to move on stronger than before. As for content? I like builds and new products and maybe some esoteric, “what a bullet does as it drops below super sonic at 2000 yards”, kind of stuff. I wish you all the best and please let me know if I can ever help you. I do IT stuff for a living btw.

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Hristo Apostolovski Sweden

Hi Mel , I am very sorry to hear about your loss of data ,
But the most important in life is family and close real friends and good healt ,
You are not a quitter and will recover and build a much better Sniper Central version 2.0
Wish you good health to you and all around you 🙂

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Starky

Now if there was a way for this to happen at the Federal level of government. A complete dumping and start over. As with many things in life, you pick up the pieces and start again. There are still lots of firearms, scopes and ammunition to review. Inquire with those who visit your sight as to what they would like to see. I mean what a terrible thing to have to sit at the bench or prone out and fire hundreds of rounds down range. Sounds like an opportunity to me. I wish you all the luck and look forward to visiting Sniper Central again and again and watch as I hope it all comes together.

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Sweeper

Start by recovering your builds (6-4-6, the SC sniper/DM concept, etc), then help your grunts with in-depth review and analysis of “other side” sniper/DM rifles (Dragunov, PSL, old Steyr SSG), they maybe will need to use one to get out of trouble, and more reviews, please

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Brian Barley

Sorry to hear about the loss of the information. Must have thousands of hours of hard work. I really appreciated all the information and encourage you to rebuild.
Thank you

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Mike

It would probably be a good idea moving forward, although it may not be necessary, but should still be done, everyone should copy one or two articles and saving them. If thousands of people do this, then everything would be backed up many times over and it would just be a matter of sftp-ing a bunch of files from members back to you Mel. I know I have a bunch of photos saved of all of the past rifle reviews over the years.

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