Congrats to Ronnie Fowlkes for winning the Rifle Champion Title of the 2006 Midwest S.W.A.T. Rifle/SMG Championships! He did it with determination, speed, a never say die attitude, and a custom built A.R. Tactical A.R. 15!
First Prize was a new DPMS A.R. 15, which Ronnie proudly accepted to the cheers of his SLMPD team mates.
Here is Ronnie in action at the start of the Gas Mask evolution. Columbia SWAT backed their APC up to the range and the operator must leap from the back on the sound of the Pact Timer. Allowed to carry 3 mags of rifle ammo with 6 rounds each, and two mags of pistol ammo with 6 rounds each, 15 targets must be engaged from 4 different shooting positions, including two rifle mag changes and a pistol mag change. Helmet and Gas mask required.
Ronnie down range in the Gas Mask Evolution, using the custom A.R. Tactical trigger to define trigger control for the other contestants. If you look closely at this pic, you will see two pieces of brass in the air and the bolt closing on the third round. These were all clean head shots from fifteen yards on semi auto. Several of the competitors from Kansas and Minnesota challenged Ronnie's claim that the gun was semi auto only. It is! The boy can pull a trigger!
Next pic is the Minneapolis team and the St. Louis Metropolitan HRT guys together. Of note in this picture are Shaun (second from the left, standing up, SLMPD) who was shot twice just 6 weeks ago on a call out. He was not healed up enough to compete, but offered moral and strategic support all day. Third from the left is Ronnie, and kneeling in front of Ronnie in the digital camo is Jim Mowry, Ronnie's partner in the Two Man competition. Jim is now with St. Louis County P.D., and this competition might be the first documented and witnessed case of a St. Louis City officer, and a County officer actually working together.... Jim is an outstanding rifleman, and could have won the title sans one magazine issue in the Gas Mask evolution. Actually Ron and Jim were partners when they both worked for S.L.M.P.D., and they make a formidable two man team. Second from the right kneeling in the blue shirt is Bob Cooney, one of the sharpest officers I have ever known. Bob came within a couple hundredths of a second of winning the subgun championship in 2005, but had to sit this comp out because of a knee injury. Bob was one of the key players that shut down the perp that shot Shaun just a few weeks ago. These guys don't just talk about courage and commitment, they live it.
Does anybody see Hostile.....?...I don't see hostile....
Alrighty then, I take back the Hostile comment, Jim is just one hell of a serious operator who carries a great sense of humor while doing a job most have neither the courage or commitment to face.
Well, the first one we got from Noveske blew apart, the front literally blasted apart after 1200 shots. The redesigned one has held up for about 700 shots. It does not do a whole lot for recoil, and it is quite heavy, which helps muzzle climb a little. The main reason the guys wanted to try it is to control sound direction, and it does a decent job of doing that. Its best attribute is that is directs a lot of the sound forward.
The 4 Man competition was some pretty good action. The evolution started with a 4 man stack having to enter through a doorway, check a paint lid for the color black or white, then engage the fixed and movers of the appropriate color with no shoot targets and hostages spread around.
Jumping down off a platform onto this range, 3 men had to be in a square engaging 4 plates. The 4th man had to climb a 10 foot berm and pick up a shotgun to engage perper poppers on the other side.
After clearing all the targets of the opposite color drawn on the first range, the four men had to meet up at the back of the pistol plate range and evacuate a downed man.
After dropping the downed man in a safe area, the evolution was ended and the clock stopped on a sniper shot with 308 FN. SLMPD picked Jim to finish the event, since he owns exactly the same model rifle as the FN staged for the final shot, and has the skills to finish things.
The faster teams were completing all phases of this event in the low to mid 50 second range.
I really enjoy the stages with moving targets. Things can get fast and furious, and the level of difficulty really rises. Never saw a target in real life that stood perfectly still, especially humans. Saw Shaun on TV last night, the reporters said he expects to be back by October and has several more operations to push through.
Jim is an outstanding rifleman, and could have won the title sans one magazine issue in the Gas Mask evolution. Actually Ron and Jim were partners when they both worked for S.L.M.P.D., and they make a formidable two man team. Second from the right kneeling in the blue shirt is Bob Cooney, one of the sharpest officers I have ever known. Bob came within a couple hundredths of a second of winning the subgun championship in 2005, but had to sit this comp out because of a knee injury. Bob was one of the key players that shut down the perp that shot Shaun just a few weeks ago. These guys don't just talk about courage and commitment, they live it.
