FNH USA-Leupold Shooting Competition

Due to severe weather delays at the 2009 FNH USA / Leupold Long Range Precision Competition, updated results for the Overall standings, Known Distance, Obstacle Course and Movement events will be posted tomorrow.

Sgt. Trent Lebo and Sgt. Steve Tom of the Maryland State Police ‘A’ Team took top honors in the Observation Event on the third day of competition at the 2009 FNH USA - Leupold Long Range Precision Shooting Competition. The duo of Officer Robert Kamensky and PO3 Wayne Holt from the Montgomery County Maryland ‘B’ team took the second spot in the exercise, while Cpl. James Ellis and Cpl. Tom Townsend of the Howard County Maryland ‘B’ Team were third among the 29 two-person teams in the event.

The Observation Event is a field exercise requiring each team to act as scouts, carefully observing a tightly scripted tactical scenario, making careful notes of the smallest details to prepare for an exhaustive written test on the activities of the suspects they had just observed. No detail is too small to be overlooked, including the imprint on a subject’s t-shirt or the color of his shoelaces.

Today’’s shooting action also included the 500-yard prone phase of the Known Distance event. Final results of this phase and the updates to the overall team competition standings were not available at press time and will be reported tomorrow.

The competition continues Thursday with the physically demanding Obstacle Course and Movement event. Each team member must complete a brutal one-third mile circular course that require negotiating ladders, concrete walls and barricades, logs and a vertical rope climb, all while carrying either a rifle or rucksack. Each team will then run a quarter mile to the firing range, where one member fires 10 shots from various positions at disappearing targets ranging from 300 to 100 yards. The other member of the team fires the same at the same 10 targets in reverse order. Both overall time and score fired are combined to determine the winning team in this event.

Officers Wayne Doeden and Gordon Campfield of the San Diego Police Department SWAT Team have taken the overall lead on the second day of competition at the 2009 FNH USA - Leupold Long Range Precision Shooting Competition. The duo of PFC Chad Zirk and PFC Chris Stavrou from the Howard County Maryland Police ‘A’ Team currently assumes the second spot, while Cpl. Gene Mullins and Cpl. Travis Booth of the Maryland Division of Corrections SOG Team are now third among 29 two-person teams entered in the meet.

Critical range estimation tools include a pocket calculator, mil-dot conversion tables and mil-dot slide rule.

The San Diego duo took the overall lead during today’s Range Estimation exercise, requiring each team to accurately establish the range to ten reference targets set at unknown distances varying from 50 to 1000 yards, using only the mil-dot reticles in their rifle scopes or spotting scopes. Often regarded as the most technically challenging of the numerous events, this year’s Range Estimation exercise found 10 teams gaining the full possible point value of the exercise, with the California pair placing all ten objects within a cumulative distance error of a mere 62 yards.

““Range Estimation has always cost us huge in the past”,” said Doeden in a post-event interview. “”Our big difference this year was good equipment. We had lost our Poker Run title this year, so this makes up for it.””

“”This is only the second time I’’ve done this type of ranging exercise, as normally we use a laser rangefinder in our work,”” noted Campfield. “I set up my rifle and scope against a tree for added support, which worked well because the wild grass around the targets was so high.”

Cpl. Travis Booth and Cpl. Gene Mullins give a thumbs-up as they come off the line at the 2009 FNH USA / Leupold Long Distance Precision Competition at Ft. Meade.

Dropping from first to third overall today were Cpl. Gene Mullins and Cpl. Travis Booth of the Maryland Division of Corrections SOG Team.

“”It’’s our first year in the competition, after we completed sniper school with the Maryland State Police,”” said Mullins. “We’re excited about doing this as our own team, We’re trying to be consistent and we hope for a top-5 finish.”

“”It’s been a great experience to be here,”” said Cpl. Booth. ““It’s the most realistic training you can get. We’re learning as much as we can and we take it all in to learn to be better operators.”

PFC Rich McCampbell of the Baltimore PD brings his FN A3 G rifle into position for a standing shot at the 200-yard line in the known distance event.

Sgt. Trent Lebo of the Maryland State Police “A” team prepares for a shot in standing at the 200-yard line in the known distance event.

Today’s competition also began the Known Distance event, with each team member firing from the standing, sitting and kneeling positions at 200 yards. Tomorrow’s shooting will complete the event from a supported prone position at 500 yards.

Sgt. Joseph Sellers and Sgt. William Bratcher of the South Carolina National Guard are in a sprint to the finish against USCG’s Tom Bowes and Aaron Clark of the Pentagon Police in the Poker Run event.

Officers Gordon Campfield and Wayne Doeden of the San Diego Police Department SWAT Team are all smiles after the Poker Run at the 2009 FNH USA - Leupold Long Range Precision Shooting Competition at Ft. Meade, Maryland. FNH USA photo.

Cpl. Travis Booth and Gene Mullens of the Maryland Division of Corrections SOG Team have jumped into the overall lead with 52 points on the first day of action at the 2009 FNH USA - Leupold Long Range Precision Shooting Competition. The duo of Wayne Doeden and Gordon Campfield from the San Diego Police Department SWAT Team currently trail the MDOC pair by a single point for possession of the second overall spot. Sgt. Trent Lebo and Sgt. Steve Tom of the Maryland State Police ‘A’ Team, also known informally among their fellow shooters as ‘Team Kabob’ is third among the 29 two-person teams entered in the annual meet.

Sgt. Steve Tom the Maryland State Police ‘A’ Team engages his target during the Moving Target event at the 2009 FNH USA - Leupold Long Range Precision Shooting Competition at Ft. Meade, Maryland. FNH USA Photo

“We took our time, did our best and it worked out a lot better than we thought it would,” said Officer Mullens in a post-match interview. “A lot of the credit goes to Sgt. Lebo and Sgt. Dan Weaver of the MSP for their training, help and instruction.”

“We went for broke today,” observed Cpl. Travis. “We took what we’d learned from our training and applied it to the match.”

Today’s morning competition kicked off with all competitors completing a three-mile Poker Run. Each two-man team carries both a rifle and spotting scope equipment around the course, pausing briefly during each lap to fire on a target depicting a deck of cards and attempting to assemble the highest five-card hand possible. Winning this event was the team of PFC Justin Green and PFC Frederick Cortes of the U.S. Capitol Police CERT ‘B’ team, assembling a royal flush in clubs on the one-inch tall card targets.

Next up was the Moving Target event, fired at both 200 and 300 yards. Each team fires 20 shots at each distance for a total of 40 rounds. The MSP team of Sgt. Tom and Sgt. Lebo won the event with a two-point margin over the Maryland DOC pair.

“We had a good combination of teamwork today,” noted Sgt. Tom of the MSP duo after the moving target event. “I got a good zero as Sgt. Lebo spotted for me on the moving target event. I’m surprised we did so well.”

“We took our time,” added Sgt. Lebo. “We had good communication, lots of patience and we didn’t rush things.”