SSG Jonathan Roque and SGT Brandon Kelley from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, were the overall winners of the 2017 US Army International Sniper Competition at Ft Benning, GA. The team used Lanxang Tactical 20″ VL34 .308 rifles to negotiate the challenging four-day competition which consisted of fitness testing, ability to acquire targets, long-range and short-range shooting skills, ability to disappear from the enemy, and attention to detail. An additional aerial event assessed the snipers’ ability to fire from a UH-60 Black Hawk.
Lanxang is an up and coming small rifle manufacturer in Georgia. While this is the first time a Lanxang Tactical rifle has taken the top prize at the Army’s International Sniper Competition, their use in competitions is nothing new.
Other events Lanxang Tactical rifles have placed at include:
1st Place 2017 U.S. Army International Sniper competition (Ranger team)
1st Place 2017 Purgatory Sniper Challenge (Ranger team)
2st Place 2017 Purgatory Sniper Challenge (Ranger team)
3rd Place 2017 Purgatory Sniper Challenge (Sniper School team)
1st Place Mammoth Sniper Challenge (Ranger team)
2nd Place 2015 U.S. Army International Sniper Competition (Ranger team)
*Top US Team
*Top Special Operations Team
3rd Place 2015 USASOC International Sniper Competition (Ranger team)
Lanxang Tactical VL34 VLAD:
• Lanxang Tactical Billet 7075 aluminum upper and lower with black hard coat anodized
• Lanxang Tactical CNC machined charging handle with Battle Latch
• Lanxang Tactical CNC machined oversized mag release (MMR)
• Lanxang Tactical CNC machined hand guard
• Lanxang Tactical billet rail attachments (qty of 3)
• Lanxang Tactical low profile gas block
• Lanxang Tactical stainless barrel nut
• Lanxang Tactical CNC machined bolt catch
• Lothar Walther stainless 1/10 barrel
• Black Nitride Enhanced bolt and carrier group
• 45/90 ambidextrous selector switch
• Geisselle SSA trigger
• Magpul MIAD grip
• Magpul PRS rear stock (18/20”) Magpul ACS 16”
• Lancer and/or Magpul magazine (qty of 2)
• Armageddon Gear range bags standard with all rifles.
Tags: Lanxang Tactical
Awesome stuff thanks for sharing.
Anyone know which optics these units are equipped with?
The sniper leaning through the window does not have a mag in his sidearms well. I’m not a sniper or military just wondering if it’s part of the course.
I’ve competed at the Winston P Wilson combat matches – assuming this match is similar, on rifle only stages, you’re still required to carry all your equipment, to include an unloaded sidearm.
Risk management and realism are always at odds. If pistol is not evaluated pistol is not loaded.
Another facet to this is that competitors are more likely to run their rigs as they do downrange. If dropping a pistol on the course of fire costs points (or DQ) they’ll take the risk–and test their gear. If it results in an ND they’re more likely to kiddieproof their gear (and less likely to test what they wear downrange)
There are still sniper competitions where competitors schlep carbines, pistols and their long guns through the stations.
Interesting. Are these rifles government owned, privately owned, official test/eval items, or loaners from the vendor? I’m not opposed to non-standard rifles (far from it, I’m very much in favor of innovation and competition!), but get a little itchy about possible “perceptions” of government endorsement, and all that kinda legalistic crap being used to spoil the fun.
Will they be deploying with Lanxang rifles? Kind of defeats the purpose if the rifle is just for competition…
Competitions are one of the places where they can experiment with equipment. Sometimes, it results in an adoption of new gear.
Yeah, totally defeats the purpose…SSG Roque and SGT Kelley won’t be able to hit the broad side of a barn next time they’re downrange without their “competition” rifles.
It would have been great if they won it using a Ruger RPR. I can just hear all the hate.
This comment sounds a lot like wishful thinking