Two-person team competitions that blend endurance, marksmanship, and mental pressure in ways PRS and NRL never have.
If you have been shooting PRS or NRL matches and wondering what else is out there, or if you have a military or law enforcement background and want competition that actually feels like field work, there is a growing corner of precision rifle competition you should know about.
Chaos Concepts runs team sniper matches that throw everything at you. Long-range precision, carbine work, pistol stages, physical movement over miles of natural terrain, hidden targets, cognitive stress, and a chase format where faster teams can literally catch and bump slower teams off stages. It is unlike anything most of us have seen in the PRS or NRL world.
Action Gunner was on the ground at their recent Predator Match at Steel City Precision in Alabama. Dustin Sanchez spent the weekend capturing media coverage and conducting interviews with competitors, staff, and the match directors themselves. On Sunday night, after the last team crossed the finish line and the awards wrapped up, Dustin sat down with Adam and Matt—the founders of Chaos Concepts—for an exclusive interview before packing out. The conversation happened in the dark, exhausted but energized, the way good post-match talks always do.
Here is what we learned about this format and where it is headed.
Adam and Matt come from different backgrounds that complement each other well. Adam started shooting field matches with Competition Dynamics back around 2011-2012 on the civilian side and got hooked immediately. Matt’s background is military. He went through his first Army sniper school in 2014 and continued through multiple schools before transitioning into competitive shooting once he got to the sniper locker.
They met at a Competition Dynamics field match, started shooting Coleman Creek and other competitions together, and eventually decided to create something that combined the best elements from everything they had experienced. That something became Chaos Concepts.
The name says it all. To be successful in this match, you have to think like a predator. You are not just completing stages and defeating targets. You are hunting down the team ahead of you while trying to stay ahead of the team behind you.
During our Sunday night interview, Matt explained the mindset: “You are not just switched on casually waiting for a stage,” he said. “From your start time through your end time, the entire time you are on the clock. It behooves you to have a predator mindset to catch, destroy the stage, and keep going.”
The format borrows concepts from multiple disciplines and throws them into a blender. Heavy doses of endurance and physical movement. High degrees of stress. Precision marksmanship with targets that are genuinely difficult to find. Team communication. Target detection. And a social environment where competitors actually enjoy being around each other afterward.
The predator-prey concept where faster teams can bump slower teams off stages is probably the most unique aspect of Chaos Concepts matches. If you catch the team ahead of you, they have to move aside.
This idea came from Matt’s time at Special Forces Group running sniper courses. They used long fields of fire with multiple stages where teams were released at staggered intervals. As faster teams caught up to slower teams, it created natural pressure that drove everyone to shoot faster and more accurately. The more they ran that format, the better shooters got.
At the recent Predator Match, this dynamic definitely affected standings. Teams that were not as fast on the clock found themselves waiting for good shooters to pass them. Some teams took it in stride and focused on shooting all the stages, gathering as many points as possible, and enjoying the experience. But the message was clear: speed matters alongside accuracy in this format.
Chaos Concepts matches test skills that typical precision rifle competitions do not touch. The stage design process starts with asking what discipline or skill set they want to challenge, whether that is something service members, law enforcement, or civilians need to be good at.
Target placement is designed to be difficult to find. Adam will be down range on comms, moving through certain loopholes while Matt directs him to place targets. Sometimes it comes down to six inches left or right to get the visibility just right. Shooters have to move across stretches of land that might be a hundred meters wide, and targets are hidden within wood lines in ways that force actual observation and terrain analysis.
Other stages focus purely on precision. One MOA targets, 0.2 mil wide, out to 800 yards. Not as hard to find, but difficult to hit under time pressure with limited round counts. The Predator Match also includes ELR stages with carbines at 1,100 meters and rifles at 1,350 meters.
Pistol skills matter significantly in this format. At the recent match, pistol proficiency separated teams more than almost any other single factor. Teams with good pistol skills found edges that rifle-only focused teams could not match.
The biggest differentiator between Chaos Concepts and other shooting disciplines is the emphasis on mental stress. Adam and Matt have worked with sports psychologists from 5th Special Forces Group to determine what causes stress in highly capable, stress-inoculated individuals.
“The reason we do that is it most closely simulates the fog of war,” Adam said. “We are trying to simulate conditions you may encounter overseas in theater or in a law enforcement application when it is a high-stakes, high-stress environment.”
The match description mentions cognitive overload, auditory distractions, and various curveballs. Without spoiling specific stage designs, the philosophy is clear: layer multiple stressors simultaneously rather than testing one thing at a time.
The January 2026 Predator Match took place at Steel City Precision in Alabama, located between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Being on location for the weekend gave us a firsthand look at what makes this facility special. This 660-acre property sits within 30,000 acres of timberland with hills and valleys stretching over two miles. Range fans can expand to 240 degrees, and targets are positioned to test wind-calling accuracy in ways flat ranges cannot.
Chaos Concepts has used Steel City Precision for multiple matches now. It helps that they are friends with the owner, John Cuckler, who runs his own field-style competitions at the facility. Cuckler is also a board member of the Sniper Team Series, so the partnership runs deep. The terrain has been purposefully cut and developed with field match shooting in mind—not just flat bays with linear target engagements, but natural features that force shooters to scan, glass, detect, and adapt.
Mother Nature added her own layer of stress. A storm system dumped nearly two and a half inches of rain the day before the match, turning Alabama clay into a foot movement nightmare. Mud stuck to boots. Gear got crushed in the slop. Teams showed up with metal spikes on their boots, weatherproofing over their optics and pistols, and improvised solutions to keep equipment running.
One standout performance came from N. Roe and Larry, who cleaned both the rifle and carbine ELR stage, then went back through for bonus and cleaned it again. Most teams could not even complete the stage clean once. That kind of performance in adverse conditions with significant wind is what separates the top teams.
Some teams outsmarted the match directors by using stage props in unexpected ways that were not specifically prohibited in the brief. Rather than penalize creative problem-solving, Adam and Matt allowed it in the spirit of the match. As they put it, if you outsmart them, you get a high five. And then they close that loophole for next time.
The match was supported by a strong roster of industry sponsors. JP Enterprises has been with Chaos Concepts since the beginning, along with Nightforce, Proof Research, Eberlestock, US Optics, KRG, and Area 419. Marathon Targets, who bring their robotic moving target systems to other Chaos Concepts events and serve as a major Sniper Team Series sponsor, was not at this particular match but remains a key part of the dynamic stage design they pursue at other venues.
Twenty-four teams competed across thirteen stages over the two-day event. Final placement was determined by adjusted time, combining raw course completion time with penalty minutes for missed targets (FTNs) and subtracting bonus time earned.
First place went to B. Fleenor and T. Andis with a final time of 4:05:34. Fleenor shoots for the JP Enterprises team, and their performance showed what a dialed precision rifle can do in capable hands—the pair posted the lowest FTN penalty time in the field at just over an hour while maintaining competitive raw movement speed. JP builds rifles specifically designed for this kind of demanding field work, and seeing their team shooter take the top spot validated both the equipment and the shooters running it.
Second place finished at 4:09:01, followed by third place at 4:14:14. The top three teams were separated by less than nine minutes after hours of competition across miles of terrain.
Fourth place went to N. Roe and Larry at 4:18:07—the same team that cleaned the ELR stage and went back through for bonus. Their nine bonus stages earned them eighteen minutes of time credit, the most of any team in the match. Without that aggressive bonus strategy, they would have finished further down the standings despite their impressive shooting.
A glance at the roster tells its own story about who shows up to these events. Mixed among real names, you will find competitors listed as nicknames and callsigns—a reflection of the active duty military and law enforcement professionals who compete but prefer to keep a low profile. Nobody is here for social media clout. They are here to test themselves against other serious shooters in conditions that actually mean something.
Chaos Concepts runs three different types of matches, and they are not all created equal in difficulty.
The Camp Ripley Match in Minnesota is more entry-level. Still challenging, still incorporating similar elements, but accessible for someone who might not be physically ready for the full Predator format. It is a good way to test the waters with dynamite shooters around you while not getting completely crushed.
Legion Team Sniper Challenge blends both approaches with three separate stages throughout a day, each broken into four to six sub-stages. Think of it as three 30-minute stress shoots rather than one four-hour grind. The next Legion match runs May 1-3, 2026, at Cedar Creek Precision in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, with proceeds benefiting SFA Chapter 38.
The Predator Match is the real deal. Two days, two to three hours on the clock, hiking over four miles of natural terrain while engaging blind stages. Nobody at this match finished beyond three hours of raw time. This is their hardest format, designed to challenge experienced field shooters and test the limits of preparation and capability.
Chaos Concepts has made deliberate choices about caliber and equipment restrictions. They limit calibers and magnification on secondary rifles specifically to ensure military and law enforcement teams have competitive equity. The idea is that someone should be able to go to their armory, draw their sniper rifle and ammunition, and be super competitive at these matches.
This approach limits the caliber arms race and ensures participants are running actual field rifles with field-appropriate calibers. Common short-action calibers like .223, .308, and 6.5 Creedmoor are viable. Notably, 6mm calibers are generally prohibited, with the exception of 6 ARC at certain matches. Both team members carry all their gear in a ruck, including required items like two tripods, two sets of binoculars, stopwatch, and at least one rangefinder capable of reaching distance targets.
While Chaos Concepts runs their own matches, they are also founding members of something bigger: the Sniper Team Series.
The Sniper Team Series unites premier two-person sniper team matches across the country under one series. Each match retains its own format and identity, but the series provides a common platform for elite teams to compete across diverse terrains, styles, and match directors. Think of it as what PRS did for precision rifle, but for team sniper competitions.
Participating organizations include Chaos Concepts, Coleman Creek, Steel City Precision, Ben Franklin Range, Shadow Legacy PAST, and Kinetic Comps. A Board of Directors made up of experienced match directors guides the series with long-term vision.
The format emphasizes blind stages where competitors do not preview what they are about to face. Hidden or camouflaged targets require actual observation and terrain analysis. Natural terrain with varied shooting positions. And integration of field skills like communication and teamwork.
Series points are awarded based on overall placement at sanctioned matches. Points are tracked individually and split evenly between teammates. Competitors must have scores from at least three matches in a season to qualify for the Series Cup.
The inaugural season runs from April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2027. The first Series Cup championship is currently targeted for March-April 2027, to be hosted at a rotating venue with course design collaboration from all participating match directors.
If you have been shooting NRL or PRS and want to test capabilities beyond pure marksmanship, this format delivers. If you want to see how you perform with stress layered on top of stress, with physical demands, hidden targets, team communication requirements, and competitors literally chasing you, Chaos Concepts events will show you.
“I shot NRL for a while and I love it,” Matt said. “It is a great venue for testing pure marksmanship. If you are interested in seeing what you can do beyond just marksmanship, or marksmanship in addition to testing your mental ability to handle stress and shooting against incredibly talented teams, come give this format a try.”
For active duty military and law enforcement snipers, these events were designed with you in mind. The format originated as a training event for skilled service shooters who spend most of their time training others and rarely get challenged themselves. Everything is tailored around blind stages, testing against other professionals, and bringing skills back to your unit or agency.
Legion Team Sniper Challenge: May 1-3, 2026, at Cedar Creek Precision in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. All proceeds benefit SFA Chapter 38.
Camp Ripley Match: Mid-October 2026 in Minnesota. Huge tank ranges with expanded SDZs allow shooting in ways typical military ranges do not permit. More entry-level friendly while still challenging.
Additional Sniper Team Series events from partner organizations will be announced as 2026 dates are confirmed. We will be featuring these matches on the Action Gunner major match calendar once schedules are finalized.
Team sniper competitions are carving out their own space in precision rifle sport. Chaos Concepts and the Sniper Team Series are building something that tests shooters differently than PRS or NRL ever have. The emphasis on mental stress, physical endurance, hidden targets, and competitive chase dynamics creates experiences you simply cannot get elsewhere.
The community around these events matters too. We saw it firsthand at Steel City. After the last team finished, everyone gathered for a barbecue while waiting for awards. Competitors who had been chasing each other through Alabama mud all weekend were swapping stories, comparing notes on stage approaches, and making plans to squad up at future matches. Some people knew each other already. Many did not. But the atmosphere was welcoming in a way that Adam and Matt clearly take pride in creating.
When we asked what moment from the weekend would stick with them, Adam mentioned shooters who drove all the way from Minnesota because they had been hooked at a previous Camp Ripley match. Matt talked about watching new friendships form during that post-match hangout. “That brings us a lot of joy,” he said. “We get to see new friends being made because of us throwing an event.”
If any of this sounds interesting, start by following Chaos Concepts and the Sniper Team Series. The barrier to entry is lower than you might think, especially at the Camp Ripley match. You do not have to be a former sniper to compete. You just need a capable rifle, a partner, and the willingness to get humbled while learning from some seriously talented shooters.
As Adam and Matt put it, come out, test your stuff, learn from other people, and bring something back to improve your own shooting. That is what competition is supposed to be about.
Chaos Concepts: www.chaos-concepts.com
Sniper Team Series: www.sniperteamseries.com
Steel City Precision: www.steelcityprecision.com
