Center Mass,
Incorporated was founded in 1996 by our president,
Jeff Felts, based on his experiences as a Solider, Police Officer
and SWAT Sniper in suburban Detroit, Michigan. The results of these
efforts are innovative operational products, training aids and
training concepts designed to help you succeed in a variety of
environments.
Our company goal is to help our customers
"SAVE LIVES"
This is the story of the creation and
evolution of Center Mass, Inc... We hope it enlightens you about
our company and demonstrates our commitment to our profession and
to you, the rifle armed Law Enforcement Officer, Soldier, Marine,
Sailor, Airmen, or responsible private citizen.
Never again will the men and women we lead
and train be without realistic training or an avenue to gain
the equipment that can help them succeed under the most difficult
circumstances. We have learned from personal equipment and training
shortcomings, as well as the mistakes we have made during real
world life or death tactical operations, and have vowed to do
everything we can to ensure our brothers and sisters in arms do not
repeat them.
Center Mass was born because of a recurring
operational problem. The problem was a need for an innovative
product that would assist the Police Sniper in the urban
environment.
In 1991Jeff was hired by his suburban
Detroit police agency. Four months later openings on his agencies
part-time multi-jurisdictional SWAT Team became available. Due
to his military background, he was allowed to compete for a
slot and made the team.
In 1992, he attended Basic Sniper School and
had the honor of being instructed by the Legendary Marine Corp
Sniper, Carlos Hathcock and his assistants from the greatly
respected Virginia Beach PD sniper unit. Jeff graduated from the
course and his Police Sniping Career began.
In 1994 his SWAT team responded to a
barricaded hostage rescue call-out; a bank robbery and pursuit with
shots fired. After the suspects fled on foot with officers in foot
pursuit, one suspect took an innocent family hostage in their home,
and the other two suspects remained on the loose in the area.
Eventually the two on the loose were caught and the third attempted
to flee the home brandishing an AR15 at containment
personnel. As “Murphy” would have it, Jeff found himself in
an awkward standing position trying to engage a nine-inch wide, 90
degree (left to right) running target at a distance of 45 yards.
The result was three shots and three misses. A sub-gunner that
initially fired at the suspect also missed. A second
sub-gunner subsequently opened up and knocked the suspect down, but
not out. The suspect rolled over and pointed his weapon at the
gunner who had just knocked him down. Jeff was then able to let the
cross hairs settle in on his semi-moving targets head and
scored an instantaneous killing shot ending the
threat.
This incident brought to light training
deficiencies and tactical errors. The result was training that
was much more realistic and as dynamic as the
team could safely conduct. The only restricting factors were a
shoe string budget and training facilities that did not
include moving target systems. To conduct that training,
the team had to travel 2 hours to a reserve military post.
Unfortunately, due to scheduling and travel issues, the team was
only able to schedule one day over the course of the next year to
familiarize and train on moving targets.
An additional factor Jeff had
noticed since he began sniping in 1992 was that he continuously
found himself in urban hides where he would have to make shooting
platforms by moving furniture, stacking milk crates, or leaning on
ironing boards for support. These make shift platforms and rests
were oftentimes very awkward. They made it difficult to observe or
shoot from due to factors such
as, their instability, the duration of an operation,
or the angles that were involved. He
subsequently searched the market for
a device that would alleviate the problem. However, nothing
suitable could be found that provided the portability and stability
the Police Sniper requires.
Almost one year after the 1994 shooting, Jeff
found himself in a flat, rooftop hide, resting his sniper
rifle on top of milk crates so he could clear a 3 foot
decorative wall designed to hide air conditioners. It was
the scene of another hostage rescue operation. This operation
involved the kidnapping of an ex-girlfriend by the ex-boyfriend who
had been jailed for brutally raping her. While in custody, the
suspect threatened her life. Shortly after his arrest, he made bond
and promptly kidnapped her. The kidnapping was covered extensively
by the media, and luckily for her, an alert hotel clerk called
police. SWAT was promptly called and Jeff’s team got set up. They
had the element of surprise on their side and were only waiting for
the rescue team to finish rehearsing. Jeff was approximately 100
yards out and level with the second story target room. A response
team was stationed two doors away from the target room to handle
any exigent circumstances. As “Murphy” would have it, the suspect
decided to leave before the planned rescue operation could be
executed. Jeff saw the target door open and he observed the
suspect exit the room holding the girl around the neck in a classic
hostage – bad guy pose. Jeff could see the suspect’s hand wrapped
around the butt of a handgun that he had tucked in his waistline.
When they came out, it appeared that the suspect was looking to see
if the coast was clear. The whole time Jeff had the suspect’s head
quartered off with what he terms, an “easy day shot.” Then, when
the suspect felt comfortable enough that the police were not there,
he started walking north on the balcony dragging her with his head
slightly behind and next to hers. The weapon remained in his
waistband with his hand on it. Fortunately, this was a contingency
the team had planned for and viewed as a window of opportunity.
It allowed the sniper (Jeff) to bring the situation to
resolution if the circumstance dictated, or allowed the
response team to close the gap to bring the situation to
resolution. In preparation for this possibility the response team
had stripped all unnecessary gear and wore tennis shoes so they
could sneak up on the suspect. As it turned out the response team
executed perfectly. The suspect had an MP-5 pointed in his ear
before he knew the police were ever there.
Many viewed this operation as being executed
almost flawlessly. And it was, except for one detail that only
Jeff knew about. What happened was that as the suspect was dragging
the victim on the balcony toward the stairs, Jeff was forced to
track the suspect while rested atop the milk crates. He had
pre-planned his actions for this possibility and felt confident he
could succeed, in theory, if he needed to take a shot. He was more
confident in his ability to hit a moving target since he now had at
least some training on the subject. That confidence changed
instantly when he was forced to start tracking his moving target
from a semi-kneeling position, instead of the prone position his
team had used during moving target training. In addition, there was
the incredible reality of an innocent person’s head next to the
moving target’s head that he was trying to track on a slightly
awkward and wobbly platform that he’d never trained on, or shot off
of before. This experience shook Jeff to the core as he was the
only person that could have saved this lady’s life, or his fellow
officers lives, had the suspect heard or saw the response team
coming.
After being potentially seconds away from
taking a hostage rescue shot from yet another awkward position
and on a moving target, Jeff made a commitment to solve these
problems. He put all his energy into developing products that would
benefit the police sniper and help save innocent lives. This was
the birth of Center Mass. Inc. in 1996, along with our first
products the Sharpshooters series of Rifle Rests and the Urban
Carry Bag. After nearly two years of refinement, the products were
brought to market and are now being used by police and military
snipers around the world.
In 1999, Jeff received the greatest
professional honor of his career by earning the position of Sniper
Team Leader on his SWAT Team. This daunting assignment required him
to provide frequent, relevant, and realistic training for his
snipers. He knew from experience this had to include regular
training on moving targets. The problem was neither his SWAT Team
nor any of the member agencies had a moving target system at the
time. There was also no other moving target system available in the
immediate area. To compound the problem, the closest location to
conduct moving target training was a reserve military post two
hours away that was difficult to coordinate range time with and too
far away to train frequently enough to keep the skills up. Trying
to budget for a moving target system was out of the question as the
team’s budget barely covered the cost of training ammunition and
targets. The only way he was going to realistically solve the
problem in a timely manner, and be able to provide his snipers with
immediate and regular moving target training, was to fix it
himself.
This problem became the birth of the
Sharpshooters Moving Target System. Center Mass subsequently spent
thousands of dollars prototyping designs that would fit the needs
of Jeff’s sniper team. The way he figured it, if his team had this
problem, many other teams across the nation were probably in the
same boat. So the systems design and configuration had to meet very
specific needs. The idea was to appeal to the “smaller budget”
agency with a quality system that was inexpensive, practical, and
easy to use from the academy level, to the SWAT level. The first
requirement was it had to be portable so agencies that did not have
their own range could take it wherever they got range time.
Secondly, it had to be “cable” free and remote controlled out to
200 yards or further so sniper teams could easily use it during
training. Finally, it had to be easy to setup, require no tools,
and it had to be reliable as training time is too precious to be
wasted working on broken down training aids.
These efforts accomplished Jeff’s immediate
goal as he was able to provide his team with frequent moving target
training throughout the systems development phase using the
prototypes. Finally, in 2002 the Sharpshooters Moving Target System
was perfected and taken to market. Today agencies across the nation
are using it with great success.
CENTER MASS TRAINING
INSTITUTE
Throughout his law
enforcement career Jeff noticed that much of the formal
training provided to Police Officers lacked any meaningful
standards. As a former Army Drill Sergeant (USAR) this always
frustrated him. It absolutely amazed him how students at most of
the courses he attended were rubber stamped as graduates and in
some cases certified as instructors. Some of these schools were put
on by private companies and others by police organizations. In
either case, he viewed this as a disservice to the police
profession and always had the desire to do what he could to correct
the problem.
In 1999, Jeff was teaching a Patrol Rifle
Instructor School for a local college with a curriculum he
developed. After the school, many of the students went back to
their agencies with positive feedback. Shortly there after, he
began getting requests from agencies and individual officers across
the state to put on a school for them. This was the birth of CENTER
MASS TRAINING INSTITUTE, which officially opened as a division of
Center Mass, Inc. in 2000. Center Mass Training Institute opened
offering three courses, Patrol Rifle Instructor, Rapid Response or
Active Shooter training and a Basic Sniper School. All the schools
quickly cornered the market in Michigan and our Training Division
was here to stay.
Today, the training division accounts for 1/3
of our business and is the fastest growing section of the company.
Our courses are now taught around the country. We credit this
growth to our outstanding core of instructors. We have managed to
attract some of the most highly qualified instructors in the
country. These guys include National Police Sniper Competition
Champions; former Instructors from Sig Arms, Smith & Wesson,
and a number of Combat Vets serving in our Special Operations
Forces.
We thank you very much for taking the time to
learn more about us. Our hope is that you now have a clear
understanding of where we came from and how we have gotten here.
Hopefully, we have imparted on you our commitment to the
development of innovative products and training concepts for the
law enforcement and military communities.
As always, good luck, stay safe, and most of
all, AIM FOR
PERFECTION!
