Fred Rowlands

Fred Rowlands Fred “Garfield” Rowlands is a 21+ year Navy veteran who spent his career in strange and diverse places like Diego Garcia, Wintering Over in Antarctica, the Southern Border, and Burbank CA. Has spent over 30 years working in Military Physical Security, Law Enforcement, and Private Security, and has “more luck than a cat has lives” supposedly. He now resides in NW Florida with his wife and a Great Dane named Layla.

Pic of the Day, It’s Graduation Time

It’s not everyday that someone in the family graduates, and then it’s an even more rare occasion that someone graduates the Army Sniper Course held at Ft Moore, Columbus GA. Recently I was privileged to attend a graduation held there and came away with some impressions about the course and the people conducting it. The […]

Technology and Secure Storage Systems, the Future is Now at Vaultek

Technology was EVERYWHERE at SHOT SHOW, you literally couldn’t walk an aisle without seeing at least two examples of it being leveraged to make something better in some way. Vaultek is one example of this in the way it uses technology to create safer and more useable storage solutions that give the buyer more and […]

SHOT SHOW 2024, Its Not ALL About Guns

SHOT SHOW 2024 is in the books now and there are many lessons, ideas and industry trends that are coming so we take a look at a few of them. TRAINING Specifically training using technology which has been making a bigger impact every year. This year is no exception and see’s technology being used to […]

SHOT SHOW 2024, Day One in the Rearview Mirror

The SOFREP team was on the ground and meeting people at Industry Day AKA Range Day here at SHOT SHOW 2024. Day one is an outdoor event held at the Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club in Boulder City NV just outside of Las Vegas and what a day it was with plenty of guns and […]

Extended Magazines and New Earplugs or, How to Accessorize for Range Day

Never-ending magazines are just a thing from Hollywood but SGM has some extended magazines that allow you to shoot just a little longer whether you need to or not. These magazines are twenty-six-round magazines made for the Glock double stack .45 cal models. Imagine twenty-six .45 caliber bits of love all loaded into your Glock […]

The New Toy, if You Can Call a Glock 41 a Toy

I recently decided to swap out my Glock 21 for a new Glock 41 Gen 4. I was eager to see the difference in trigger pull and the slightly longer sight radius due to the longer barrel and its status as “Competition Size”. I had a brief chance to compare a Glock 21 model to […]

BCL MRX Bison, a Compact Scout Rifle That Delivers

Today we highlight one of our reviewers from Nova Scotia, Leland (Lee) Keane, a Retired Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and his take on a bolt action rifle from a Canadian manufacturer that is very impressive. I have been looking for a “scout rifle” for a few years. I have used the Mossberg MVP Patrol in […]

Knockoffs and Generics, What Will the Internet Give Us Next?

With clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right, I’m stuck in the middle of knockoff central. Knockoffs have been around for decades, longer than I’ve been alive, longer than, well a long time. As long as there have been items that are in high demand and command a high price, someone […]

Buck 808 Talon, A Big Tool With Big Capabilities

Garfield’s “go-to tool” when dealing with brush, limbs, and small trees on his NW Florida rural property, and his Grandson’s favorite tool to steal away from him. Small enough to wield all day but capable enough to easily take on 3- and 4-inch thick cuts. https://youtu.be/hacm4KywPe0 When I bought this knife it was to try […]

My RAM Warlock Project, Part One

We Bought a New Truck! Yes, I said WE because as I dove head first into this venture I needed to be sure everyone was onboard with the decision! What drove that was the realization that my bank account and financial standing were going to be considerably LESS than I was used to, I mean, […]