Horner Wins Trijicon World Shooting Championship
Daniel Horner of the USAMU has been crowned the World Shooting Champion, and he has a $50,000 check to prove it. In the first running of the Trijicon World Shooting Championship (TWSC), 159 of the world’s top shooters competed in a grueling 4-day, multi-discipline event. To do well at the TWSC you had to be an expert with rifle, shotgun, and pistol — and you couldn’t have any real weaknesses. You needed mastery of speed pistol, trap shooting, long-range rifle shooting, cowboy action disciplines, “run and gun”, and defensive action scenarios.
SSG Daniel Horner (File photo — not from TWSC)
Horner topped the field with 966.856 points. In second place was Bianchi Cup Ace Bruce Piatt with 924.895. The legendary Jerry Miculek took third with 870.153. Jerry’s performance gave hope for us old guys. There must also be something about Miculek DNA — Jerry’s daughter Lena was the top female competitor, finishing 28th overall. We also want to acknowledge young Brian Nelson who, competing as a Junior, finished fourth overall, a great accomplishment. Other than Nelson, most of the top finishers are professional 3-Gun competitors. These folks know how to put rounds on target quickly and transition smoothly from one firearm to the next.
For four days, the shooters competed in twelve equally-weighted disciplines from various shooting sports. The match combines pistol shooting (action and bullseye), rifle shooting (action, smallbore, high-power, and F-Class), and Shotgun (Sporting Clays/trap/tactical). All firearms and ammunition were provided for each event.
Horner won the big prize through consistency. Out of the 12 shooting events, he finished in the top 10 in all but two. Writing in the Shooting Wire, Jim Shepherd reports: “Horner took outright stage wins in the Wobble Trap Doubles (100%) and NRA Action Rifle (100%) and used them to overcome his two worst scores, a 28th-place finish in F-Class rifle and a 13th-place in .22 rifle. For his achievement, Horner wins the $50,000 prize, and the dubious honor of now knowing that every competition shooter in the world has him solidly in their sights now, not just the 3-gun shooters he regularly tests … and bests.”
Big Cash Awards and Unrivaled Prize Table
Competitors came to the Peacemaker National Training Center in Glengary, WV for a chance to be crowned the “World Shooting Champion” and receive a $50,000 first place cash prize. This match carried “multi-gun” competition to a whole new level, with BIG MONEY at stake:. There were cash payouts for most stages and over $150,000 worth of hardware on the prize table.
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First Place Overall: $50,000 |
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Second Place Overall: $3,000 |
Meanwhile, in Spain — the ISSF World Shooting Championships
The next TWSC will be held October 15-17, 2015. This inaugural event went well, and it will surely grow in prestige as time passes. However, we do question the notion that this was truly a “World Championship”. The TWSC took place in West Virginia at the same time that the ISSF World Championships were being held in Granada, Spain. That means that virtually none of the world’s top shotgun aces or top prone/3P rifle shooters attended the TWSC — they were in Spain instead. Over 2000 shooters are competing at the 2014 ISSF World Championships, including hundreds of Olympians. The TWSC had less than 200 competitors, and few Olympians. TWSC was, then, more realistically, a North American Multi-Gun Championship. Let’s hope that, in the years to come, the TWSC will attract more foreign-born competitors. That way it can properly be called a “World Shooting Championship”.
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Tags: Daniel Horner, Trijicon, TWSC, USAMU, World Shooting Championship
Yes, you could have a weakness in this years World Cup. It was the bullseye match in which some competitors complained that they couldn’t handle the 230 grain hardball. As a result the bullseye match was scratched.The overall winner was one of the whiners. The match is now tainted by politics.
Dan, you heard 100% wrong. I was at this match. The bullseye match was dropped due to the pistols going down. Lesson learned by Colt, don’t bring brand new pistols to a match with out first running a few boxes of ammo through them to break them in and wear off the burs. And Daniel probably did “whine” about the match bc the way the rules were written a gun malfunction did not rate an alibi, therefore he could have lost a world championship due to a weapon malfunction. And no high level competitor wants to win or loose bc of something like that. We have too much respect for each other. Daniel is an outstanding shooter, not a whiner.
I can’t believe they canceled the Bullseye pistol segment. What type or reputable match changes the course of fire half way through the competition? Everyone knew exactly what events were included in the competition, to include the .45 cal 1911 with 230 grain hardball. It’s stated in the match program. My congratulations to a great soldier, Daniel Horner! But the match ethics of Peacemaker Range and it’s owner/organizer are questionable. The facilities were less than what you would expect for a ‘world class’ event. The best move Trijicon could make for next year is a new venue and organizer. Thanks again to Trijicon for the $100,000 in prize money.
….”But Bullseye is so hard, can’t we just skip it???”
So the first three visible misses shot during bullsey(by the world champion) were because of the gun? As far as “equally weighted”, only someone horrible at math could say it with a straight face. Precision events were scaled to a per cent average (i.e. smallbore was 15 shots on a 100 yard smalbore target at 100 yards, total of 150 points…multiply by 2/3 and get your percent score). This resulted in a score range of 85-100%. Same with F-class (500 yard)…10 shots for score, resulting in scores from 88-99%. Speed event scores were based on multiples of the fastest shooter…and scores ranged from ZERO to 100%. How that’s equally weighted I don’t know.
Correction, that was a 100 yard smallbore target shot at TWENTY FIVE yards.
I have to agree with the match being heavily biased toward speed over accuracy. The only events that were not scored on speed were .22 smallbore and the F-Class event. So you have two accuracy events and 10 speed events. I thought shooting was about accuracy, guess I was wrong. This whole World Championship must have been organized by the speed shooters. Kind of a joke. Don’t know why Trijicon would want to sponsor something that is not about accuracy.
Wonder why they didn’t have a benchrest match included with a world championship?
Daniel Horner is an expert pistol shot in all senses of the word — including accuracy. If Horner suggests there’s a problem with the equipment, he’s to be taken seriously.