2023 Smallbore and Air Rifle Champion: Cecelia Ossi
Story based on article by CMP’s Sheri Trusty
At the 2023 National Matches at Camp Perry this summer, 21-year-old competitor Cecelia Ossi achieved a remarkable double-discipline victory. Ossi placed first in the new Three-position (3P) Smallbore and Air Rifle Aggregate combo event. She did this shooting both outdoors and indoors. This was a great “twin win” by a very talented young lady. A member of the rifle team at the University of Nebraska, Ossi recorded a historically great performance at Camp Perry this summer. Cecelia won the 3P Smallbore and Air Rifle Aggregate with a score of 2421-60X.
For 2023, the CMP created a Three-Position Smallbore and Air Rifle Aggregate Championship for those who competed in both disciplines. Earning the inaugural win in the match was the talented Cecelia Ossi, who shoots for the University of Nebraska rifle team. The CMP had modified the match schedule to allow shooters to compete in Smallbore matches on Camp Perry’s outdoor Petrarca Range as well as in Air Gun events at the Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center located just next door — all during the same day.
The 2023 National Matches marked the first time Ossi shot outdoors at Camp Perry. The unique environment gave her the opportunity to test her skills: “Shooting outdoors created a lot of challenges, which is why I loved Camp Perry. You have to figure out how the wind is affecting your shooting, and it’s very rewarding when you get it right.”
Ossi has one more year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and then she plans to join the Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) in Georgia. “I trained with [the USAMU] for a week this summer. I’m really excited about joining them in 2024″, she said. Ossi labels herself a perfectionist, and marksmanship provides a venue to be the best she can be (as the Army would say).
“Marksmanship gives me the opportunity to be a perfectionist. It’s very interesting and mentally challenging to figure out position and challenge myself to be perfect in everything I’m doing.” — Cecelia Ossi
A former gymnastics competitor, Ossi transitioned to marksmanship in her junior year of high school. She is now at the University of Nebraska, where she competes with the rifle team. Ossi is now heading into her senior year at Nebraska. “Marksmanship taught me a lot about the mental side of competing. I think I would have done better in gymnastics had I known all that. The mental side can outweigh the physical side. That’s something that’s overlooked in a lot of sports.”
Ossi said her coaches played a big role in her early, rapid success: “I had phenomenal coaches that helped me progress quickly. They knew my goals and how to help me meet them. They were a huge part of this.” Ossi trained with coaches Tom Fister, Tab Rhode, and Bill Burkert in Pennsylvania and with Peter Fiori (Senior) in New Jersey. Mindy Miles is head coach and J.T. Schneiring is assistant coach at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Cecelia Competes with both Air Rifles and Smallbore (.22 LR) Rifles
Ossi shot the air rifle competitions with a Walther Monotec rifle, and she shot smallbore with a Walther KK500 equipped with custom modifications. “My parts are mostly custom built by Peter Fiori, Sr. He played a big part in my marksmanship”, Ossi explained. Both her rifles have very sophisticated stocks that allow precise adjustment of cheekpiece height and buttstock height/length/angle to suit the three different positions that she shoots: standing, kneeling, and prone.
Camp Perry — Shooting Outdoors with Electronic Targets
Camp Perry’s unique shooting environment drew Ossi to the 2023 National Matches. “Camp Perry is the only place I’ve had the chance to shoot team matches. I had never shot team smallbore before. That was very fun. It’s fun to bring the team aspect into shooting and work together”, she said. “Each person shot a different position, so it highlighted each person’s strengths. I was nominated to shoot standing, which is my strength, so that was fun.”
Camp Perry employed electronic targets for the National smallbore matches for the first time this year. Ossi enjoyed this modern technology: “The electronic targets were a big reason why I decided to shoot smallbore at the National Matches. The electronic targets brought a bigger crowd overall for the matches and made the whole experience really great. The staff did really well making the matches run smoothly.”
Path to Success — How Young Shooters Can Win a Spot on College Teams
Ossi’s rushed entrance into competitive marksmanship gives her a unique view into the challenges young college hopefuls face, and she is open to advising young recruits as they maneuver through the college process: “I talk to a lot of recruits and young rifle shooters. The biggest thing, when you’re looking to get into college, is putting yourself out there and introducing yourself. It says a lot about you, and the coaches remember that.”
Ossi said college recruiting rules limit the connections between college hopefuls and coaches, so she encourages young marksmen to talk to college athletes like herself: “Don’t hesitate to reach out to college shooters. I’m always open to answer questions. You can always talk to collegiate shooters when you can’t always talk to coaches.”
From Gymnastics to Competitive Shooting After years of training as a high-level gymnast in her early teens, Cecelia transitioned to marksmanship competition in her junior year of high school. She had little time to perfect the skills necessary to earn a spot on a collegiate team, but she applied the discipline she learned as a gymnast to her new sport and achieved success. Her high school rifle match performances earned Ossie an invitation to join the University of Nebraska-Lincoln rifle team.
“In my junior year of high school, I had to retire from gymnastics due to injuries, and I felt a little lost,” she said. “I had done a lot with 4-H shooting sports — muzzleloader, shotgun, you name it. I did a lot of different disciplines, so I had a little bit of shooting experience.”
When Ossi learned a friend’s sister was a member of a collegiate rifle team, it opened her mind to new possibilities: “I dove right in. The coaches were amazing, and it brought me to the college 1 ½ years later. It was a quick transition from gymnastics to shooting.”
Ossi applied her gymnastics training to marksmanship: “I think all that training as a high-level gymnast played a part. I knew how to train for long hours every day, and I knew how to set goals. Having physical discipline and mental discipline helped. It was just a different sport.”
CMP Online Resources for Junior Competitors and Parents
The CMP has good resources for junior competitors on the CMP Website. There you will find information on youth shooting programs, along with College Connect and Guide to College Recruiting. These are excellent resources for parents and juniors.
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Three-Position (3P) Air Rifle Shooting is the most popular and fastest-growing form of shooting sports competition for junior shooters (High School age and younger). The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) conducts two different 3P Air Rifle events. Precision Air Rifle is modeled after Olympic-style shooting and allows the use of specialized target rifles and equipment. Sporter Air Rifle is designed for new competitors or those who desire to compete with a minimum of equipment and expense.
In both types of shooting, competitors fire at targets at a distance of 10 meters in three different positions, prone, standing and kneeling. Three-Position Air Rifle provides young competitors with competitive shooting sports opportunities that can be offered on a wide variety of easily accessible or easily constructed ranges, with equipment that is commonly available at affordable costs.
The CMP actively promotes Three-Position Air Rifle shooting as a premier youth marksmanship competition by providing low-cost equipment and pellets as well as training materials and competition activities. In addition, other air gun events for juniors and adults are hosted by CMP throughout the year. CMP facilities have Open Public Shooting evenings, and matches for air rifle and air pistol take place at the CMP Marksmanship Centers.
Watch the video below to learn about the kneeling position, as explained by National Paralympic Coach Bob Foth and 2012 Olympian Amanda Furrer. Three-time Olympian and Silver Medalist Bob Foth details the proper techniques (both body position and gun-handling) for kneeling position shooting. Putting Foth’s coaching tips into practice, three-Position smallbore shooter Amanda Furrer demonstrates how to properly shoot from a kneeling position using a .22LR match rifle.
Amanda, a member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, shows how to set up the right body position when kneeling, how to support the rifle, and how to relax breathing to steady the shot. This takes practice, but remarkable accuracy can be achieved from the kneeling position by top-level shooters. This is a great video, well worth watching.
The video uses superimposed graphics and diagrams to show rifle hardware/sights, and key aspects of the head position, sling set-up, and hold. If you are a position shooter, this is a “must-watch” video. Narrated by Olympian Bob Foth, it is very informative.
Watch Kneeling Position Video
As a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, Amanda Furrer competed in the Womens 3P 50m event at the 2012 Olympics, finishing 15th. Amanda first started shooting at 11 years old with the Spokane Junior Rifle Team. Shooting is a family sport and all compete and shoot guns together. Furrer’s father shoots tactical matches and her mom shoots pistols. Amanda qualified for the national team as a member of the 2007 Pan American Team at the age of 16. She won bronze in the 2011 National Championships. Amanda is currently a student at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, majoring in Finance and competing on the Rifle Team.
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The NRA National Smallbore Championships (Conventional and Metric) took place July 8-17 at the Wa-Ke’-De Range in Bristol, Indiana. The NRA’s Shooting Sports USA website has extensive coverage of the event written by correspondent Hap Rocketto.
In team competition, the USAMU shooters dominated: “The [conventional] paper team match was an AMU runaway — they carded a 4766-338X to have a 30-point pad on the second place Coast to Coast Team’s 4736-267X effort. The Illinois State Association finished third with a 4679-210X.”
USAMU shooters on the firing line at the Wa-Ke’-De outdoor range in Bristol, IN. Photo courtesy USAMU.
There were some great individual performances. In early prone competition, three shooters didn’t drop a point: “The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s (AMU) Patrick Sunderman… opened the tournament with a 400-38X. Mike McPhail, perhaps one of the best prone shooters in world, followed up with a score of 400-37X and … civilian Daniel Martz closed out the top three with his 400-36X.” Later, in kneeling position, McPhail shot his second perfect score of the day, 400-30X, to win the kneeling match.
Iron Man Competition
There was a special “Iron Man” title for the best performance over the entire 8-day cycle. Rocketto writes: “The final prone match, 40 shots on the metric target with any sights, was the deciding factor in the Iron Man competition when McPhail beat George Norton by four points. Over eight days, McPhail shot a 9504-711X, Norton 9501-655X, and last year’s Iron Man Sunderman scored 9478-640X.” Overall the Army swept the top three places.
The Iron Man podium: SFC Mike McPhail (Center), SSG George Norton, & SPC Patrick Sunderman.
The last shot of the any sight metric position championship marked the end of the 2017 NRA National Smallbore Championships. The target frames have been stacked away until next year — when smallbore rifle shooters will again converge upon the Wa-Ke’-De Range in Bristol, Indiana.
Men and women now compete on equal terms at the National Smallbore Championship, gunning for the same honors in “gender-neutral” classifications. Photo courtesy Shooting Sports USA.
The Key to 3P — Beginner’s Guide to Smallbore Position Shooting
Would you like to try smallbore position shooting? Here are some tips from one of the best 3P shooters on the planet, Olympian Matt Emmons. Matt Emmons competed in the Three-Position Event at the Rio Olympics his fourth Olympic appearance. Matt has competed on the U.S. National Team since 1997, medaling in three Olympic games: Gold in 2004 in Men’s 50m Prone; Silver in 2008 in Men’s 50m Prone; and Bronze in 2012 in Men’s 50m 3X40. Although his specialty is Men’s 3-Position rifle, Emmons’ World Championship and Olympic Gold are in Men’s 50m Prone. He usually shoots an Anschütz or Bleiker .22LR rifle, with Eley Tenex ammo.
Here are shooting tips from Matt, courtesy Anschütz. Click image below to launch a large, full-screen PDF file.
CLICK Photo to Load Large PDF File
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The USA Shooting National Championships are underway at Fort Benning, Georgia. This is an elite event for Air Rifle, Smallbore Rifle, and Pistol. Thus far titles have been claimed in Men’s Three-Position Rifle, Women’s Air Rifle, Centerfire Pistol, Standard Pistol and Junior Men’s Sport Pistol. 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky won the overall Men’s Three-Position Rifle title, an Olympic event. He and eventual silver medalist George Norton shot the same Qualification scores yesterday and today (1166, 1174). Kozeniesky placed two positions higher in the Final to claim the overall gold medal.* Two-time Olympian Michael McPhail won the bronze medal.
In Women’s Air Rifle, Ole Miss Rebel Alison Weisz shared the lead after Day One with an impressive 419.8. Though her Qualification score of 416.6 wasn’t the highest among the competitors, her win in the Final secured her first National Championship title and nomination to the National Team – .1 point ahead of Sagen Maddalena who claimed silver. Emily Stith won bronze AND the women’s Junior title.
Six-time Olympian Emil Milev won the Men’s Standard Pistol competition in dominating fashion – winning the title by an astronomical 61 points. Kevin Bennett won silver and William Dutton won bronze.
Paralympic Sport Match
A World Shooting Para Sport-sanctioned match was held in conjunction with this year’s National Championship with nine countries participating. Some of these competitors shot from wheelchairs, while others shot from a bench with support for the rifles. Three American athletes earned medals and nominations to the National Paralympic Team with their performances today.
File photo 2016
*Here’s how the scoring worked. Athletes completed two days of Qualification matches, with competitors in the Olympic events (Women’s Air Rifle and Men’s Three-Position Rifle) also competing in a Finals match today. Points from the two Qualification matches, plus points earned based on rank in the Finals were combined to determine athletes’ final placements at these National Championships.
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The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are coming up soon. The Rio Olympic Games will include rifle, pistol, and shotgun competitions. Shooting events will be held in Brazil’s ultra-modern Olympic Shooting Center, originally created for the 2007 Pan-American Games at a cost of $53.5 million. Perhaps the most challenging Olympic rifle discipline is the 50m three-position (3P) smallbore match. In this article, American Olympian Matt Emmons provides expert tips on three-position shooting.
Here Matt Shows the Kneeling Position. The other two positions are Standing and Prone.
Matt Emmons will compete in the Three-Position Event at the Rio Olympics, seeking his fourth Olympic medal. Rio marks Matt’s fourth Olympic appearance — he has competed on the U.S. National Team since 1997, medaling in three Olympic games: Gold in 2004 in Men’s 50m Prone; Silver in 2008 in Men’s 50m Prone; and Bronze in 2012 in Men’s 50m 3X40. Although his specialty is Men’s 3-Position rifle, Emmons’ World Championship and Olympic Gold are in Men’s 50m Prone. He usually shoots an Anschütz or Bleiker .22LR rifle, with Eley Tenex ammo.
Here are shooting tips from Matt, courtesy Anschütz. Click image below to launch a large PDF file. Right-click the image and “save as” to download the poster-sized PDF.
CLICK Photo to Load Large PDF File
Three Sets of Hardware for Three Positions
You may be surprised to find that Matt often totes three complete sets of rifle parts to important matches — three buttplates, three cheekpieces, and three Centra sights with adjustable irises. Matt told Shooting Sports USA that he travels with “three sets for three positions. Our final is so fast that I need three sets of everything to allow a fast change-over between positions.” Matt carries his gear in an an Anschütz sport bag: “It’s similar to the big Ogio duffels with wheels, but lighter. I’ve worked with AHG/Anschütz for many years and I like their bag because all of my junk fits in it.”
Emmons, who will be competing in Rio this upcoming August, also carries something for good luck: “My wife Katy gave me a little figurine of a Czech fairytale character a long time ago for good luck and I always have it with me when I shoot.”
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The 2015 NRA National Indoor Rifle & Pistol Championships start January 1, 2015. Unlike the NRA’s National Matches at Camp Perry, the Indoor Championships are shot as a postal match, through multiple sectional tournaments all across the country. This means you can join the action from the comfort of your local range. The scores from shooters around the nation are compared by the NRA, which names the winners in each classification.
The Indoor Rifle & Pistol Championships include a variety of disciplines: Air Pistol, Rimfire Pistol, Air Rifle, and Rimfire Rifles. There is even a BB gun class for Juniors. The Indoor Championships involve multiple sectional tournaments, held in a variety of states from January through mid-April. This is like a super-duper postal match. Winners will be announced by the NRA in late May. There will be nearly 300 sectionals in 2014, so you’ll probably find an event close to home. Here are dates for 2013:
Open Sectionals: 1/1 – 3/18 | Collegiate Sectionals: 1/1 – 2/12 | JR. Sectionals: 1/1 – 4/15
The 50m Free Pistol is one of the events in the NRA National Indoor Championship. It takes skill — the pistol is shot one-handed, with iron sights, and the Ten-Ring is only 50mm (about 1.97″) in diameter. A competitive world-class score is 560 or better out of 600 possible points. Learn more about this challenging discipline in this USA Shooting video:
Rifle events concluded June 28th at the USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle/Pistol. These National Championships were Part Two of an intensive qualification process for the World Championship. USA junior team members were chosen through a selection process that included two qualifiers and a final at the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) and another two qualifiers and two finals at the National Championships held at Fort Benning, Georgia this week.
Not only were USA titles on the line, but for Junior shooters, the chance to represent the USA at the ISSF World Championship in Granada, Spain was also up for grabs.
Garrett Spurgeon claimed yet another National Title today by winning the Junior Men’s Air Rifle event. At this National Championships, Spurgeon also won the Junior Men’s 3P Rifle title. The gold medalist for Junior Women’s Three-Position Rifle, was Lauren Phillips.
In the Open division, Ryan Anderson claimed top honors in Men’s Air Rifle, narrowly edging out defending National Champion Connor Davis. The Women’s Open Division Three-Position title went to Amy Sowash. Winning silver was 2012 Olympian Amanda Furrer and winning bronze was Sarah Beard. Beard also won the prone rifle National Championship title. Beard has now won five National titles throughout her career (four in the Open division, one in Junior).
Paralympic Competition at Fort Benning
Along with the regular competition for able-bodied shooters, these Championships included Paralympic Air Rifle Prone, Free And Sport Pistol events for injured/disabled athletes. Some of these competitors shot from wheelchairs, while others shot from a bench with support for the rifles.
It’s a rare thing when you can talk with a living legend about the sport he loves. We had just that opportunity yesterday at SHOT Show when we chatted with Carl Bernosky, TEN-TIME National High Power Champion. We covered a lot of ground in the interview, discussing the future of the High Power game and the changes in hardware Carl has seen during his storied career. Carl also offers some “rock solid” advice for younger High Power shooters hoping to improve their skill sets. We also talked about Carl’s plans for 2014 and his epic battle with SSG Brandon Green at the 2013 High Power Championships at Camp Perry. Carl and Brandon battled to the last shot of the last relay of the last day. After four complete days of shooting, the two men remained tied on points and tied on X-count. Apply a tie-breaker rule based on X-count at long-range, Green was named the 2013 Champion, with Carl named runner-up. That 2013 event was a true “Battle of the Titans” between two immensely talented marksmen.
We asked Carl about trends in the High Power game. He said that more and more shooters are moving to the AR15 platform. The accuracy is there, and there are advantages to the self-loading actions particularly during rapid-fire. Carl also felt that it takes more training time to master cycling a bolt while shooting in the standing position. Because he does not have to manipulate a bolt, Carl says his self-feeding AR helps him when standing (Carl is considered one of the best standing shooters ever).
Watch Interview with Carl Bernosky, 10-Time National High Power Champion
Though most readers will recognize Carl from reports of his many National Championships, you may not realize that Carl is also a very skilled stock-maker. Carl produces high quality laminated-wood stocks at his shop in Pennsylvania. He offers a full range of stocks for Prone, Palma, F-TR, F-Open, Long Range Benchrest competition, and he also builds fine tactical stocks and hunting stocks. You can see examples of Carl’s stocks at CarlBernosky.com. Carl recently acquired a CNC machine for inletting. This can create ultra-precise inlets for a wide variety of actions.
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Imagine if thousands of junior shooters, from all around the country, could somehow compete in one giant, mega-match hosted at hundreds of different locations, with the scores all tallied together? Juniors in Maine could compete with young marksmen in Montana, or Florida (or any of the other 50 states). Sound like a pipe dream? Well such a program really exists. It’s called the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Postal Match, a 10-meter, three-position air rifle competition.
The CMP Postal Match allows juniors from all 50 states to compete from the convenience of their home ranges. The top shooters later compete shoulder-to-shoulder at regional and national matches. The CMP Postal Match is open to all junior programs, including all JROTC, 4-H, Boy Scouts and junior clubs. Participants must be school age (not yet graduated from high school), and all team participants must be from the same school or club.
Here’s How the CMP Postal Match Works:
Shooters must register with the CMP before January 24, 2014.
Registered shooters will receive official CMP targets by mail ($5.00 per shooter).
Targets must be mailed back to CMP for scoring, to be received no later than 2/4/2013.
Some folks say you haven’t really mastered marksmanship unless you can hit a target when standing tall ‘on your own hind legs’. Of all the shooting positions, standing can be the most challenging because you have no horizontally-solid resting point for your forward arm/elbow. Here 10-time National High Power Champ Carl Bernosky explains how to make the standing shot.
Carl Bernosky is one of the greatest marksmen in history. The reigning 2012 National High Power Champion, Carl has won ten (10) National High Power Championships in his storied shooting career. In this article, Carl provides step-by-step strategies to help High Power shooters improve their standing scores. When Carl talks about standing techniques, shooters should listen. Among his peers, Carl is regard as one of the best, if not the best standing shooter in the game today. Carl rarely puts pen to paper, but he was kind enough to share his techniques with AccurateShooter.com’s readers.
If you are position shooter, or aspire to be one some day, read this article word for word, and then read it again. We guarantee you’ll learn some techniques (and strategies) that can improve your shooting and boost your scores. This stuff is gold folks, read and learn…
How to Shoot Standing by Carl Bernosky
Shooting consistently good standing stages is a matter of getting rounds down range, with thoughtfully-executed goals. But first, your hold will determine the success you will have.
1. Your hold has to be 10 Ring to shoot 10s. This means that there should be a reasonable amount of time (enough to get a shot off) that your sights are within your best hold. No attention should be paid to the sights when they are not in the middle — that’s wasted energy. My best hold is within 5 seconds after I first look though my sights. I’m ready to shoot the shot at that time. If the gun doesn’t stop, I don’t shoot. I start over.
2. The shot has to be executed with the gun sitting still within your hold. If the gun is moving, it’s most likely moving out, and you’ve missed the best part of your hold.
3. Recognizing that the gun is sitting still and within your hold will initiate you firing the shot. Lots of dry fire or live fire training will help you acquire awareness of the gun sitting still. It’s not subconscious to me, but it’s close.
4. Don’t disturb the gun when you shoot the shot. That being said, I don’t believe in using ball or dummy rounds with the object of being surprised when the shot goes off. I consciously shoot every shot. Sometimes there is a mistake and I over-hold. But the more I train the less of these I get. If I get a dud round my gun will dip.* I don’t believe you can learn to ignore recoil. You must be consistent in your reaction to it.
5. Know your hold and shoot within it. The best part of my hold is about 4 inches. When I get things rolling, I recognize a still gun within my hold and execute the shot. I train to do this every shot. Close 10s are acceptable. Mid-ring 10s are not. If my hold was 8 inches I would train the same way. Shoot the shot when it is still within the hold, and accept the occasional 9. But don’t accept the shots out of the hold.
6. Practice makes perfect. The number of rounds you put down range matter. I shudder to think the amount of rounds I’ve fired standing in my life, and it still takes a month of shooting standing before Perry to be in my comfort zone. That month before Perry I shoot about 2000 rounds standing, 22 shots at a time. It peaks me at just about the right time.
This summarizes what I believe it takes to shoot good standing stages. I hope it provides some insight, understanding, and a roadmap to your own success shooting standing.
— Good Shooting, Carl
* This is very noticeable to me when shooting pistol. I can shoot bullet holes at 25 yards, but if I’ve miscounted the rounds I’ve fired out of my magazine, my pistol will dip noticeably. So do the pistols of the best pistol shooters I’ve watched and shot with. One might call this a “jerk”, I call it “controlled aggressive execution”, executed consistently.
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Here’s a feel-good story about a talented young shooter.
Article based on report by Lars Dalseide, forNRA Blog.
Finding the X-Ring while taking part in NRA’s National Rifle and Pistol Championships can be challenging enough. Finding the X-Ring from three positions during the smallbore rifle phase of the championships can be even more trying. But Amy Fister, winner of this year’s NRA 3-Position Rifle High Woman title, found it with no trouble at all. A surprising result given her wry self-description.
“I’m a nerd,” she said with a laugh. “I’m very dedicated to my studies.”
Based out of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Fister walked away from the 3-Position Awards Ceremony with three titles: High Woman with Metallic Sights, High Civilian with Metallic Sights, and High Woman Overall. Fister finished with a score of 2374 – 140X (good for 7th overall). “Last year I was close but not close enough,” said Fister. “I guess this year it was my time.” Seeing her on stage, winning award after award, it’s hard to believe that it almost didn’t happen — she nearly fell victim to the summer heat at Camp Perry.
Fighting Dehydration at Camp Perry
About halfway through the National Championship match, Fister was setting up targets when she realized something was wrong: “I was delusional, seeing things,” Fister explained. “After setting up my target, it wasn’t there. I started chasing down the target guy for another one. It was an interesting and a little bit scary of an experience.”
She was dehydrated. Heartbeat rapid, extremely lethargic, unsteady on her feet — she recognized the signs and started back for the line. Pulling a bottle of Gatorade out of her bag, she gulped until it emptied. Feeling a touch steadier, she made for the water coolers behind the line. A few cups later and she was ready to proceed. “Luckily it happened during prone,” she said with a laugh. “Standing would have been a different story.”
How a Nerd Became a World-Class Rifle Shooter
Starting as far back as she can remember, Fister was out shooting with her dad. First as the official gear porter, then as a huntress. “Deer and goose, that’s what we went for,” she said. “I go out deer hunting whenever I can, but it cuts into my shooting time. You’ve got to find a happy medium.”
Though it was dad who first put a rifle in her hand, it was her sister Valerie who started her down the competitive trail. Like most stories of sibling rivalry, big sister joined the rifle team so little sister (Amy) wanted to also. A little practice, a little patience, and it all came together — so well in fact that Amy has earned a shooting scholarship to the University of Memphis. But her ambitions don’t stop there. They reach as far as Rio de Janeiro, site of the 2016 Olympics.
“I missed a spot on the U.S. Team by two points. Now the goal is to be part of the Olympic Rifle Team in 2016. Problem is that I don’t want my scores to drop and I don’t want my grades to drop.
“My goal is to become a pediatrician and an Olympian. Guess I’ll just find a way.”
To learn more about the NRA’s Competitive Shooting Programs, visit compete.nra.org.
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After years of training as a high-level gymnast in her early teens, Cecelia transitioned to marksmanship competition in her junior year of high school. She had little time to perfect the skills necessary to earn a spot on a collegiate team, but she applied the discipline she learned as a gymnast to her new sport and achieved success. Her high school rifle match performances earned Ossie an invitation to join the University of Nebraska-Lincoln rifle team.
Three-Position (3P) Air Rifle Shooting is the most popular and fastest-growing form of shooting sports competition for junior shooters (High School age and younger). The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) conducts two different 3P Air Rifle events. Precision Air Rifle is modeled after Olympic-style shooting and allows the use of specialized target rifles and equipment. Sporter Air Rifle is designed for new competitors or those who desire to compete with a minimum of equipment and expense.
Watch the video below to learn about the kneeling position, as explained by National Paralympic Coach Bob Foth and 2012 Olympian Amanda Furrer. Three-time Olympian and Silver Medalist Bob Foth details the proper techniques (both body position and gun-handling) for kneeling position shooting. Putting Foth’s coaching tips into practice, three-Position smallbore shooter Amanda Furrer demonstrates how to properly shoot from a kneeling position using a .22LR match rifle.
Matt Emmons competed in the Three-Position Event at the Rio Olympics his fourth Olympic appearance. Matt has competed on the U.S. National Team since 1997, medaling in three Olympic games: Gold in 2004 in Men’s 50m Prone; Silver in 2008 in Men’s 50m Prone; and Bronze in 2012 in Men’s 50m 3X40. Although his specialty is Men’s 3-Position rifle, Emmons’ World Championship and Olympic Gold are in Men’s 50m Prone. He usually shoots an Anschütz or Bleiker .22LR rifle, with Eley Tenex ammo.
It’s a rare thing when you can talk with a living legend about the sport he loves. We had just that opportunity yesterday at SHOT Show when we chatted with Carl Bernosky, TEN-TIME National High Power Champion. We covered a lot of ground in the interview, discussing the future of the High Power game and the changes in hardware Carl has seen during his storied career. Carl also offers some “rock solid” advice for younger High Power shooters hoping to improve their skill sets. We also talked about Carl’s plans for 2014 and his epic battle with SSG Brandon Green at the 2013 High Power Championships at Camp Perry. Carl and Brandon battled to the last shot of the last relay of the last day. After four complete days of shooting, the two men remained tied on points and tied on X-count. Apply a tie-breaker rule based on X-count at long-range, Green was named the 2013 Champion, with Carl named runner-up. That 2013 event was a true “Battle of the Titans” between two immensely talented marksmen.
Imagine if thousands of junior shooters, from all around the country, could somehow compete in one giant, mega-match hosted at hundreds of different locations, with the scores all tallied together? Juniors in Maine could compete with young marksmen in Montana, or Florida (or any of the other 50 states). Sound like a pipe dream? Well such a program really exists. It’s called the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Postal Match, a 10-meter, three-position air rifle competition.
5. Know your hold and shoot within it. The best part of my hold is about 4 inches. When I get things rolling, I recognize a still gun within my hold and execute the shot. I train to do this every shot. Close 10s are acceptable. Mid-ring 10s are not. If my hold was 8 inches I would train the same way. Shoot the shot when it is still within the hold, and accept the occasional 9. But don’t accept the shots out of the hold.
Though it was dad who first put a rifle in her hand, it was her sister Valerie who started her down the competitive trail. Like most stories of sibling rivalry, big sister joined the rifle team so little sister (Amy) wanted to also. A little practice, a little patience, and it all came together — so well in fact that Amy has earned a shooting scholarship to the University of Memphis. But her ambitions don’t stop there. They reach as far as Rio de Janeiro, site of the 2016 Olympics.
