The NRA World Shooting Championship wasn’t the coming out party some had envisioned. Fully expecting youth to be served, it was thought the new crop of young shooters in Scholastic Shooting Sports would dive into -and potentially dominate- the varied shooting disciplines. The reasoning was solid: young shooters are equipped with the critical tools missing for many of the established shooters: young eyes, flexible joints and ridiculously effective fast-twitch responses.
Instead, what they lacked- experience - kept them from dominating the thirteen competition stages. Despite occasional flashes of brilliance, their lack of experience with unfamiliar guns -including the staple lever actions and revolvers of SASS and the universally humbling pistols of precision air pistol-proved their undoing.
It also explained why three professionals: Nils Jonasson, Jonathon Solinsky and Greg Jordan took the top overall slots. These three and their fellow professionals are capable of shooting with the specialists in every discipline represented.
The NRA World Shooting Championship blends competition that demands the ability to shoot to relatively short par times (top) with the equally demanding ability to slow down and shoot precision shots (bottom).
After all, the NRA World Shooting Championship is designed to identify the world’s best all-round shooters. The competition last week at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, removed any doubt the three top finishers-and many of their fellow shooters- weren’t just champions in their particular disciplines, they are capable of posting championship scores in virtually every shooting discipline.
This year’s World Championship welcomed young shooting from the Scholastic Shooting Sports disciplines. Their entrant fees were paid by Federal. They assure me they will be back- and better- next year.
When I asked them about their experiences, the Juniors were disappointment at their overall showings, but said the “bumps” in their shooting would only motivate them to do better next time.
That sets the stage for some spirited competition next year.
Side matches included speed shotgunning.
One young face that was missing from the Juniors this year was Cole Shanholtz. Last year’s youth champion turned pro this year. He and his father (last year’s Pro champion), Brian, finished sixth and fourth, respectively. Then teamed with overall winner Nils Jonasson to completely dominate a very entertaining Team competition on Saturday. The combination of a relay race and shooting competition was a crowd pleaser.
The shooting ended early Saturday morning with a three-person Team competition. The Pro team of Nils Jonasson, and Brian and Cole Shanholtz literally ran away from their competitors.
The NRA World Shooting Championships has matured to become both a difficult and very entertaining event. Next year, I’m contemplating shooting it with something other than my cameras. I’d thought my time in competition was long past, but there are some stages where creaky joints and slow reflexes aren’t that big an obstacle. Since I was never competitive in the speed events, simply finishing them would be fine. And that’s the attraction of this event- there really is something for everyone- whether you’re world champion material or not.
Whether pro or amateur, competitors came equipped with cameras for shooting and analyzing their performances. In addition to the cameras many wore, their supporters also taped their performances.
Here are the top finishes in the categories:
Pro/Overall
First: Nils Jonasson
Second: Johnathon Solinsky
Third: Gregory Jordan
Fourth: Brian Shanholtz
Fifth: Rick Torres
Sixth: Cole Shanholtz (Junior)
Amateur
First: Daniel Perret
Second: Sean Pickel
Third: Dennis Rhea
Fourth: Jody Trevathan
Fifth: Jesse Grant
Ladies
First: Lanny Barnes (Repeat Champion)
Second: Tristin Burris
Third: Teri Salb
Fourth: Margaret Ding
Fifth: Angela Rabuck
Junior
First: Cole Shanholtz (Pro)
Second: Jesse Grant
Third: Jackson Schmidt
Fourth: James McElroy
Fifth: James Gibson
As always, we’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd
