Harris Wins Again

Horner, Miller, Popplewell, Swonson Cruise; Open Race Tight

Miss Katie Harris is on a roll. In only her second season of competitive 3-gun, the Georgia high school student racked up her third consecutive Junior division and second consecutive overall Lady win of the season at the Midwest 3-Gun Championships.

Topping FN’s Dianna Liedorff by approximately 15 points for the Lady win, Harris has quickly risen to the top in both the Lady and Junior divisions, making her a favorite to be in contention for the both the Lady and Junior Shoot-Offs, sponsored by Cheaper Than Dirt!, at this year’s 3GN Championship.

 “Practice pays off, and its showing how good I really can be,” Harris said. “I think that now since I have went and gotten the high Lady in the biggest matches, they are really coming for me now! At Midwest, it was a total challenge between me and Dianna. But I’m really glad the ladies are very supportive of me and help me when and as much as they can. All of the ladies in shooting tell me it’s great for me to be doing this. I love them and appreciate everything.”

Daniel Horner delivered his second consecutive dominating performance for the win in Tactical Optics. After a similar performance at Blue Ridge, Horner (858.58) seems to be firing on all cylinders heading into MGM Ironman, where he’ll be shooting for his all-important third 3GN division win of the season.

So dominating was Horner’s performance, he won five out of nine individual stages, and his bonus-aided five-second time on the long-range stage six all but zeroed the majority of the field.

While Horner was on fire, second through fourth places were extremely tight. Jared Milinazzo (697.04) finished second, followed by Rustin Bernskoetter (692.66) and Rob Romero (692.35). Bruce Piatt continued his injury comeback with a solid 5^th place finish (663.29). Newly anointed Benelli shooter Jeremy Parker (659.84) finished sixth, followed by Tyler Payne (644), Ben Fortin (588.71), Jesse Tischauser (583.5) and Eric Miller (580.26).

Bernskoetter, with his third place finish, is quickly turning into one of the top shooters in the game, yet he competes in relative obscurity outside the sport’s inner circle. Tischauser, still recovering from an off-season ankle injury, notched his first top ten major finish (To see just how diehard Jesse was this winter, check him out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP9Tp5_FQYA&feature=youtube_gdata_player).

The race for Open could be summed up as Jerry and James versus the XRAILs. The all-birdshot match featured two high round count stages that set up extremely well for the high-volume shotgun accessory. But in the end, Jerry Miculek (793.09) outlasted Tony Holmes (787.6), Don Bednorz (762.83) and Brian Butcher (708.27), while James Darst (707.64) finished fifth. Chuck Anderson (674.56), running an R&R Saiga, finished sixth, followed by Nick Kalishek (554.63), Ralph Arredondo (487), Joe Cuccia (470.7) and Mark Roth (464.24).

While Miculek picked up the win utilizing only traditional speed loaders with his shotgun, five competitors using XRAILs cracked the top ten, along with a couple of Saiga shotguns. With the shotgun being the one piece of gear in which Open shooters can go in radically different directions, the rising popularity of Saiga and XRAIL-equipped shotguns is a hot topic among Open shooters.

In Tactical Irons, Kurt Miller (872.521) cruised to his second consecutive major match win of the season. Chris Andersen (700.368) placed second, followed by Ting Sun (698.924), Darwin Hukill (610.017) and Jay Schmitt (585.968).

The Heavy Metal division featured a heavy field, despite fielding a mere 12 competitors. Trapr Swonson (770.36) picked up the division win, followed by Jomar Villamor (721.65), Dallas Smid (704.91), Marc Weasler (688.97) and Neal Emery (687.03). The deep field saw Joe Satterfield (675.56) finish sixth, followed by JJ Johnson (656.58) and Michael Fordyce (598.14).

In Heavy Metal Optics, Adam Popplewell (859.58) remained on top of his game, cruising to his second division win since SMM3G. Popplewell’s dominating performance seems to be setting up a formidable showdown with Barry Dueck for the Heavy Optics 3GN Division Championship.

Jeff Cramblit (761.07) continued his rise in the Heavy Optics division with a strong second place finish. Dwight Stearns (602.32) finished third, followed by Jansen Jones (488.13) and Randy Heffner (455.29).

This year’s Midwest 3-Gun Championships, which was not a 3GN points match, presented a deceptively difficult course of fire with a straight forward presentation. The course, in many cases, set-up to allow competitors to hang themselves, if you will, as seemingly simple arrays turned into shot-dropping and time adding stages.

Conversely, the next stop on the FNH USA 3-Gun Nation Tour is the overtly challenging MGM Ironman. With its high round count and physically demanding stages, the Ironman presents challenges not found at any other major 3-gun match. On the line: not only an Ironman victory, but 3GN points and a 3GN Shoot-Off with $5,000 from Warne Scope Mounts.

Posted on 5/24/2011