Erik Cortina
This month addition to the Shooter Spotlight Series Features Erik Cortina. He is certainly no stranger to F-Class. Some of you may recognize him from his many online shooting videos. This is a good one for the books.
Q: When did you start shooting?
A: With my dad when I was 5, F-Class in 2009
Q: How did you get into competition shooting?
A: I got into it when I started traveling to Colorado Elk hunting. I realized I needed to make some long shots, so I wanted to be ready if the situation presented itself. After I started shooting F-Class, I went back to Colorado and took a mule deer at 365 yards with one shot. I realized now hunting was too easy, and I gave it up. I sold most of my hunting rifles and built F-Class rifles, and got into F-Class full time.
Q: where do you live?
A: Texas
Q: What do you do for a living?
A: General Contractor. I own two companies, Xtreme Concrete, LTD, and Texas Barndominiums, LTD.
Q: Do you have any family members who compete in shooting sports?
A: Yes, my daughter. She started recently and is enjoying it. She shoots F-Open as well.
Q: Do you shoot F-Open or FTR?
A: F-Open
Q: What advice do you have for new shooters?
A: Get a mentor. Most top F-Class shooters are willing to help new shooters. Please find one of those guys and respectfully ask questions and listen to them. Do not ask questions if you are not willing to listen. Nothing turns to mentor off more than taking the time to explain how they got their success to someone only to have them do the opposite.
Q: Where do you see the sport going in the future?
A: I’m not sure, but I know it is still growing. The 2017 Berger SW Nationals sold out two months in advance, which is an indication that the sport is growing at a tremendous pace.
Q: Do you shoot on any team or teams?
A: Yes, I am the captain of Team Lapua-Brux-Borden.
Q: What are your future goals?
A: To represent team USA in the 2017 Word F-Class Championships.
Q: What was your favorite match, and why?
A: The 2015 Texas State Long Range Championship. Conditions were such that the top shooters were all shooting very well. I saw David Mann shoot a perfect 600, but I ended up winning the Championship. The reason I enjoyed winning that match was that it seemed like everyone was shooting better than ever, and that’s when I enjoy winning. I wouldn’t say I like to win because a shooter had a failure or shot sub-par.
Q: Do you have anything you would like to add?
A: Always do the best you can; you never know who’s looking up to you.
Here are some of the quotes that I have developed over the years.
“At some point, the shooter becomes the limiting factor in accuracy.” – I said this to a shooter that would go out and try to tune his rifle to shoot 2” groups at 1,000 yards. I told him maybe his gun was already there, but he wasn’t.
“Know your node” – This has to do with rifle tuning. If you know your accuracy node well, you can adjust it on the fly to compensate for temperature swings. If you don’t remember your node, don’t mess with it, as it will only bite you.
“There is no precision in assumption” – Don’t assume you know how your rifle will react to a different component or change in ammo. Test everything, don’t assume.
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