Q: When did you start shooting?

A: Like most of my childhood friends, I was shooting homemade slingshots and archery from about the time I could wield a pocket knife.

Q: How did you get into competition shooting?

A: Dad taught me the fundamentals of marksmanship through Small Bore. During the winter evenings in Wisconsin, we would compete against other fathers and sons at a local grade school where there was a Rim-fire range in the basement.

Q: What state do you live in?

A: After ten years out in the Washington, DC area, I’m glad to be back living close to family here in Wisconsin.

Q: What do you do for a living?

A: I’m lucky to be working as a Senior Engineer for Vortex Optics. Several in the F-Class community build our rifles, which is satisfying, but getting to design my scopes to compete is special.

Q: Do you have any family members who compete in shooting sports?

A: Yeah, quite a few. They include an uncle in Canada who is a former Canadian National Skeet Champion, a cousin in Canada who is an Arctic Winter Games biathlon snowshoe medalist and a Father who is part of the current Berger Southwest National F/TR Championship team.

Q: Do you shoot F-Open or FTR?

A: F/TR

Q: What advice do you have for new shooters?

A: If a new person wants to do well quickly in this sport, my first suggestion would be to find a mentor that is already successful and willing to teach you. The other thing I’d recommend would be buying a rifle capable of winning a national championship from the beginning.

The actual tournament may come many years down the road if the shooter sticks with it, but they will have just given themselves a big head start by avoiding the slower learning curve that comes with a lesser rifle. The biggest gain I ever made in my wind-reading ability was when I finally replaced the factory barrel on my first rifle with a top-shelf custom barrel. Nothing else changed, but suddenly I was making much better wind calls. That led me to my current belief that a precision rifle is one of the essential ingredients for making an accurate wind call.

Q: Where do you see the sport going in the future?

A: I think the health of the F-Class discipline within High Power is in excellent health. Folks like to debate things like Traditional vs. Electronic Targets, future target sizes, and other rules, and all that makes for an interesting conversation in-between shooting. But I generally trust that there are so many good people involved in F-Class; at this point, people who appeal to logic and true sportsmanship, which the sport’s quality and character are in good hands.

Q: Do you shoot on any team or teams?

A: I’m a member of the X-Men F/TR Team, the U.S. Rifle Team, the Black Earth, WI Small-Bore Team, and North By Southwest F/TR Team.

Q: What are your future goals?

A: As a member of the U.S. Rifle Team for the 2017 cycle, I have one goal: to do what I can to help my team win the 2017 F-Class World Championship.

Q: What was your favorite match, and why?

A: There are quite a few that come to mind, but there’s one that stands out.

The 2016 Wisconsin Mid-Range State Championship was held in Lacrosse, WI last August. The thing is, I couldn’t make that match for some reason; Dad went, and he took Mom. It was the first match she’d ever been to, and she had just learned how to text on her new smartphone. To make a long story short, I received relay-by-relay near real-time updates (with candid photos and plenty of exclamation points!!!) for the next two days.

Dad was in a neck-and-neck battle for first place with my reigning champion and teammate, Dan Lentz. It came down to the very last match on the last day. I was so emotionally invested by that point that I could hear my heartbeat from the back of my skull as I stood staring at the screen on my phone, waiting for that last text from Mom. Three hours later, I was waiting on my Parent’s back deck with some ice and a bottle of bourbon as they arrived home to celebrate with the victors. That was my favorite match.

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