Podium Boy Event Result: Minnesota 2013 Air Pistol Championship Match

Event: Minnesota 2013 Air Pistol Championship Match
Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013
Location: Bill's Gun Shop & Range, Robbinsdale MN
Hotel: Home, sweet home

Podium Boy Personal Results

Goal: Set new personal record for 60 shots (12 targets)
Actual: Series 1 - 139; Series 2 - 145; Series 3 - 131. Total of 415 (6.92 avg score per shot) - New PR
Overall: 3rd in Males 18 & under


This was Podium Boy's first air pistol competition. It was a very exciting event for him. He has watched every season of Top Shot. He has set up his own challenges in the home using all variations of Nerf guns known to mankind to replicate the challenges from the Top Shot show.

He has now begun his foray into Modern Pentathlon. His first MP event will be coming up on May 18 in River Falls, WI. He started to train in earnest earlier this year and is progressing through practices in shooting and fencing, under the watchful eye of his MP coach, Todd McIntyre.

Podium Boy & Coach Todd

The interesting thing about this, was that just two weeks ago Podium Boy received an early birthday gift. A Steyr LP2 competition pistol.

The brilliantly packaged Steyr LP2

He was able to have two practices with the gun. It wasn't until late in the second practice that he actually started to get a feel for this beautiful piece. So, we had no idea what to expect on the day of the competition. We were going to just focus on sighting (front sight to rear sight) and then each shot, not the score.

Podium Boy was very relaxed and went into the competition with a good frame of mind. He was at ease with setting up his station and then finding his Zen place.

Targets are 10 yards away.

The targets are 10-meters away and the black bull of the target is 2 1/4" in diameter. So, a fairly challenging shot. The B-40 targets were used, 5 shots per bull

From one of Podium Boy's recent practice rounds

The competition for adults and juniors (18 & younger) was 60 shot for record, with unlimited sighters before first record shot. Record shot was three series of 20 shots each, 35 minutes per series.

Approved equipment was air pistols of 4.5 mm (177 Cal.) which met the NRA and ISSF rules, ie total weight no more than 3.3lbs, trigger weight 500 grams, and grips which do not circle the hand and meet the other size restrictions. Other than the inspection, pistols were cased until they were brought to the line.

Setting up his station

Looking for a friendly face

Podium Boy warmed up well, and seemed to have the pistol dialed in early. His first target scored a 40 out of 50 possible points and I thought, "wow, if he keeps this up he'll be right in the money." For the first 20, he scored 139 out of 200 possible points, with eleven in the black. It was a solid start. For comparison sake, his best 20 score to date is a 149.

Podium Boy near the end of Rd One

He started out Round Two even better and ended up totaling 145 points. He had 14 out of 20 shots in the black and was steamrolling his way to a new personal best for 60 shots. Then, his first ten shots in Round Three were poor and he seemed to panic a bit. The Steyr is a a heavy gun for a 12-year old boy and the shoulder and arm will fatigue. He's only going to get stronger and more accurate. He ended up Round Three with a 20 shot score of 131, so he had a very nice recovery.

You can see by his hips the arms were getting heavy

So, after it was done and dusted, Podium Boy ended up on the podium at the Minnesota State Championship, with only a MERE two points separating the top three junior males. Wow. One shot could have meant the difference between gold, silver, and bronze. This will certainly cement for him the value that each and every shot has. Very valuable lesson learned. Top three junior boys:

1. Colin Catlin: 136-141-140 for total of 417
2. Ben Heiniger: 122-155-139 for total of 416
3. Graham Maas: 139-145-131 for total of 415

It should be noted that the junior boys were smoked by the top junior girl. Katie Penvose shot 170-165-174  for a total of 509 pts out of a possible 600 with a average score per shot of 8.48.

Podium Boy has only been shooting in earnest for about ten weeks. To put his scores into perspective on a national level, at the 2012 National Junior event, the boys in his age group were all shooting in the 470-490 range for 60. Coach Todd thinks Podium Boy can be shooting in that range in short order. Especially when he becomes even more comfortable with the new pistol.

Next Podium Boy Event:

Apr 7 - Aramis Youth Fencing Challenge at the Minnesota Sword Club. Podium Boy will compete in his first fencing event in the Youth 12 Mixed Epee competition.