Three-Step Guide to 3-Gunning

Editor's Note: There are still a few spots open for the 2010 MultiGun Clinic, brought to you by Ohio Shooting Sports and Buckeye Firearms Association, with proceeds benefitting the Buckeye Firearms Foundation. If this article piques your interest, please register now!

By Jeff Johnston

Tri-Gun Challenge competitor Neil Davies pulled into the Del-Tone/Luth gun club parking lot and wasted no time preparing his ensemble. He wore a Hornady hat, shooting glasses, Adidas football cleats and more rounds of ammunition than there are rainy days in St. Cloud, Minn. He had five 30-round AR mags full of .223 Rem. ammunition strapped to his leg, four extended Glock mags around his waist and enough No. 8 shotshells to fend off an Argentine dove rebellion. His long guns, a souped-up Benelli M2 and a DPMS MK 12 AR-15 lay freshly oiled on the tailgate of his Chevy. I loitered near him partly because he agreed to loan me his AR—that's right, I'd brought only two guns to a 3-gun match—and partly because as Hornady's marketing man he's been known to give away ammunition, but mainly because he looked like he knew what he was doing.

I'd hauled two buddies—Darren LaSorte, a suit from NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), and Adam Heggenstaller, managing editor of NRA's newsstand magazine, Shooting Illustrated—from the Minn./St. Paul airport to St. Cloud for DPMS' annual Tri-Gun Challenge. Although we are all shooters and hunters we shared exactly zero experience in 3-gunning. So we asked questions like belt-fed fire and spied on the guys with sponsorship logos on their shirts. Like any competition involving real bullets and prize money, a first 3-gun competition can be intimidating. Frankly, my only goal was to finish—and to do so safely.

...Three-gun competition is mainly about challenging yourself. I know it sounds cliché, but these bad-looking guys and girls with their mean-looking guns proved to be some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. You'll find more discouraging words during a bridge tourney at a nursing home. I made a dozen new friends, developed practical shooting skills and even won some excellent prizes. I hope to be there this year, and I hope to see you as well. You can borrow my new souped-up AR-15—and a pocket-full of low-recoil slugs that I have left over.

To read the entire article from Jeff Johnston, Managing Editor, American Hunter magazine, click here.