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Age: 15 years old
From: Elyria, OH
I have been shooting indoor and outdoor Glock Sport Shooting Foundation matches for a year now and I have really enjoyed shooting them with my dad. We have met a lot of nice easy-going people at these events, which was helpful since we were new to competitive pistol shooting. In July 2022 I competed in my first GSSF outdoor match. The only reason we went to it is because it was about an hour away from a National IBO archery event I was competing in, so figured let’s do it since it’s so close. Plus I had been shooting a G44 at the range a few times a month to give me mental breaks from practicing archery, so I was comfortable shooting it. I competed in the rimfire class and finished 14th out of 28, which we thought was really good for only having shot paper targets that were directly in front of me. Since I did so good we wanted to go to another match and looked for another one that would fit into my archery schedule; that ended up being Ontario New York the next month. At Ontario I improved my rimfire time by 25 seconds so my dad signed me up to compete with his 9mm too. That was my very first time shooting a 9mm Glock and it did not go well at all. But Glenn Myers who was running the plates asked my dad if he could help me out with some pointers, my dad said yes and Glenn gave me some very helpful tips and advice to help me control the 9mm better. Then just a year later I won my first overall amateur 9mm class at the age of 15. I was able to thank Glenn Myers at the 2023 Glock Annual Shoot for helping me out that first time I shot a 9mm, and told him how he kept me from getting discouraged that day in New York. Other shooters like Ken Kerr have let me shoot a model Glock that they had but I didn’t so I could compete in a new division. A month after Ken let me borrow his G30, I finished high amateur in the Major-Sub Division. The environment at the GSSF matches are unbeatable, the people aren't there just to shoot but to also have fun, socialize and help other shooters which makes GSSF matches some of the best matches I have competed in so far. Since we knew at the start of 2023 that I was going to compete in some GSSF Outdoor matches when I didn’t have archery, we decided to compete in GSSF Indoor matches to get ready. Depending on where you go, they may run the matches a little differently since they get to choose from a few different scenarios, but they all score the same way. You can start as close as 9 feet and go all the way back to 75 feet shooting 5-10 shots per magazine and you have to shoot those shots in 10 or 15 seconds depending on the scenario. These shoots are fun because they may seem easy since you are just standing at a line and shooting at the center of the target right in front of you, but it really starts to get in your head when you realize how little time you have to make good shots. It took me a few events to figure out how to make good shots in the set amount of time I had. You may be thinking to yourself why don't you just rapid fire? Because the X ring is not big enough for you to be able to inaccurately start pulling the trigger fast. What I did to get better was practice with my Laser Ammo Laser Pet at home. With the Laser Pet I could set a timer and it would track your shots and where they hit. Using this helped me be able to maximize my time and have good, controlled shots that went where I wanted. I finished my 2023 Indoor GSSF season competing in 6 leagues winning 6 High Juniors, 10 Podiums and 2 Overall Wins along with the CMP National Championship at Camp Perry where you shoot the indoor match outdoors which is weird. GSSF Outdoor matches are run much differently than indoors, for outdoors you compete in 3 different stages: Glock ‘m, 5 to Glock, and Glock the plates. These are the same 3 stages you will see at every outdoor Glock match, but the patterns and distances will vary depending on the size of the bays at that range. When we go to an outdoor Glock matches me and my dad normally show up on Fridays to help set up the stages and then work as a Range Officer on Saturday. All of the match directors we have met have been really nice, plus when you work an event as a RO you get a free lunch and get to choose a Glock item too. Outdoor GSSF matches are my favorite type of GSSF match, they do take a lot longer than indoor GSSF matches to finish, but they are a lot more fun. I like that not all the stages are just paper targets that get moved straight back a few feet just to shoot again. 5 to Glock, is 5 paper targets at different distances and angles that get 2 shots each. Glock ‘m, is 4 paper targets with 1 steel plate that you can shoot in any order, again 2 shots per paper and then 1 shot for steel. Then Glock the plates is a plate rack with 6 steel plates set out around 11 yards from you. My favorite stage to shoot is plates because like indoors it tests your speed to accuracy. All the stages test your speed and accuracy, but in plates everyone can see right away how fast and accurate you were. You can shoot it as fast as you want but if you keep missing, it really starts to add on to your time and if you leave a plate up it’s a 10 second penalty. So far, the fastest I have ever shot the plates is 2.74 seconds. Now you may be thinking, is all this kid shooting just GSSF matches? The answer to that is no; I have competed in a sanctioned action and steel match; and then a few outlaw shoots at local clubs. My favorite type of shooting is the move and shoot style, but I am not the best at it since I have not gotten over the whole running with a loaded gun thing since growing up I was always taught not to do that. I like shooting steel matches too because it takes a lot of thinking to try and figure out the fastest way to shoot all the plates and in what order. But I do enjoy shooting GSSF matches, and I am getting very good at them. 2023 was my first year actually doing competitive pistol shooting, in 2022 we just did those 2 matches just to do them. I wanted to try many different types of shooting this year since I am new to firearms competitions, but we decided it would be best to really focus on my shooting and hitting good scores before adding other things like moving and reloading. Because of an arm injury that made me stop competing in archery, I was able to compete in 9 Outdoor GSSF matches this year. I won 7 High Juniors, 19 Amateur Podiums and 5 Overall Amateur Wins including placing 1st out of 134 in the Civilian Amateur division at the 2023 Glock Annual shoot. This year I did a lot better than I thought I would do since this was my first year competing. I also surprised a lot of others when they found out how long I’ve been competing for after they watched me shoot. I believe that all the physical and mental training I did for archery really contributed to my firearm shooting ability. I thank my dad for teaching me to shoot at such a young age which he did so I would know how to handle and respect firearms, I think that made what I am able to do today possible. I am also thankful to my dad for working my yard service business JaceWaltersRakingAndMORE.com with me so we can afford to compete and travel to all these different locations, and to my mom for letting us do this and helping me with some jobs and taking me to some events too. I started up my yard service business in Nov 2018 to help my parents with the cost of my competitive archery. At the beginning of this season, I never thought I would have gone to Talladega Alabama to compete in the 2023 Glock Annual Shoot for a couple reasons. Reason one was because I was still supposed to be competing in archery at the national level. The only goal I really had at the beginning of this season was just to finish in the top half since that’s what I did in that first match in 2022 that we did for fun. I was really just going to compete in these GSSF events just to shoot them and get better at handling and firing pistols. Then about halfway through the year when I realized I was done with archery for the year my goal changed to finishing in the top 25%. I never expected that I would be podiuming and winning in the amateur classes against adults. I also never would have thought I would go to Talladega to compete in 10 divisions and podium in half of them since this is the biggest GSSF match of the year. When we decided that we were going to add the Glock Annual Shoot to my schedule, my main goal was to win High Junior; I never thought I would win the entire Amateur Civilian division like I did too. This past year I have had a lot of fun and learned many things from different people at these Indoor and Outdoor GSSF matches. Some let me shoot their Glocks, some try their ammo, others shared their strategy; and then I am very thankful for the people like Glenn and Ken who went the extra step and really wanted to help me succeed. I cannot wait for the 2024 season to start, but I will really need to keep improving my skill since I will be now competing in the Master Class at the age of 16.