July2026 (1) - Flipbook - Page 24
mately blossom into complete
overwhelm that can negatively
impact every shot that follows.
You mustn’t let it take hold.
Instead, you only focus on the
round chambered in the barrel.
That’s all that matters. Your
last one is over, the one after
this doesn’t exist yet. The key is
to keep that in mind and focus
only on that round.
One round. One deep breath.
One squeeze of the trigger.
That’s it. Once it’s done, it’s
done. Learn from it and move
on to the next one. Keeping
that focus makes way for better
grounding and ability to grow
and learn in the sport. If you allow yourself to get carried down
the drain every time you’re
shooting doesn’t go the way
you intended, you’ll never excel
and your end results will always
be the same. Essentially, you’ll
defeat yourself before you have
the chance to 昀椀nish a match. So,
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keep your focus on that chambered round and adjust accordingly.
I love the people I’ve met in this
sport. My shooters who have
spent years in my Quigley group
have become friends and mentors as they have been with me
since the beginning of my journey. They are always the 昀椀rst to
help me. They provide support,
encouragement and mentorship of the widest varieties and
they help build me up when I’m
lacking the strength to do that
on my own. Plaques and patches
are nice rewards for a job well
done but they also serve as dust
collectors and accompaniments
for other forgotten treasures in
drawers and dinged up boxes.
They are not a de昀椀nition of your
life or your character and in the
end, they’ll most likely wind
up in the land昀椀ll next to water-stained beer boxes and rotten grass clippings shortly after
you’ve gone to meet your maker
as they were never something
that meant anything to anyone
else anyway.
How you treat yourself in
times of stress matters more
than placing in an event that
most will forget about before
the month’s over. The key to
success in anything is how
you handle each moment. In
the sport of long-range ri昀氀e
shooting each round de昀椀nes a
moment, each moment a catalyst for the next. I learned that
the hard way and I let it get
the better of me. I learned that
contrary to my initial belief,
the mental aspect of shooting
is so much more dominating
than I’d originally thought, I
respect that now. My new goal
is to block out the static and
focus solely on the round in the
chamber, one breath and one
squeeze at a time.
July, 2026 - Issue #3
