From Big Bore Airgun Deer Hunter to EBR Grand Champion Competitor
It has been less than a week since we got back from Extreme Benchrest 2025 and I still can't believe what happened. I am sitting here writing this article now with a medal and plaque that say Extreme Benchrest 2025 Grand Champion on it. The crazy thing is those awards are mine. How the hell did that happen?!
Well, the short version is I got obsessed with airguns and when I say obsessed, I mean like all consuming. But it didn't start with airgun competition, it all started with me wanting to hunt Deer with big bore airguns. My journey has been long and exciting, but I want to share some of this with you all as you might see your self a bit in my story which means you too could one day become a professional competitive airgunner.
Before I dive into the gear, I think it’s important to share how I got here. My story into the world of competitive airgun shooting wasn’t the result of some long-term ambition to win trophies or titles. It started out as something much simpler: I wanted to hunt deer with a big bore air rifle. That was it. The idea of entering the world of competitive shooting never crossed my mind at the beginning. In fact, if I’m being honest, I kind of avoided it.
That reluctance stemmed from my background in the military. I served as a 19K Armored Crew Member Tank Gunner in the U.S. Army, and every year we went through a qualification exercise called Tank Table VIII. It was intense. Crews from our battalion and company level competed for top scores, and the atmosphere was thick with competition. And yeah, there was a lot of chest-thumping, a lot of bragging rights on the line. It made for some good stories, but after eight years of living in that hyper-competitive environment, I had no interest in going back to anything that even resembled it.
Earlier in life, when I started shooting shotgun sporting clays with my dad or practicing with our bows getting ready for archery Deer season we visited some ranges and saw the early days of 3D target shooting and I saw some of those same patterns. Competition environments that didn’t feel welcoming or relaxing. Too much attitude, not enough camaraderie. So when I heard about competitive airgun matches, I figured it would be more of the same. Big egos and arguments and people I had no interest being around.
Then one year I visited the Rocky Mountain Airgun Challenge, and everything changed. What I saw there wasn’t a cutthroat battlefield. It was a group of passionate, skilled shooters genuinely rooting for each other. Guys competing head-to-head, but still offering pointers, laughing together, and sharing in each other's successes and struggles. It felt more like a backyard challenge between friends than a high-stakes competition. That community spirit was what drew me in. It wasn’t about being the best. It was about becoming better—together.
The Road to Improvement
Since then, I’ve jumped in headfirst. I attended a few competitions starting back in 2019 and I was hooked, but really didn't consider myself someone who wanted to shoot professionally. I just like the friendships and community. But then after COVID in 2021, I dove in head first. I was hungry to see how far I could push myslef. 
I keep a spreadsheet of all my scores, and when I look back at where I was just a few years ago, the progression is undeniable. From the low 210s up into the 230s, every card, every event, has been a building block. Not just of skill, but of process. Because that’s what competitive airgun shooting is really about. You’re not competing against other shooters as much as you’re competing against your own inconsistencies, the environment, and your ability to read the conditions and trust your equipment.
Gear That Made the Difference
So let’s talk about that equipment. Because the right tools, combined with the right process, can make all the difference. Here are the five most important pieces of gear that helped me stand on top at Extreme Benchrest 2025.
1. Picking an Airgun: Learning the Ways of the Karma Red Panda
Let’s start with the air rifle. I shot the Karma Red Panda, and without hesitation, I can say it’s one of the finest rifles I’ve ever had the pleasure of running. When I started seeing what Thayne Simmons was doing with the Red Panda on the competition circuit, it turned my head. Match after match, that rifle was putting down top-tier scores, and it wasn’t by accident.
Now, I’m fortunate to work full-time with DonnyFL, Saber Tactical, and Karma Airguns. That means I have access to not just the Red Panda, but also the FX King with the Saber Tactical Chassis system which is another incredible platform that I’ve had great success with. And every time I walk into my gun room and see those two rifles side-by-side, it feels like looking at two Formula 1 cars in the garage. They’re both winners. But this year, I committed to learning every detail of the Karma Red Panda.
What sets the Karma Red Panda apart is that barrel. Whatever the engineering magic is behind it, the thing just shoots. I’ve run barrels from nearly every major airgun manufacturer in multiple calibers and twist rates, and nothing has delivered the kind of consistency and precision I’ve seen from the Panda. And while I could go on about that barrel alone, here’s what I want to stress: the airgun you choose has to be one you fully commit to. Don’t let hype or YouTube steer you. Do your homework. Learn your gun. Find its quirks and make it yours. Whether it’s a Red Panda, a FX King, a RAW, Daystate, Thomas, or a Skout gun—commit to the process of mastering it.
2. Element Optics Theos: Seeing Every Shot
Next, let’s talk optics. I ran the Element Optics Theos with 36x magnification, and it was everything I needed it to be. One of the most overlooked challenges in benchrest is not being able to see your shot placement clearly. At 100 yards, especially with .30 cal pellets punching clean holes, you can easily lose track of where you left off. And when you're moving between sighters and scoring targets, especially if you’ve paused to refill or adjust for shifting wind, it’s incredibly easy to double shoot a bullseye. I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count.
The Theos gives you that clarity. With it, I can zoom in and verify every impact, even when the pellet lands dead center on a number. That level of precision in visual feedback prevents errors and builds confidence. Add in the Theos’s incredibly fine parallax adjustment and you have a scope that locks your reticle in place, even with slight head movement. And let me tell you—when the weather turned at EBR this year and the rain rolled in, the Theos didn’t fog up one bit. That anti-fog coating Element uses is no joke. It held strong when other optics didn’t.
3. Support System: Stability is King
Now let’s talk support systems. Your rifle may be dialed in, and your scope may be sharp, but if you’re not rock solid on the bench, you’re going to struggle. I’ve tried it all over the years—bipods, front rests, rear bags, sleds, you name it. But the setup that carried me to the podium this year was an Accu-Tac bipod mounted to an ARCA rail up front, combined with a modified Saber Tactical Universal Pro Monopod in the rear.
Here’s what makes that setup special. First, by sliding the bipod along the ARCA rail, I can subtly adjust the harmonic balance of the rifle. It takes testing, but once you find the sweet spot, the difference in group consistency is dramatic. In the rear, the real star is the roller wheel mod on the monopod. It allows the rifle to recoil naturally while maintaining perfect alignment. Unlock it to absorb movement, lock it in for precision vertical and horizontal adjustment. The ability to quickly and accurately move across your card smoothly makes all the difference. That matters when wind windows open and close in seconds.
4. Ammunition & Process: Every Detail Counts
The fourth piece of gear isn’t just about equipment—it’s about the process. I’m talking about ammunition. This season, I primarily rotated between AEA 50 grain pellets and the ZAN BR-100 56 grain pellets. These heavyweights have changed the game.
For years, 44 grain .30 cal pellets were the gold standard. And they still work—if you sort them and tune carefully, they can shoot lights out. But when the wind picks up, their ballistic coefficient just can’t compete. A 44 grain pellet might drift 2 to 2.5 inches in a 10 mph crosswind at 100 yards. But the AEA 50s and ZAN 56s? They drift closer to just one inch. That’s the difference between a 9 and a 10. Multiply that over a card, and you’re gaining five to ten points purely on wind drift.
I’ve done a lot of testing on both brands. What’s interesting is that neither requires much weighing out of the tin. Both have been extremely consistent. But head and skirt size? That’s where you have to pay attention. I use the ZAN pellet sizer to dial in the dimensions that my rifle prefers. I also sort pellets using the roll test—lay them on a glass or aluminum surface and roll them to observe curvature. How they curve reveals balance inconsistencies. I sort by that arc to ensure I’m loading batches with identical behavior.
5. FX True Ballistics Chronograph: Data That Matters
Finally, we come to the fifth and possibly most transformative tool in my kit: the FX True Ballistics Chronograph. Now, I’ve used a lot of chronographs over the years. Most shooters do. They tell you your velocity, your spread, your deviation. Great tools for tuning.
But what sets the FX Chronograph apart is that it reads ballistic coefficient in real time. That one feature has completely changed how I tune and test.
Instead of just looking at how a pellet groups on paper, I now compare tune settings and ammo combinations based on their BC readings. For example, if the AEA 50 grain pellet is showing a 0.07 BC and another pellet shows 0.05, I know which one is going to buck the wind better. That becomes a data-driven decision, not a guess.
Even in benchrest, where the distance doesn’t change, BC tells me which tune is performing best aerodynamically. That lets me compare multiple tunes and pellet batches more efficiently, without wasting cards or air.
Honorable Mention: The Patch Worm Cleaning Kit and Ballistol
Using the Patch Worm cleaning kit in my .30 cal Karma Red Panda became a routine that paid dividends at EBR 2025. The Patch Worm’s flexible core and interchangeable patch carriers let me push a few wet and dry patches through the barrel between cards — fast, repeatable, and thorough. After each 25-shot card with dozens of sighters, I ran a dry patch to pick up leading and used a Ballistol-dampened patch on the Patch Worm to help get the bore to a baseline state of clean, then finished with a final dry patch pass to remove excess oil. That simple sequence kept the Red Panda’s point of impact consistent across all 3 cards in competition; consistency in barrel condition was one of those small, repeatable advantages that stacked up over 3 long days of shooting.
I trust Ballistol as the only cleaning oil I use on my airguns — it’s safe on barrels, seals, and O-rings and won’t cause swelling or damage to PCP components — and DonnyFL.com now stocks the Patch Worm kit and is an authorized Ballistol dealer, so it’s easy for fellow airgunners to get the same setup. If you want a low-effort maintenance routine that preserves accuracy between stages, the Patch Worm + Ballistol workflow is a competition-proven pair: easy to use, protected internals, and a barrel that behaves the same shot after shot — which, at EBR, is everything.
Conclusion: The Journey is the Reward
So there you have it. Five pieces of gear. Five components of a larger system. But let me leave you with this:
It’s not just the gear. It’s what you do with it. It’s the hours you spend learning, adjusting, retesting. It’s the conversations with other shooters, the shared data, the missed shots, and the breakthroughs. It’s the community.
I never thought I’d be a competitive shooter. I just wanted to chase whitetails with a big bore air rifle. But here I am, writing this after winning one of the most prestigious airgun events in the world. If you’re reading this and wondering if you belong on the firing line at your local match or a national competition—I’m telling you, you do.
Put in the time. Learn your gear. Find your tribe. And you’ll be amazed at how far this sport can take you.
