Winning a national championship in long-range rifle shooting is quite an accomplishment. So is setting a world record for smallest average five-shot “groups” on a series of four targets.
So it stands to reason that setting a group world record while winning a national championship is pretty cool.
Summersville resident Ryan Hunt did just that last fall in Memphis, Tenn., winning the overall championship at the 2014 International Benchrest Shooters (IBS) 600-Yard Nationals and setting a new grouping world record in the process.
“It’s great to see a lot of hard work pay off all at once,” Hunt said. “When you realize you’ve done it, it’s a great feeling.”
Staged Sept. 26-27 at the Memphis Sport Shooting Association range, the championship event featured a field of 85 of the best 600-yard benchrest marksmen in the country, who had qualified by way of top-notch performances at IBS-sanctioned matches throughout the prior months of the year. Competitors shot in two categories: light gun (17-pound maximum) and heavy gun (unlimited).
Summersville resident Ryan Hunt stands by the International Benchrest Shooters 600-yard national championship trophy while holding the gun he used to win the title last fall in Memphis, Tenn.
“Memphis is known for its great conditions,” Hunt said. “It’s down in the low bottoms of reclaimed swampland, there’s no wind and you can see really good. The first year it opened, there were a bunch of world records.”
Shooting in the first group (or “relay”) in light gun competition, the 29-year-old Hunt put together an unprecedented performance that included four targets with five-shot groups measuring 1.054, 1.295, 1.560 and 1.774 inches, for an average of 1.340 inches. His championship run included a runner-up finish in the overall light gun standings and a third-place showing in heavy gun, earning him the “two-gun” national title.
Shooters’ best four of eight targets in each discipline are used to formulate their results, but all 16 of Hunt’s targets had a group of less than two inches. He bettered the previous grouping world record by more than a quarter of an inch.
“Everything just came together,” Hunt said. “The gun was shooting great and I guess I had a good day.”
A lifetime Summersville resident, Hunt has been serious about long-range shooting for about seven years, and has been competing for about six.
“I got my first re-load set when I was 15 and started shooting and re-loading then,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time.”
Hunt said he shoots in about 14 IBS-sanctioned matches per year. After starting out his competitive career with a year of shooting in 1,000-yard matches, he took second as a rookie in the 2011 600-yard nationals at Midwest Benchrest in Yukon.
“Then I was hooked,” Hunt said. “I’ve shot in every 600-yard nationals since then and every match I can get to within reason.”
Hunt is a paramedic for Mercy in Mountain Grove, and owns and operates a custom long-range rifle business (called Hunt’s Long Range Rifles and Supply LLC) out of a sizable shop building on his property west of Summersville. He and his wife, Amber, have a 3-year-old son, Harper, and a girl on the way.
Don Rabun, also of Summersville, works with Hunt in the custom rifle business and helped him in the early days of his competitive shooting career. Rabun is also an accomplished IBS competitor.
“We kind of started together,” he said. “He has far surpassed me, though.”
The parts for Hunt’s 17-pound championship firearm came from several locations around the U.S., and were then customized and assembled in his shop. He uses the same rifle in both light and heavy gun competition.
“I think that’s an advantage,” Hunt said. “I don’t have to set up a 60-pound gun and then set up my 17-pound gun. I set this one up the same way every time.”
Since Hunt’s custom rifle business began in 2012, he and Rabun have built guns for residents of dozens of states. About 25 custom guns come out of the shop each year, many of which are tactical.
Ryan Hunt sits behind the four targets that last September earned him a 600-yard benchrest shooting world-record.
“That’s getting really popular,” Rabun said.
Hunt’s success doesn’t hurt business.
“Guys will see you win a match and they want you to build them a rifle,” he said.
“It’s pretty satisfying to see a guy win with a rifle you made for him,” Rabun said. “We probably built half of them in the top-10 at nationals.”
“That’s very gratifying,” Hunt said.
So how does a world record holding shooter get to that level?
“Practice,” Hunt said. “It’s like any other sport – it takes dedication. I just shoot a bunch.”
A lot of that practice takes place on the range at the Big Piney Sportsman’s Club near Houston.
“I’ll be there at six in the morning waiting for daylight,” Hunt said. “When the conditions are right, we’ll shoot, test, then shoot some more. Once you get to where you’re winning and having fun, you can’t stop. It’s addicting.
“But I can’t say enough about what the club has done for me. And my wife has been incredibly supportive; I work all week and pretty often I’m gone all weekend.”
Hunt compared the long-range benchrest “family” of competitors to the NASCAR circuit, where top-notch drivers compete against the same opponents week after week.
“It’s super competitive,” he said. “You see the same people at almost every big match, and a lot of them are extremely good. We had 85 shooters at nationals this year, and every one of them was there to win.
“They don’t come to play – they come to beat whoever’s there and you have to be just a little bit better.”
“You have to have good ‘stuff,’ and you have to have good equipment, too,” Rabun said. “They’ve all tuned and tweaked and they’re hoping they have something that will beat you.”
Rabun doesn’t foresee Hunt’s record being broken for a while.
“That mark should last a long time,” he said. “The old record stood for a long time. It may be broken, but it will be very hard to break.”
For his national championship efforts, Hunt received a large trophy to keep and his name was added to the even larger “traveling trophy,” which was his for a year.
“There’s more than 1,000 great shooters around the country trying to win that trophy,” Rabun said. “It’s a pretty big deal.”
Hunt will defend his title and attempt to keep the traveling trophy another year at the 2015 IBS 600-Yard Nationals, Sept. 26-27 at Vapor Trails in the northern Missouri town of Spickard.
“I’ve shot at Spickard a lot and it’s a tough range,” he said. “It’s up there in the flats and it’s windy, so there may not be any world records. But we’re prepared and we’re going there to win. If that gun comes out, it’s ready, and if it loses, we won’t have any excuses.”
Being a two-time defending champion at the 2016 nationals would suit Hunt fine.
“There are a couple of guys with their names on that trophy more than once,” he said. “I want to be one of them.”
“Everything just came together. The gun was shooting great and I guess I had a good day.”
– RYAN HUNT
• Bat Machine Co. model SV action
• Precision Rifle and Tool Hammerhead model stock
• Brux barrel – 8 twist
• 6mm Dasher brass – 103 gr. VLD (very low drag) Vapor Trail bullets by Tom Jacobs
• Varget Powder CCI primers