1996 - World Champion skeet shooter returns to competition

BY MIKE WILDER NewsEditor

You can't be thinking about the argument you just had with your girlfriend or wife, or the deer you shot last week, explains Liberty resident Craig Kirkman, when you're skeet shooting.

Kirkman knows what he's talking about, he won the sport's World Championship last October in San Antonio, Texas, and returns to the competition this week.

One of the first things he learned about the sport, Kirkman said, is that once you've mastered the basic skills, "its a mind game. "Everyone out there's hit all the shots thousands of times," he says, watching a group of fellow skeet shooters practice Sunday at Alamance Wildlife Club. "Total concentration is all it is."  

Another factor in his success, Kirkman explained, is familiarity through constant use of the same shotgun, a German-made Krieghoff K- 80, with Kolar AAA tubes. "You've got to know your weapon," Kirkman said. "I shoot the same one all the time in competition."

In skeet shooting, competitors fire at targets that simulate the flight of birds, using 12, 20, 28, and 410 gauge shotguns. Sporting his world champion's ring, Kirkman explains he can only get one, even if he successfully defends his title, he said he's prepared for the competition, which begins Monday in Texas.

"I've been shooting good all year; we'll practice a bunch this week," he said. "It's just like all sports, there's about three or four who battle it out all the time."

Last year, Kirkman was High All-Around champion, scoring 649 x 650, High Overall Champion, shooting 549 x 550, and won the Doubles event 100xl00,in a shootoff.

Aside from his success at the championship, he had the highest 20-gauge average in the nation last year, missing only two of 1,000 shots. This year, he's shot 900 and missed two, so he needs to be perfect the rest of the year to perform at the same level.

Kirkman said he and his dad, Tommy Kirkman, always shoot together. They practice on a one-range field at home, behind their home in Liberty.

Kirkman, 21, got interested in skeet shooting, about ten years ago. "When I started out, I had shot a lot hunting he said.