Butler Wins 32-Man 3-Gun Nation Shoot-Off in Kentucky

PARK CITY, Kentucky — Taran Butler defeated Team SIG Sauer’s Eric Lund in an unprecedented 32-man shoot-off on the FNH USA 3-Gun Nation Tour, Presented by SureFire, earning a check for $5,000, following the Sabre Defence Blue Ridge Mountain 3-Gun at the Rockcastle Shooting Center here April 23-25.

Competing in his second 3GN shoot-off, Butler seemed determined to fare better than his one-and-done finish at the DPMS Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun in March. Lund looked equally dominant in his four wins as he advanced past James Phelps, Joe Wong, Larry Toney and Jason Wong in route to the finals. But Butler, who took out Robert Romero, Adam Popplewell, John Bagakis and James Darst, found his rhythm first and left the rifle plates with a comfortable lead. However, Lund accelerated through the shotgun plates, broke two clay birds, and closed the distance heading into the final pistol targets. Ultimately, Butler’s lead proved to be too much, as he cleaned his pistol rack and was first to knock down the cross-over stop plate, earning his first win on the 3-Gun Nation Tour and a check for $5,000, courtesy of Leupold Tactical.

While Butler was well on his way to earning a spot in 3-Gun Nation’s traditional 8-man shoot-off, severe weather rolled through the Bluegrass, with a tornado actually touching down within the county Saturday night. Match director Andy Horner was forced to make a tough call and cancel the remainder of the Blue Ridge event for official scoring, leaving 3-Gun Nation officials scrambling for an alternative.

“Once that weather rolled in, we had to make a decision on what to do with the match,” said Andy Horner, match director, Sabre Defence Blue Ridge Mountain 3-Gun. “An option was to attempt to finish the match on Sunday, however it would have been midnight before the awards were completed. Therefore, we made a decision to call off the scored portion of the match and shoot for fun on Sunday. With the tornado warnings, severe thunderstorms, hail and lightening, it would have been too dangerous to continue on Saturday afternoon.”

Since not one stage of fire had been completed by each of the competitors, 3GN scrapped the normal qualification standards, consulted with match officials and top-level professional shooters, then made a bold move and opened the door to a wide range of competitors.

“We poured over every angle to this thing,” said Chad Adams, National 3-Gun Association. “Ultimately, we had no satisfactory baseline in which we could compare our competitors. So we took every name that had at least one top 10 overall finish within their division on any stage, threw the names in a hat, then held a random drawing for 32 shooters.”

The result was an intriguing mix of big-name pros, non-sponsored shooters, family members and even one of the Blue Ridge range officers, Bryan Ray, a local shooter from nearby Elizabethtown. The draw also provided the first two women to make a 3GN shoot-off, DPMS shooter Deb Cheek, and FNH USA’s Tasha Hanish, who made the field with her husband, Mark Hanish, also with Team FNH USA. Another pair of family members, Jason Wong, along with his uncle and shooting mentor, Joe Wong, represented JP Precision.

“I’ll admit, standing around the firing line Sunday morning, I was nervous,” said Adams. “I mean, at this point, we’ve only ran one shoot-off–ever. And we go ahead and expand our normal field of eight to 32. Not only that, we’ve got a few non-sponsored guys we’ve never seen before, so I was real concerned all of our competitors first off would be safe, but I also didn’t want to see anyone get embarrassed. But in many ways, it was the non-sponsored shooters who stole the show.”

In fact, the Joes held their ground against some of the best pros in practical shooting, with North Carolina native Alex Hawkins and Kentucky’s Ray delivering especially strong showings. In the second round, Hawkins shot well, pushing Mark Hanish to the end, while Ray was extremely strong, notching wins over Matt Hood and Jamie Foote before falling to DPMS’ James Darst on a foot fault. Amazingly, he was leading the veteran Darst through the shotgun portion when the fault was called.

The ladies also held their own, and although neither Cheek or Tasha Hanish were able to notch a first-round win, each pushed a couple of 3-gun veterans to the limit. In fact, Cheek laid down an impressive rifle rack before her opponent Adam Popplewell was granted a re-shoot due to an optic getting knocked out of alignment. And after Hanish started slowly during her rifle run, she found a groove and made a mad dash to run down R&R Racing’s Robert Wright, coming up just short.

Ultimately, the day belonged to Butler, who shot extremely well over the entire weekend, a fact not lost on the crowd of spectators and shooters present during the drawing. The last name pulled for the shoot-off, an audible moan was heard throughout the crowd, as each recognized what Butler’s presence meant for the competitors–game on.

“I’m glad I was in a position to get in the drawing when the match points concluded on Saturday,” Butler said. “(The shoot-off) went better than I could have dreamed. If you can stay smooth and not get ahead of yourself, you can cruise and still win.”

The 3-Gun Nation shoot-off is a format like no other, where competitors take on steel rifle, shotgun and pistol racks in a race to the stop plate. To level the playing field, contestants fire an FNH USA SCAR 16 equipped with a SureFire muzzle brake and Fast Attach suppressor, chambered in .223 Rem., a new competition variant of the 12-gauge SLP semi-automatic shotgun, and the new FNX-9 semi-automatic pistol in 9 mm. Each gun runs ammunition provided by Federal Premium, and the rifles are topped with Weaver or Leupold optics. Add in eight, or in the case of Blue Ridge 32, of the world’s fiercest 3-gunners, and the competition heats up.

The next stop on the FNH USA 3-Gun Nation Tour, Presented by SureFire, is during the FNH USA Midwest 3-Gun Championship, May 21-23 in Fayette, Missouri.

Multi-gun, or 3-gun, is a unique sport within the discipline known as practical shooting. Considered the fastest growing segment within the shooting sports, 3-gun challenges competitors with rifle, pistol and shotgun, maneuvering through unique stages of fire as fast as their skill will allow.

The National 3-Gun Association, through media properties “3-Gun Nation Television” and 3GunNation.com, was formed with one mission: to promote practical shooting by shining a light on amateur and professional shooters alike, as well as the guns, gear and lifestyle that define the high-octane sport of 3-gun competition. Bringing never-before-seen cash payouts to the table, 3-Gun Nation is quite simply changing the game. 3 Guns. One Champion.

For more information, visit www.3GunNation.com.