James Austin Guns Down 2nd Straight USPSA Area 1 Revolver Title

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — Washington State’s James Austin of Fox Island shot his way to the Revolver division winner’s circle for the second year in a row at the U.S. Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) Area 1 Regional Handgun Championship this past weekend.

Austin won six of the 11 stages and held the lead for the entire match to finish with a final score of 1190.1892, outpacing runner-up Bret Draughn of Peoria, Ariz., by more than 95 points.

This is the fourth time Austin has won the title since 2003.

“Jim shot a great match and never finished below fourth on any stage. He showed the kind of consistency that every shooter needs to win, which probably explains why he’s won this match four of the last eight years,” said Michael Voigt, president of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association.

Draughn, who never came within fewer than nine points of Austin, took second by winning four stages in the match and posting a final score of 1094.8765. Third place went to Roger Edington of Renton, Wash., with a final score of 948.4072.

Kal Kirby of Soda Springs, Idaho, and Jerry Vanderwerf of Scappoose, Ore., rounded out the top five finishing fourth and fifth with scores of 904.1425 and 855.807 respectively.

In the Seniors category for shooters over 55, Roger Mousley of Draper, Utah, took top honors and finished sixth overall with his final score of 822.0419.

The match, which was held June 24-27 at the South East Idaho Practical Shooters range in Idaho Falls, Idaho, drew 325 top shooters.

Area 1 is one of the eight USPSA shooting regions in the country and is made up of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, but shooters from 12 other states, as well as Canada, competed for the championship title in USPSA’s Open, Limited, Limited-10, Production, Revolver and Single Stack divisions.

The sport of Practical Shooting was formally established in 1976 but traces its roots back to the 1950’s and the quick draw “leather slap” competitions that grew out of America’s love affair with the TV westerns of that era.

Today the sport boasts more than 19,000 shooters and represents the upper echelon of the shooting sports with many of its top competitors actively training law enforcement and military units on the shooting techniques and equipment developed in competition.

For full match results, or information on the sport of practical shooting, visit www.USPSA.org or follow @USPSA_Shooting on Twitter.