Mourning Another Loss – Shooting Star Tom Knapp Has Passed Away

Tom Knapp. Photo Credit: CZ USA

Word of the passing of a good man is always hard to take. When that good man isn’t just a good man, he’s a legendary figure in your world, it’s tough. For those of us fortunate enough to know shooting legend Tom Knapp, word of his passing on Friday hit us hard.

For decades, Knapp has entertained and amazed audiences with his abilities with shotguns, rifles and handguns. But his abilities with a shotgun were stunning. From world records for breaking ten (10) hand tossed clay targets to upside down, over-the-head breaks on clays, Knapp seemed never to be bothered by anything as he laughed, talked and shot his way through thousands of shooting exhibitions.

It’s safe to say that Knapp resurrected exhibition shooting. He was quite the showman, and had the ability to make ridiculously complicated shots look simple. He also worked to make shotgun shooting attractive to kids and absolutely got me interested in shotgunning as sport.

To me, Knapp will always be remembered for his television shot with a punt gun. Punts, if you aren’t familiar with them, were the oversized shotguns used by commercial duck hunters in less enlightened times. They were oversized to the point of being more artillery piece than hunting gun.

Knapp set up a punt gun and prepared to let it go at what seemed to be a wall of clay targets, telling the audience he wasn’t really certain what would happen. Then he pulled the lanyard and it looked like all hell had broken loose. Between smoke, fire and flying clay fragments, it looked as if the wall of clays had been bombed.

I’ll never forget Tom’s exclamation “Oh my goodness”. That’s what I remember best about Knapp – the fact he never seemed overly-excited or less than gentlemanly with anyone. During his time with Benelli, he teamed with a young exhibition shooter named Tim Bradley. They made a great team, not just because they complimented each, but they because they were obviously friends.

For Shooting USA’s Jim Scoutten, the best Knapp memory came early in their two-plus decades of association. “Tom started with us back in the American Shooter days,” Scoutten recalled, “replacing another pro shot-gunner who had reached the limit of his skills. Tom’s most famous shot, that got him his job with Benelli, was shooting 9 hand thrown clays. The first time he tried it, he broke all 9 cleanly and surprised even himself.”

“It became a regular shot in his exhibitions. But taking his world record to ten clays was a different challenge, that he finally got at a small range we borrowed in Tennessee.”

At that that point, Scoutten said, things changed. “That range had a disagreeable neighbor who called in the sheriff’s deputies,” Scoutten said, “complaining she had been hearing full-auto fire. She hadn’t. It was Tom firing ten very fast shots, over and over, until he got ten clays clean. He was absolutely going to do it that day, and he did.”

With the exception of that one disagreeable neighbor, Knapp was one of the shooting sports’ best ambassadors, and not just for his considerable shooting skills. Knapp, it seemed, was friends with everyone.

And every one of his friends is sad to see him go.

Jim Shepherd is the Editor and Publisher of the The Outdoor Wire Digital Network and The Shooting Wire.
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