On target: petroleum lab worker a national shooting champion
Precision fires are common at Yuma Proving Ground, the Army’s busiest test center, but are usually seen on the vast ranges, not the petroleum lab.
For physical scientist Larry Nelson, however, being right-ontarget has been a nearly lifelong pursuit.
Nelson, you see, is a competition shooter, proficient in all manner of firearms.
“I’ve been shooting competitively since I was 13 years old,” he explained. “My dad saw a shooting match on ESPN called the Chevy Truck Sportsman’s Team Challenge. He thought it was the coolest thing ever, and called to find out where or when he could shoot this thing: they said, ‘we don’t have one on your side of the country, how would you like to run one?’”
His dad did so, giving young Nelson and his friends the chance to hone their skills and meet multiple famous sports shooters like twotime Olympic gold medalist Lones Wigger. In high school, he worked at the Boy Scouts’ Camp Geronimo in Payson, Ariz. during summer breaks, running one of their rifle ranges. Among other competition victories, he holds a national junior championship record for black powder shooting he received when he was 15 years old.
“It’ll never be broken,” he said with a smile. “They no longer hold that match.”
He was good enough to receive a NCAA shooting scholarship at Jacksonville State University, where he pursued degrees in molecular biology and biochemistry. His demanding studies were punctuated by almost constant practicing and competitions.
“In college you practice about four days a week for three hours a day, then two matches every weekend.”
In 2005, his team were runners up to the Army Academy in one of the two NCAA Championships he participated in.
“That was actually the tightest competition that has ever happened in NCAA. Until that point, typically the winner was 10-20 points apart from everyone else: that year the spread between first and fourth place was one point each.”
He also competed in the Junior Olympic Championships twice, placing in the top 15 both times, along with four appearances in the USA Shooting National
Championships.
Nelson says he has never been much of a hunter. He practices at Yuma’s Adair Range, but not with the same frequency he did in his college days.
“You have to do it every day if you want to be at the tip-tip top. If you want to be competitive, once you attain a certain level of proficiency you need to polish off the rust and refresh the skill, not keep developing it.”
As for advice for other shooters interested in improving their marksmanship, Nelson offers this:
“The biggest thing that everyone forgets to do is natural point of aim. The rifle wants to naturally point somewhere: if you adjust your body so that the rifle points where you want it, you don’t fight your body as much to make accurate shots.”