County marksmen are world class

POLSON - Three of the world's best shooters have called Lake County their home and their talent evident in the middle of July during the World FITASC Championships held in Laterina, Italy.

Former state senator Mike Taylor had his U.S. supervet team take first place along with an individual championship in the supervet age category.

Taylor hit 178 out of 200 clay targets,

Andy Duffy and John Hackethorn, both of Polson, also competed in the world championships.

It wasn't the first rodeo for either one as Duffy has three national shooting championships under his belt and Hackethorn has one.

"I do it so much I don't really get stage fright," Duffy said. "It was a thrill to step up on the podium when you're done."

Duffy tied for 12th in the event in a field of more than a 1,100 people. Duffy was also a member of the U.S. senior team that took home a gold medal as well.

FITASC is a shooting sport that employs a specially shaped "batous," Unlike a sporting clay, the batous isn't as Frisbee-like, meaning that it travels more on an arc as opposed to a straight line. It can also be launched at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. or as slow as 10-15 m.p.h.

"Sporting clays are more kind of pedestrian," Duffy said. "It's a little repetitive."

FITASC doesn't keep launching targets from the same location, meaning that not only do the competitors have to adjust to the varying speeds, but they also don't get numerous tries from the same launcher to learn the trajectory of the object.

"You walk to every shooting station and carry

everything on your back," Hackethorn said. "It's set up like a hunting situation."

The terrain for these shooting stations is usually reflective of the area, Duffy said.

And the sport is constantly getting harder, as courses find new ways to challenge the competitors and keep them off-balance, Hackethorn said.

"If we could shoot the targets we shot at 10 years ago, we could all shoot 100 targets easy," Hackethorn said.

Thirty-five countries were part of the world championships.

"FITASC is a sport that has total world participation," Hackethorn said.

And don't think that it's all about shooting during the world championships. The three got to check out the local experience as Laterina was just three hours from Rome.

"I don't go to a country just for shooting," Duffy said. "The food was phenomenal."

With so much international competition, traveling also provided the opportunity to meet people from different cultures.

"Going overseas is a good time," Hackethorn said. "You get to meet people from all over the world."

But how did all three get to Italy? Well, they thanked one another for that. The three have a competitive spirit that only serves to drive them to do better on the national and international stage.

"I'm fortunate to have good shooters to practice with," Taylor said.

Not only do they practice with one another, but they find themselves facing off against one another in events.

"If you went to a shoot without a lot of good shots, it doesn't help you," Duffy said.

The good thing about these shooting buddies is that if you beat one of them, you usually get more than bragging rights.

"You know that if you beat them, you've got a good chance of winning," Hackethorn said.

The shooting facilities at Big Sky Shooting Clays just outside of Polson also provided the three with an excellent advantage.

"Most of our success is having a place to practice," Hackethorn said.

All three will continue to bring a bit of Lake County marksmanship to the rest of the world.