Virginia's Jarrett Takes STEEL CHALLENGE Opener

PIRU, Calif. — On a day when the greatest shooters in the world could seemingly do nothing right, Virginia’s Todd Jarrett proved that sometimes victory comes from just hanging on.

On Friday, Jarrett captured the Limited Gun world championship at the STEEL CHALLENGE, the Superbowl of handgun competition. There are numerous categories of shooting at the event to accommodate the various competition disciplines. The two most closely watched categories — and arguably most prestigious — are Limited, for iron-sighted guns, and Open, where anything goes and the fastest time will emerge. Most of the "big dogs" shoot both Limited and Open.

"Man, I’m happy to have the win," said Jarrett after his victory, "but I could kick myself for shooting so poorly."

Jarrett edged out one of the sport’s true legends, Rob Leatham, twice overall winner of the Challenge, and revolver master Jerry Miculek as the three struggled to come up with four consistent runs on the seven courses of steel plates that make up the STEEL CHALLENGE. The task was made more difficult by the shifting lighting conditions, varying between harsh, washed-out full sun and a flat light under cloud cover, making it even harder to pick up the white steel targets.

The three masters dueled all day, each pulling out amazing individual runs but lacking the consistency to put the match away. On Smoke & Hope, which features four 18x24-inch steel rectangles and one 12-inch circular stop plate, two of Leatham’s five-shot runs with his Springfield Armory .40 S&W dipped into the sub two-second range. Perennial revolver world champion Miculek, shooting a Smith & Wesson Performance Center revolver, ran alongside — and often ahead — of the semi-autos.

In the end, it was Jarrett, shooting a Para-Ordnance, who prevailed. Late in the afternoon Jarrett delivered four runs on Five To Go — four 10-inch plates and one 12-inch stop plate at distances from 7 to 18 yards in the mid 2.5 second range…the fastest ever for an iron-sighted gun. That put the match out of reach.

"We couldn’t be more excited," said Para-Ordance marketing director Kerby Smith. "For us, Limited is the big win, because Todd won with a Para that anyone can buy off the shelf."

"Tomorrow’s another day," said Jarrett, who has won virtually every other world and national practical pistol title.

And a harder day. In Open, which will yield the overall winner, Jarrett will have to contend with not only Leatham, last year’s winner, and Miculek, but Doug Koenig a Steel Challenge specialist and the ESPN Great Outdoors Games gold medallist.

This year’s Steel Challenge has drawn shooters from 35 states and numerous foreign countries to compete for the title of fastest gun alive.

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