The Growing Popularity of 3-Gun Competitions

By Jacki Billings

A 3-Gun shooter competing during an event in 2016. (Photo: 3-Gun Nation via Facebook)
3-Gun offers gun owners a means to develop and hone shooting skills through the use of three platforms: rifle, shotgun and pistol. The dynamic sport pushes participants to creatively problem solve through stages stacked with obstacles and targets. With a shorter tenure in the shooting world than other competitions, 3-Gun begs the question what’s the history and why is it so appealing?
The Origin Story
3-Gun’s history begins in the early 1980s when Soldier of Fortune magazine ran an ad calling for the best shooters to compete for the title of best “all around marksman in the world.” The competition would test their ability with pistols, rifles and shotguns. In all, 150 competitors duked it out.
Bill Rogers, who took second in some of the earlier events, told Guns.com the Soldier of Fortune matches were the most inventive and creative competitions at that time, drawing in shooters who really wanted to see what they were made of.
“They were interesting matches,” Rogers said. “When you got to the last target there was a Russian dummy in a Russian uniform. He was lying on the ground and he had a Tokarev pistol in his

Source: Guns.com