Atkinson Wins Starlight 3-Gun Championship

Watch the video above, featuring the different stages at this year's Starlight 3-Gun Championship. 

Nick Atkinson of Texas has won the inaugural Starlight 3-Gun Championship presented by Timney Triggers. Held concurrently with the NRA World Shooting Championship presented by Magpul, the two events were headliners at the very first NRA Freedom Weekend, awarding a combined $500,000 in cash and product divided among professional and amateur competitive shooters.

Atkinson won the first Timney Cup with a final time of 191.72, nearly 13 seconds faster than the rest of the pack. His top prizes included the $5,000 winner-take-all Sig Sauer Championship Challenge and $15,000 for being the first champion to have their name engraved on the Timney Cup. Not a bad prize haul for the collegiate golfer turned 3-gunner.

Rounding out the top five were B.J. Norris in second place with a score of 204.43, Kyle Simank in third with a score of 205.39, Todd Jarrett in fourth with a score of 217.10, and Craig Outzen in fifth with a score of 226.20.

Lena Miculek was High Lady, with a score of 243.33. Wyatt Gibson was High Junior, his score of 233.83 was high enough for seventh place, and a spot in the top ten overall. 

The Starlight 3-Gun Championship is the evolution of the previous premier nighttime 3-Gun event, the Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun Invitational (M3GI).

For three years, invited shooters traveled to the M3GI in the high desert outside Bend, Oregon to compete at night in stages based around laser sights and weapon mounted lights. The event grew to the point where Crimson Trace had to reluctantly end the event. In stepped Jim Shepherd of the Shooting Wire and his partners, taking the M3GI concept and turning it into the Starlight 3-Gun Championship.

The Sig Sauer Championship stage was a bonus stage unique to Starlight, where the top five shooters made fast runs with three different SIG guns. This was a special stage designed by match director Chuck Anderson, to allow concentration on running the guns, rather than making long runs or negotiating complicated courses of fire.