“Isn’t it time to go yet, Dad?” queried a small voice. “Well, honey, Daddy and Shane are going to go for a national record now. If we break the record, we’ll have shot better than anyone did before. Cool, huh? It won’t take long,” replied U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nick Mowrer. He and Shane Barnart, teammates and friends, stood waiting for the range to go hot before taking their shots at the 50-yard any sight national records at the 2024 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Prone Championships at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. And so it was that young Janiece Mowrer got to see her father set the record for active service members, while his friend Barnhart set it for military veterans.
That moment was a fitting capstone for the Smallbore Rifle Prone portion of the NRA National Matches, which our organization has conducted since 1919. Held from July 28 through August 1, 2024, the Smallbore Rifle Prone Nationals featured shooters young and old, military and civilian, who were competing … mostly against themselves and their previous scores. This was particularly true in Mowrer’s case, given that it was his first time shooting Smallbore Prone for a chance to win the NRA’s biggest Smallbore Prone title.
Of course, Mowrer is a two-time Olympian, so it was little surprise when he walked away as the 2024 NRA National Smallbore Prone champion with a score of 6395-550X. His teammate Shane Barnhart (who won the aggregate title last year) came in second, just one point behind Mowrer with 6394-525X. Stephen R. Angeli, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, was third with a score of 6394-507X, also landing him High Senior.
Mowrer also took the Smallbore Prone Any Sights aggregate title with a score of 3199-295X. As for the Smallbore Prone Metallic Sights aggregate, the title went to Angeli, who posted a score of 3198-267X.
Megan Hilbish, of Emporia, Kansas, earned her High Collegiate shooter title with a score of 6385-463X. Despite her youth, Hilbish is already a shooting instructor, as well as executive director of the Kansas State Rifle & Pistol Association. She, like all of the women shooters at the NRA Smallbore Rifle Prone championships, made the Randle Team—when women compete in the shooting sports, women win!
Speaking of winning women, Deena Wigger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, secured High Woman with a score of 6393-491X. On the firing line, her signature understated style was evident as the heat and humidity began to collapse into a thunderstorm. “It’s a little hard to see because it’s dark,” she mused, “but the wind’s okay.” Wigger, daughter of shooting legend Lones Wigger, was gracious enough to not make this writer feel stupid for having not realized that she was from that Wigger family, saying only that she’d been shooting her whole life with her father.
In fact, there was much about the Smallbore Prone National Matches that felt like an ode to the father/daughter relationship. U.S. Army Capt. Sarah Beard, who took High Woman on day one of the matches, said, “I got started shooting with my dad—who’s right here with me today, coaching—and he took me to my first NRA Nationals in college.” Now an Olympic alternate on the USA Shooting team, Beard’s shooting career is still on the rise.
At the 2024 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Prone Championships awards ceremony, master of ceremonies Brig. Gen. Jack Hagan remarked, “Some of you came to win a national championship. Some came to compete in your discipline. Some just came to shoot, but all of you came for the experience of being with old friends, making new ones, smelling the gunpowder in the morning and the Hoppes No. 9 in the afternoon. I challenge you to come back. I challenge you to bring another shooter with you. And third, most importantly, I challenge you to bring a junior shooter with you.”
And what of little Janiece Mowrer? She may not have shot for a title in the Smallbore Prone matches, but she did earn an accolade at the awards ceremony: Youngest Cannoneer, which was commemorated with a plaque to put on her bicycle’s basket. She won’t be eligible to compete for the prize table for a few more years, but those who did win took home a bumper crop of prizes. Ruger—the Title Sponsor of the 2024 NRA National Matches and Main Sponsor of the NRA Competitive Shooting Division—generously donated 15 firearms to the competitors’ prize tables at all three national championship phases this summer.
2024 NRA NATIONAL SMALLBORE RIFLE PRONE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
You can see the full results of the 2024 NRA National Smallbore Rifle Championships held at Camp Atterbury this summer by heading to the NRA Competitive Shooting Division website.
