Setting new records with ELEY ammunition
Braden Peiser set the USA Shooting National record in 50 Meter 3 Position Rifle at the 2018 Junior Olympics held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. In Braden’s first relay, he beat the J3 (under 15 years old) National Record by 3 points. And just to prove it wasn’t luck, the following day, he beat his record by another 3 points! Thirteen year old Braden, of San Angelo, TX has been shooting since he could walk. He began shooting competitively in 4-H at the age of 8.
Braden has quite a long record of winning up to this point. Each year he’s won many 4-H competitions. In 2017, at the age of 12 he attended his first JO qualifier match where he qualified for both small-bore and precision air. The qualifier is also the USA Shooting State Championship. He won the gold medal for both events in the J3 age bracket. At the JOs he won two bronze medals in J3 age group. He won the 2017 4-H District 7 small-bore 3P rifle match for the Intermediate age bracket. He won both 3P Air and Precision Air at the 2017 Cavalier Cup, held in The Woodlands last summer. His rifle team (Texas Hill Country Shooting Team) qualified for the Army Marksmanship Unit National Championships at Ft. Benning, GA. The team won the AMU Small-bore 3P national championship and placed fourth in the AMU Precision Air national championship. All 3 of his teammates are girls, all 3 are seniors in high school and all 3 have been recruited to the TCU rifle team next year. At the JO Qualifier this year, Braden won the overall (20 years old and under) USA Shooting State Championship for Smallbore 3P and placed 3rd overall for precision air. He won the J3 age bracket for both events at that match. At the 2018 JOs he earned gold in both events (small-bore 3P and precision air) for the J3 age bracket, qualified for the finals (top 8 shooters at the event, 20 years old and under), placed 2nd in the finals and placed fourth overall (20 and under). After returning home from his Junior Olympic success, Braden has continued his training and competition winning a few 4-H matches and also winning the District 7 Intermediate Champion title again for 2018.
Shooting as a sport is highly encouraged in the youth of America, as can be seen by the well-established National 4-H Shooting Sports Program. There are 4-H shooting clubs all over the country in various states, and youth aged 8-18 are welcome to register and learn. Learning the art of marksmanship and safe handling of firearms gives the youngsters something productive and fun to learn while encouraging healthy competition. Further, they develop essential life skills and conservation ethics. As they grow up, they learn to respect the use of firearms and also laws related to them like the texas concealed carry gun laws and similar laws in other states. A program like this aims to hone children and make them productive and respectable citizens of the country.
Braden shoots ELEY ammunition. According to his dad, “That did not happen by chance. Braden is young, but he reads, studies and researches everything about his shooting. Even before we knew about the ELEY test facility being in Winters, he decided that he wanted to shoot ELEY ammo. First of all, Kristen Hemphill shoots ELEY. Seeing the person he looks up to for all things related to shooting using ELEY, made him very interested in ELEY. But even then, he watched video after video of Olympic matches, Pan Am matches and World Cup matches on the internet. When he watched those videos and most of the top-notch shooters were using ELEY, Braden decided that ELEY was the ammo he wanted to shoot. And when we did discover the ELEY test facility and Killough Shooting Sports, ELEY tested as well as we had hoped. We feel extremely lucky that we are only 45 minutes away! The ELEY test facility is GREAT! Everyone there has always been good to us…especially Dan! We think of the ELEY test range as a tool that helps Braden just as much as the rifle he is shooting or the gear that he is using.”
Braden’s dad is extremely proud of his son’s accomplishments, “As proud as I am of his ability to shoot well, I am even more proud of him as a person. I am proud of his integrity, his manners, his honesty, loyalty, modesty, work ethic…the list goes on and on. You will never catch him bragging when he wins, but he will be the first to congratulate the winner if he loses. If he is having a bad match or practice, he doesn’t get upset. He just tries to figure out what he needs to work on. He is an amazing person for any age, but especially for a 13 year old.”
Where’s Braden going from here? He’s met his goal for 2018 of making it to the finals in a national match. Braden’s sights are on making the USA Junior National Team in 2019. Eventually, he plans to shoot in college and somewhere along the way, make the Olympic team and shoot in the Olympics.
ELEY, the leading British engineering company, was established in 1828 and is globally recognised as the premier manufacturer of .22LR Rimfire ammunition. The highly qualified team based at our UK production facility includes internationally recognised specialists in internal and external ballistics, powder dynamics, and metrology. The ELEY product range includes ELEY tenex, the world’s most successful .22LR competition cartridge.
For further press information please contact:
