Competition shooting sports have been a tradition in America for a long time. Shotgun sports are one of this country's fastest-growing sports. Outside of clay target sports like trap and skeet, there are some practical and fun disciplines like 3-gun and IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation). Our family has competed in 3-gun and IPSC shotgun competitions nationwide and worldwide. We want to share some reasons why we use Winchester shotguns and some of the things we love about shooting sports.

Not many organized sports allow an entire family to compete. When our sons were young, they participated in swimming and wrestling, and we never really got to see them at events —volunteering as parents meant it was likely you never saw your child compete. So, as my husband and I had done since high school, we started taking part in shooting competitions with them.

While trap league might be just for a particular high school or club, the world of 3-gun is for everyone. Here, adults and youth compete against each other. Yes, there are junior and senior categories for the old and young, but you still can see how your scores stack up against everyone else in your division. You often are humbled by how much young people excel. It’s a great way for everyone to remember that despite differences in age and ability, we can all do similar things.

The potential to grab your gear and head to a match is only hindered by what you can find nearby, but with tools on the internet, you can search for events across the country and take the family. If you’re nervous about what that looks like, find a smaller club-level event to start out with. At shooting competitions, you will find a community of people who will welcome you and your family. We all want to see our shooting sports grow!

The safety and responsibility required to compete with a firearm also means that your family will have a head start on being responsible gun owners, capable of keeping themselves and those around them safe when handling firearms. Future generations of firearm owners are shaped by their parents and grandparents, and while using a gun safely is the most essential part of shooting sports, the time spent learning while enjoying something is a plus.

The numbers don’t lie. Clay target shooting is the safest high school sport. According to data collected by the National Federation of State High School Associations, no injuries were reported between 2022 and 2023. This makes clay target shooting sports not just great for learning responsibility, safety, and marksmanship but it’s safer than soccer, volleyball, basketball, or even baseball, which is the closest on the chart with 70,685 injuries, while clay target sports posted a big 'ol zero. 

While we run Winchester SX4 shotguns because they are light, fast-cycling, and easily modified to our liking for competition, there are other skills to learn when competing with a gun similar to what you might use for hunting or personal protection.

Using any firearm repeatedly for a sport means that you are going to know the ins and outs of that firearm like the back of your hand. You learn to manipulate the safety, load and unload, proper muzzle and trigger control, and how to clean the firearm.

Doing these operations hundreds of times makes them automatic. Doing them hundreds of times under the pressure of a timer, with range officers ready to stop you if you do anything unsafe, adds a layer of discipline that makes anyone who competes better able to mentally stay on track with what they are doing.

Multitasking serious skills while trying to hit targets or navigate a course of fire is where shooting sports build life skills. It’s not just about hitting targets, but everything it takes to get to that sliver of time where you are pulling the trigger. There’s a lot of room for growth, both in the athletic side of shooting sports and the mental game, and what you learn there can help you in other areas of life.

When your competition training and performance position you to have great muzzle awareness that translates to safety in hunting and building fast loading skills in tight spaces in competition, it can come in handy in the duck blind; it’s a win-win!  

Winchester firearms make sense for our family in terms of competition because learning how your car works (where the gas goes, checking tire pressure, and making sure you change the oil) is just like learning how firearms work and how to use them safely is a life skill. Winchester SX4 and the SXP shotguns feature two standard operating systems: Gas versus pump operation. Once you learn how those two types of shotguns work, you’ll better understand other shotguns.

For us, one of the big bonuses to using an SX4 is that we can customize them how we want. While you can just order a youth model stock with a shorter length of pull, you can also trim the buttstock shorter to adjust the length of pull on an SX4. We even customize the forearm on some of our guns because it’s easy to do with polymer. I prefer to add silicon carbide to the forearm for my competition gun to ensure it is extra grippy in hot, humid weather. This is also helpful in a waterfowl hunting scenario.

Aside from setting the SX4 up how we each like, we can also shoot the ammo we prefer. The Active Valve Gas System of the SX4 is fast and reliable, allowing us to shoot light target competition loads that make sense for our sport. Some shotguns require specific ammo to cycle the action, usually moving at a higher feet per second, which means more recoil. When we want to go fast, the Winchester AAs going 1,145 fps are not just fast, but readily available if we fly to a match and need extra ammo.

One last area that we prefer the SX4 for is slug accuracy. Slugs are a standard part of 3-gun competitions and sometimes match directors like to challenge people with this ammunition. We love the accuracy of the SX4s with slugs, and again, this is an area of competition that translates to real life. If you live in an area that requires straight-wall cartridges for hunting deer, odds are you use a shotgun with slugs. Having a gun that can shoot slugs accurately and also be loaded with birdshot for waterfowl and upland hunting is just one of those joys every gun owner should experience.

Don’t hesitate to grab your SX4 and head to a competition. You don’t need to have a super-spendy custom shotgun to have fun!