This is the story of Jerry Miculek, the world's fastest shooter.
If you love firearms and competitive shooting, you have probably heard the name Jerry Miculek. He has often been dubbed the "fastest shooter in the world." Jerry holds multiple world records for speed shooting and multiple national and world titles in just about every aspect of competitive shooting one can dream up.
Miculek is as proficient revolver or handgun as he is a shotgun or a rifle. If you have ever seen his videos on his popular YouTube firearms channel, you know this guy is one talented shooter. It's not often that someone has the skills for both speed and accuracy like Jerry has.
But how does one become a professional shooter and get a job where they get up and shoot guns all day every day? Well, it wasn't easy. At one time he was an average Joe with a rather ordinary job. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to get to the top of the shooting world. This is his story.
Early life, career and influences.
The young Miculek grew up in southern Louisiana. The son of two Texas farmers, he was the middle child of five boys, all of whom loved the outdoors. Jerry shares his first name with his father because they were born on the same day. He also credits his parents for instilling his work ethic. Like many people who grow up in that part of Louisiana, Jerry spent many of his early years in the swamps and bayous hunting and fishing with his siblings. This also helped foster an interest in shooting.
He has cited seeing law enforcement officers carrying revolvers as being an early influence in his interest in wheel guns. Legendary shooters like lawman and author Bill Jordan and early long range revolver and speed shooting exhibitionist Ed McGivern helped stoke an early interest in competitive and exhibition shooting. The young Miculek cut his teeth early in firearms, mostly shotguns and handguns like the .32 ACP CZ 27, a souvenir brought back from World War II by his father. In those early years, he spent much of his time practicing shooting in a local town dump.
Micuelk graduated a trade school in 1974 and worked a few jobs as a machinist before going to work as a mechanic for a chemical plant in 1975. While he said he enjoyed the work, he also didn't find it personally or financially rewarding. He lived for the weekends when he could take off to shoot at his next competition.
Like many people, he started shooting this competitions for fun, but as Jerry's skills increased, he started shooting more competitions than his vacation time would allow. He soon realized he needed more time away from work if he truly wanted to pursue a dream of shooting for a living. In 1989, he left his regular full-time job to pursue high speed shooting as a career.
Jerry Miculek's family.
It probably shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that Jerry met his wife Kay Clark Miculek in a gun shop. Jerry had started to shoot competitively with James Clark Jr, the son of famous gunsmith James Clark Sr. Miculek was shooting multi-gun and team events with James Jr. and found himself often in Northern Lousiana where the Clark family lived. One day Miculek wandered into the Clark family gun shop where he met Kay working behind the counter. As it turns out, she was also an accomplished competitive shooter. Her list of records is equally impressive, having earned gold medals in the ISPC US Handgun Championship in 1993 and 1996. She also has two silver medals and one bronze in the same competition.
"Kinda caught my eye, a lady who likes guns, that's a good thing," Miculek recalled in a video interview.
A few years later the two were married and in 1995, the couple had a daughter, Lena Miculek, who began travelling to shooting competitions as a toddler. Lena is now heavily involved in the shooting sports industry too after having started competing at only eight years old. Jerry regularly says that family is far more important than all the shooting accolades.
Jerry also says he never tried to force an interest in shooting onto Lena. Instead, he let her develop the interest and drive to get into it on her own. Apparently competitiveness is a Miculek family trait because now she too is a full-time professional shooter for Sig Sauer and regularly appears alongside her father in his videos.
"I wanted to help her pursue it, but that's one of those things as a father if you try to make something happen, you know the story about leading a horse to water, which you can't," Jerry said in an interview.
Becoming a professional shooter and career accomplishments.
In the early days of his shooting career, Miculek often found himself at a disadvantage in competition. His fellow competitors were often using faster semi-automatic handguns that had a distinct advantage over typical revolver speed. Jerry says this simply inspired him to train harder to be faster than ever before.
As time went on, Miculek racked up hundreds of titles in a many different shooting disciplines and it led to a bevy of sponsorships that allowed him to pursue shooting as his new full-time career. The fact he was beating competitors with a revolver caught the attention of Smith & Wesson and they became one of the first brands to give him a job. Today he's sponsored by huge industry names like Vortex, Mossberg, Hornady, Magpul, Hi Viz, Fiocchi and more.
In truth, the man's competitive shooting accomplishments could fill a book. It's something he's quick to brush off too because he tries to erase all memory of his world title wins in competition because he believes it gives him an edge.
"I don't want to bring it with me to a match because then you have an expectation, and when you have an expectation of a performance, that's a huge anchor you have to pull to every stage," Miculek said in a video interview.
While he may be humble about his accomplishments, we will tell you about them. For one, he won's four gold medals in the International Practical Shooting Confederation's IPSC Handgun world shoot. Twice for revolver in 2002 and 2005 and in 2005 and 2011 for the senior revolver categories. He also won silver in revolver in 2011. In 2009, he won the IPSC US Handgun championship in revolver. He also has two IPSC Rifle World shoot gold medals in 2017 and 2019. He won a shotgun gold medal in 2021.
He was American Handgunner World Shoot-Off Champion three times, in 1997, 2007 and 2011 and a seven-time United States Practical Shooting Association champion in 3-gun and a four-time National Champion in USPSA multigun.He's a two-time 2nd Chance Bowling Pin Champion and a three time Masters International Long Gun Champion. Competitions have taken this world champion shooter all over the planet.
Miculek has been champion of the International Defensive Service Pistol league 10 times and is a twenty-one time International Revolver Champion. Keep in mind that this is not even a full list. These are just some of the top accomplishments. There is a reason that some call him the greatest shooter of all time.
World Records
Jerry Miculek's accomplishments are not limited simply to a list of competitive shooting titles. In an effort to keep things interesting, he's also made it a point to try and break many speed shooting records. Three of his most notable ones were all set on the same day before a crowd on September 11, 1999. On that day. Using a Smith & Wesson Model 625 revolver, he managed to fire six shots, reload and fire another six shots in just 2.99 seconds. He also fired eight shots on a single target using an S&W 627 in just one second and eight shots from a revolver on four targets in just 1.06 seconds.
Miculek has said many times he likes to keep things interesting and that's why he's pursued plenty of other interesting records over the years using a plethora of different firearms. In 2013, he fired nine shots on five targets in just 2.95 seconds with a massive Barrett M107 anti-material rifle chambered in .50 BMG. He also holds the speed record for five shots from a pistol chambered in .50 Action Express. He managed to set that number at just 0.82 seconds using a stock semi-auto Desert Eagle handgun in 2013.
In 2014, Miculek set a dual wield record with two AR-15s, putting 19 shots on five targets in just three seconds. Records like that have led the Internet to joke that Jerry's trigger finger is faster than a full auto firearm. While he is a speedy shooter, he's also accurate. He nailed a 1000-yard shot with a shoulder-fired M 107 in just 2.10 seconds, starting the rifle from a low ready position. Most people would be hard-pressed to hit that shot in an afternoon of shooting from a steady rest!
He also hit another target at 1,000 yards with a 9mm revolver in 2014 and he also holds a record for hitting a target with a .357 Magnum revolver at 200 yards, while holding the gun upside down and using his little finger to work the trigger!
The great thing is, many of Miculek's world records have been recorded for TV programs on the Outdoor Channel, his YouTube channel and plenty of other stations for people to replay endlessly. It's a good thing too. Many of these records would be simply unbelievable, but the man has the evidence to back these claims up!
Jerry Miculek today.
Even at 66 years old, Miculek is still driven to compete and practices shooting every day at the shooting range at his home. His early morning work ethic something that he credits to his parents. He also continues to be a spokesman and pro team member for a number of shooting brands. He has a number of irons in the fire. He also sells signature shooting gear on his website: www.miculek.com.
When he isn't training for his next big competition or working on guns in his shop, he's often creating new and original content for his extremely popular YouTube channel, which has over one million subscribers.
The channel is a fun mixture of highlights of his past accomplishments, and videos of his latest ones. In addition to firearms and ammo factory tours, he gives practical tips on form, firearms safety and concealed carry. It feels like the perfect balance of education and entertainment. Jerry says he hopes to continue growing the channel and eventually pass it to his daughter one day.
One thing is for sure, Jerry Miculek has thoroughly cemented his place in the pages of competitive and trick shooting history. We thoroughly look forward to seeing what his next amazing shooting feat will be!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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