Robert became an active shooter in the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) after getting into long range hunting and shooting competitions in 2009.  He also shoots extreme long range to prepare for King of 2 Mile matches, which he won in 2018 and placed second in 2019.

Robert, tell me a little bit about yourself.

I was born and raised in rural Louisiana and grew up around guns and hunting. My family was generally shotgun shooters and hunters, so I didn’t get much experience with rifles until I sought after them myself.

I started with rimfire and grew a passion for shooting things further than normal. I placed last year in the top 10 of the PRS series and have taken two podium finishes at King of 2 Miles the last two years — in 2018 taking first and 2019 second. I’ve had multiple wins in the regional series and have placed top 10 in numerous national level competitions.

Outside of shooting I am a family man, with three awesome kids, that my wife and I love to take fishing and play music together.

What age were you when you first started shooting?

It was a very young age. I can’t remember not being around shooting or guns. I started out with a 22 rifle and a 410 shotgun, before I finally got my own 22 in grade school, which was a Ruger 10/22 that I saved up for.

My grandpa was a well-respected squirrel hunter and he got me into that, but he always used a shotgun. When the leaves were off the trees, he would let me go with him and bring my 22, because I always wanted to shoot the squirrels at the very top of the trees.

Getting better with a rifle naturally put me in a position to start deer hunting and that really grew my long range shooting interest. When I finally upgraded to a 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, it was able to take me a lot further than the 22 I was used to.

Who introduced you to shooting?

My dad and uncle got me into shooting but I didn’t have anyone around to get me into competition. After progressing and getting a job to afford my own rifle, my goal was to get better and that’s how I found competition.

Locally, I only had two types of competition — benchrest and sniper matches — but both were outside my level of comprehension, however they helped grow my passion.

Terry Cross and Murry Crowe introduced me to competition and greatly molded my initial efforts jumping into matches. Without those two awesome people I wouldn’t be talking with you all right now.

What’s been the most valuable lesson you have learned from shooting?

To give respect to the firearm and the game you’re hunting. We all have a responsibility to treat guns with respect and to preserve our hunting rights, by being respectful of the land and game we are provided with.

What is your specialty and what led you to choose that?

I personally prefer field matches and the practical sides of precision rifle. Hunting and sniper style matches are always disciplines of unknowns and you must be prepared to take a situation and make a good shot with what you have. It is a problem-solving game and even though I like the accuracy and precision of bullseye-style shooting, the practical elements really tune you up for what you can encounter when hunting, or if you work within a tactical environment.

How do you prepare for a competition?

I don’t get to practice much, so what I do is make sure my rifle is as prepared as it can be. I want to go out and check my zero and muzzle velocities as often as I can, from multiple positions and conditions to see what a realistic average will be.

When I get to the match, I want to watch every stage and every shot. I shoot matches as my practice and that helps with any kind of pressure that you will face in a match.

When the opportunity comes up to train with friends or team mates I always jump on it, but most of the time there are too many matches or life events that prevent us from doing so. I feel it’s important when starting out, but after you get some experience and you gain muscle memory, you just need to stay sharp and keep your gear in check.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in shooting competitively?

Get the best gear you can afford but don’t worry about getting what all the professionals use. Spend the first few times getting your rifle setup correctly. Make sure it fits you the best it can and work on your zeros and shooting paper at 100 yds to know your capabilities.

Once you get the hang of that, try to find a solid shooting partner to learn from or go take a class. Spend time getting your gear right, so you can focus on you. Don’t start out with a barrel burner, get a 6.5 Creedmoor or 308 and go shoot 500 rounds or so before taking a class. A rifle with decent scope, along with bipod and Game Changer bag will be all you need to go a long way.

Tell us about your competition set up.

I shoot rifles built by GA Precision and I stick to the same gear from rifle to rifle. I use 1–3 models of stocks by Manners Stocks and the Elite Tactical line of Bushnell scopes. For competition I shoot a 6mm GT or a 6mm Creedmoor, but most of my shooting is done with a 6.5 Creedmoor or 308, to train recoil management and get longer barrel life. This also allows me to keep my match guns in tip-top shape.

Hornady is pretty much the only bullets, brass and ammo I use. I handload for 95% of all my two-day matches and out with, use their Match line of ammunition, plus for some one-day matches as well. 6mm seems to work best for most matches but a 6.5 is still very capable.

What has been your greatest achievement?

The King of 2 Miles — I had never shot it before, so to go out and win by double the points was pretty cool. What was even cooler to me was to go out the next year and take a close second. No other winner had gone back and even made the final before, much less almost do it again, so that was pretty special for me.

What are your goals for the future?

To always keep growing as a rifleman. That doesn’t always mean as a competitor, as I want to be very well rounded.

I enjoy competitions and they remain a huge focus, but I also want to shoot large magnums and light hunting rifles well, which means being a student of the fundamentals and keeping yourself in check.

I also try to do whatever I can to get more people into the sport and help anyone who may be struggling to grow as a shooter. If not for thespecial people I stumbled on along the way, I would not have grown. If those people never get help, they are likely to fight every second along the way. We owe it to the next guy to help them and try to make their journey easier. It will always come back around.

How long have you been a Hornady shooter?

That’s hard to say. I’ve always been a huge Hornady fan since I got into shooting. It was just one of the brands that always worked and had products for all levels. It was pretty much my go-to and I used to look for their products specifically.

That naturally evolved into using their products in competition because I knew I could trust them — that trust came from thousands of rounds plinking, practice, and hunting. Their products have only gotten better since then, but I remember early on not being able to outshoot them.

Tell us a little about the hunting you do.

I love western hunting, but I love hunting in the thick swamps at home as well. I enjoy taking deer with handguns, rifles, bows, and shotguns. Predator hunting is great for the off-season and I hunt a lot at night with thermal and night vision — Hornady’s 60gr V-MAX works wonders for that!

For deer, I like a 460 Smith & Wesson as my handgun cartridge and a 6/6.5 Creedmoor or 308 as my eastern rifle. I also like the 6.5 PRC for western hunting.

Do you teach?

I love to teach and that’s probably my favorite part of the whole game. I love seeing people’s faces when something “clicks”. I don’t teach professionally but I’m always open to help someone out at the range or answer questions over phone or the internet. If someone asks me to go out with them to a match or a range day, I jump at the opportunity, as that’s some of the best learning I can get. You always pick something up when going over the basics for someone new.