It is said that competition is the life of trade. It is equally true that competition is the life of marksmanship. Not only does the universal drive to excel spur us to prove our shooting to be better than the next man’s, but contests bring us into contact with the best men in the field, show us what our standards of performance must be, and test new developments in equipment and technique.

The man who works alone, or who completes a standard training program, may develop a useful degree of skill, but he will be most unlikely to discover more than about 50 percent of his potential unless he competes regularly and formally with his peers. For this reason, any sportsman’s association or gun club is remiss unless it conducts regular local matches for its members.

– Jeff Cooper