Clay Target Nation, April 2019

B ob Shuley is one of those shooters you can walk past at a skeet tournament 28 WWW NSSA NSCA ORG APRIL 2019 and not realize youve just passed a legend There is nothing about his demeanor to suggest the accomplishments on his resume or to indicate that he was once a boy wonder who got the entire worlds attention and set more records than he can remember In 1962 there was no more prestigious magazine than LIFE at that time an over sized weekly publication known for its outstanding photography and there was no more successful young shooter than the one LIFE profiled in its November 9 1962 issue Bob Shuley whom they proclaimed the Boy Gun Wonder His gun a blur of motion Bob follows through after a perfect shot With his mousetrap reflexes he can sight on a bird before it has flown very far gaining an edge on competitors In this meet he faced 240 grown men missed only two pigeons out of 400 and beat them all The art of blowing up clay pigeons with a shotgun comes naturally to 16 year old Bob Shuley One would have to conclude that his success was a result of uncanny natural talent and personal discipline learned in military school He rarely practiced skeet he was busy maintaining an A average at St Johns Military Academy in Wisconsin and traveling regularly to shoots around the country When it was time to compete he just grabbed his gun hopped in the car with his dad and went to the tournament Bob Shuleys life in skeet began in 1956 when at the age of 10 he started shooting with his father Three years later at age 13 he won the 12 gauge World Championship At 15 in 1961 he won the 410 World Championship and in 1964 he won the 28 gauge and 12 gauge World Championships He was a mature 23 when he won the HOA World Championship in 1969 His dad shot with him the pair posting several 200 straight team scores and setting records as a two man team and as a parent child team In a path that is unusual for todays shooters he simultaneously shot both American skeet and international SHOOTER PROFILE skeet at an elite level He was part of the USA Shooting Team earning his way to the alternate spot on the U S Olympic Team three times Along the way he was silver medalist at the 1967 Pan American Games gold medalist in the 1971 Pan American Games and bronze medalist in the 1975 Games In each of those Games the USA won the gold medal At his home near Chicago Bob has shelves filled with trophies this glittering array represents only a fourth of them Shuleys list of accomplishments goes on and on In the state of Illinois he has 36 open championships to his credit Hes been on many All American Teams starting as a Sub Junior in 1958 1959 and making the Junior Team in 1960 1961 1962 and 1963 Aging out of Juniors the following year he made the Open Team in 1964 through 1970 For the next two years however marriage cut back on his shooting But he was back in form in 1972 through 1975 shooting four guns and making two more All American teams I also won High Average a few times for 410 20 gauge and HOA in the 60s added Shuley Since then those records have been thoroughly trounced These would be impressive feats in and of themselves but Shuley accomplished most of this while shooting pump guns The difference in the guns from then to today is amazing he said Back then we were shooting pump guns and automatics I shot a Remington 870 pump in 20 gauge from 1962 to 75 In 1968 Remington came out with the 870 sub gauge so I picked up a couple and had them fitted to me The first thing I did was shoot 100 straight with the 410 pump With these guns he became only the second person to shoot a 100 with the 410 twice t An excerpt from a 1962 LIFE magazine article about Bob Shuley BY SHERRY KERR Bob Shuley p Bob shooting at the 2017 U S Open at Northbrook