Most of us workaday, run-of-the mill commoners admire folks who are very, very good at what they do.

Tom Brady throws a football like no other. Mookie Betts hits baseballs with a skill that brings baseball fans to their feet.

Most of these people who shine and standout from the crowd were born with natural talent, but you can be sure that hard work, dedication and practice got them where they are.

There is probably one other ingredient: passion. They love what they do and it gives them a capacity to focus with an uncommon intensity that is just not attainable to many of us.

Marksmanship is no exception. Skeet shooter Tim Bradley is arguably one of the best shots in the world. Beretta put him on the payroll. Take a look at his jaw-dropping YouTube demonstrations of what he can do one-handed with a skeet gun. Four or five clays at one throw!

A former SEAL, Bradley is something to see.

Speaking of SEALS, a number of military snipers, Chris Kyle and others, have established long-range records in marksmanship. Four or five are at the top of the heap. The long-distance record was set not so long ago by a Marine in Afghanistan: 2,700 yards. Imagine! That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a mile and a half.

Those of us who hunt, most of us, work at our marksmanship. In the East, deer hunters rarely kill a deer at more than 50 yards, so a few trips to the range or the gravel pit will usually suffice. Out West, though, long shots on elk and mule deer are not unusual at distances in excess of 300 yards.

Recently, while at a local gun range, I was once again able to poke some close-together holes in a 100-yard target. Not THAT close together, but close enough. I don’t take game shots much beyond 100 yards, even out West.

While at the range, club member and nationally active competitive shooter Butch Randall opened my eyes to just what he and other marksman like him can do with their skill and knowledge when it comes to reaching out with surgical precision to six-inch long range targets.

Randall’s pride and joy is a .30 caliber hybrid rifle of his creation that fires a wildcat cartridge that he calls a .30 BR. It is equipped with a 55 power Night Force scope, festooned with knobs for dialing in windage and elevation. An elaborate and expensive shooting “vice” rounds out the competitive shooting lashup.

Randall clearly loves his sport and is well-versed in ballistics and the intricacies of hand-loading his own ammo.

An enthusiastic, gentle man obviously skilled at his craft and willing to share his knowledge, it struck me that he is one of so many millions of law-abiding, gun-appreciating Americans who you just never hear about in the national gun debates.

By the way, with Randall’s guidance and his special rifle, yours truly put a bullet hole in a bullet hole at 100 yards. That never happened before in my life and I expect that it never will again.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine guide and host of a weekly radio program, “Maine Outdoors,” heard at 7 p.m. Sundays on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books; online purchase information is available at www.maineoutdoorpublications.net.

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