Kirkland native making a name for himself in sport of competitive shooting
Jul 09 2008
Travis Tomasie could be called a sharpshooter, a marksman or a crack shot. But he’s probably best described as an athlete at the top of his sport having the time of his life.
The Kirkland native picked up his third competitive shooting win of June when he cruised to a Limited Division title at the U.S. Practical Shooting Association Area 1 championship on June 29 in Sherwood, Ore. He also took the Area 5 and Area 7 USPSA championships in the Limited Division earlier in the month.
A Lake Washington High School grad who grew up in Kirkland, Tomasie joined the army at age 29 and transferred to the marksmanship unit after basic training. Now 34 and a Sergeant , Tomasie is stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. His interest in competitive shooting came from his father. Tomasie first fired a gun at 21 and started competing soon after.
“I was just immediately hooked,” he said. “The combination of speed and accuracy is awesome. It’s like racing with a firearm.”
A standard practical shooting competition, in which Tomasie competes, includes 12 different courses that shooters work through one time each. Two different types of courses exist in the sport: sealed courses and speed shoots.
Sealed courses involve some type of movement, such as running, opening doors or clearing rooms. Sealed courses are different for each event, so a shooter faces the unexpected each time he/she competes.
“You have to pretty much work everything to prepare,” Tomasie said of facing an unfamiliar course. “You really don’t know what to expect. That’s something that makes it more exciting and more fun ... not shooting the same thing over and over.”
Before a competition shooters are allowed five minutes to walk through the course and see the placing of the targets. A random draw then determines the firing order, with later competitors gaining an advantage by watching shooters who go before.
“It doesn’t have that reaction-type quality to it,” Tomasie said. He said the biggest key to having a fast time is “gaming” the stages. Or, in other words, finding the fastest way to get through the course.
“You have to find the best line,” Tomasie said. “Nobody tells you how to do it. It’s very freestyle in nature.”
He said a speed event is simpler, saying shooters “just stand in one box and shoot.” He said it can go as quick as three seconds.
Tomasie competes in three different divisions at practical shooting competitions: limited, open and production. The open division allows competitors to use guns heavily modified to make them faster and more accurate. Tomasie weapon of choice: a Caspian .38 Super with a red dot sight (a small heads-up display on top of the gun with a red diode that makes aiming easier).
For production shoots, which require unmodified stock gun models, Tomasie uses a Glock 17 nine millimeter. But it’s the third division, the limited competitions, where Tomasie has made a name for himself this year with the three area championships.
“Limited” guns are restricted to a set magazine capacity (20 rounds), must have metallic sights and can’t include compensators on the gun barrels. Tomasie’s limited competition gun is a Caspian with a Smith and Wesson cartridge.
“I’d liken it to Nascar,” Tomasie said of the limited division. “It kind of looks like a stock car on the outside, but it has something special under the engine. The open division is more like Formula One -- anything to make it faster.”
The USPSA grades shooters starting with a “D” designation that scales up through C, B, A, and Master, with the highest grade being a “Grand Master.” Of the 16,565 shooters in the USPSA database, Tomasie is one of only 117 designated as a Grand Master in the limited division.
And he could be in for a long run at the top.
“The nature of the sport is you can be on top for a long time. It doesn’t beat up your body like other sports,” he said. “These guys that I was looking up to have been shooting 20-plus years.”
His ultimate goal is to win a world championship. With practical shooting not yet an Olympic event, the world championships are the pinnacle of his sport. He’ll have his chance at that title later this year as part of the U.S. Practical Association’s Standard Division Team competing at the International Practical Shooting Confederation World Shoot XV in Bali, Indonesia, from Oct. 19 to Nov. 2. He’s one of 20 shooters the USPSA has picked to represent the U.S. at the competition.
The championship takes place every three years. In 2005, 888 shooters from 56 countries competed.
He said he’d also like to eventually win four divisions at nationals: limited, production and open, as well as the “limited-10” division (same restrictions as “limited” except with the magazine capacity restricted to 10).
Such a goal will take much hard work, but that’s something with which Tomasie’s familiar. The week before a competition he spends every day in practice, firing off 500 rounds each session. He said he’d like to get more practice time, but his duties as a soldier come first. Tomasie averages about 12 competitions per year.
When he’s not practicing or competing, he helps soldiers improve their marksmanship.
“I spend most of my time teaching soldiers who are about to deploy,” Tomasie said. “I’m also on a mobile training team. We can pack up and go pretty much anywhere in the world.”
Up next for Tomasie is the Area 3 Championship in Omaha, Neb., on July 31.
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