Perry in the News: The Outdoor Wire

A Few Minutes With: John Sigler
by Jim Shepherd
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The latest to serve as President of the National Rifle Association is John Sigler. A retired police officer, Navy veteran and practicing attorney, Sigler, like most of his predecessors, is a longtime shooter, having moved as he says: "from shotguns to handguns to rifles". Like most of shooters, Sigler didn't say he moved out of any of the disciplines; only that he had moved into all of them. His competitive involvement have also seen Sigler in the role of referee at Camp Perry and Chief Referee at the NRA's National Police Shooting Championships. He's definitely no neophyte to shooting or competition.

As a shooter, the National Matches in Camp Perry, Ohio have been part of his life for nearly three decades. Today, having opened the month-long matches yesterday in the First Shot Ceremony, Sigler will be shooting in both the Harry Reeves Memorial and Revolver Distinguished pistol matches today. He'll return to shoot in High Power matches as well. As he laughingly put it, "he's not afraid to make a fool out of himself " despite precious little time to practice.

Sigler, like most industry figures, has indeed been a busy man over the past few months. That's why we were pleased when he took a few minutes yesterday to talk with The Outdoor Wire's Jim Shepherd.

The results are A Few Minutes With: John Sigler.


Shepherd: John, it looks like you're in the midst of a few busy days.

SIGLER: Yes, very busy. But the good news is that events like this make it possible for me to get out among the NRA members - fellow shooters who enjoy the same things I enjoy.


Shepherd: Seems there are plenty of changes in Camp Perry this year, are we going to be able to notice the differences?

SIGLER: There are tons of changes, Jim, but they really started four years ago when I talked with Major General Gregory Wayt about some changes we'd like to see at Camp Perry. We talked about things I'd like to see done, and he, having just been made Adjutant General, talked about the things he thought he could do. The changes have been continual since then. One area is the Civilian Marksmanship Program's new Indoor Air Range - 80 points. It's not going to be used for any serious competition in these matches; but there will be some friendly competition going on there.

It's actually been a very good partnership between the CMP, the NRA and the Ohio National Guard. Everyone's working to make the experience here the best possible.

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