Super Shooter
Gun club ends season with a BANG!!!By KURT NESBITT Journal Staff Writer
Article Photos
NEW ULM - In the hands of the members of the Sioux Valley Gun Club, a 12-gauge shotgun can hit a clay pigeon as it dashes across the ground or as it soars up into the air.
In the hands of professional exhibition shooter Tom Knapp, a shotgun can hit just about anything he can throw up in the air.
An estimated crowd of 700 to 1,000 people saw - and applauded - Knapp as he did that and more for the club's 26th anniversary and its last shoot of the season at the trap range Sunday afternoon.
Knapp appears on two major national cable networks and performs for the public as he travels around the world promoting Benelli Arms Company and Federal Ammunition Company. He holds a world record for launching nine clay pigeons into the air with one hand and hitting each of them with a separate shot within two seconds.
Knapp demonstrated his prowess with a shotgun early in the show, blasting a paint can that flew up into the air after he shot a box that had some explosive in it. That was "the rabbit"
Like every good show, Knapp brought a rubber chicken with him, except the one he used in his act exploded from a box Knapp shot, flying three feet into the air.
Knapp showed the audience how to golf with "the Benelli golf club," tossing a three golf balls into the air and shooting them. One of them went over 200 yards. Knapp even shot one of his empty shotgun shell cartridges right after it ejected from the gun.
"There you have a 200-yard drive with the Benelli golf club," Knapp joked.
Knapp also demonstrated his ability to shoot multiple targets. In one act, he tossed two clay pigeons into the air and shot the first one, then raked shots across four balloons fastened to poles in the ground and hit the second clay pigeon just before it hit the ground.
Not every clay pigeon toss was successful. Knapp did not hit every clay pigeon he threw into the air and, in a couple cases, did not shoot them at all.
"Y'notice how everything on TV comes out pretty cool? I'm going to try to figure out how we can edit the live show," Knapp joked.
Knapp save his biggest - and messiest - spectacles of the 45-minute show for the end. He told the women in the audience that Benelli has a gun made just for them, which he called "the Salad Shooter."
He proceeded to slice, dice, smash and mash a potato for "potato salad," an apple for "apple sauce," a tomato for "salsa" and then a cantaloupe, a grapefruit for "grapefruit juice, " two heads of lettuce and two heads of cauliflower to the delight - and disgust - of the crowd, leaving pieces of all of the produce he shot on the grass with spent shell cartridges and ammo boxes.
For his finale, Knapp performed a salute to the troops, tossing up and shooting three colored balls, which made red chalk, blue chalk and white flour after Knapp hit them. The salute was capped off with a shot to a cardboard box, which exploded, sending a fireball up to end the show.
Sioux Valley Gun Club President Paul Sabatino said he decided to invite Knapp to perform to mark the club's 26th anniversary after he saw one of Knapp's shows. The show marked the end of the club's season, which normally ends with a fun shoot, where members can use the trap range or shoot skeets.
Many other members of the club said they were impressed with Knapp's show, particularly the "Salad Shooter" and the salute to the troops.
Members kept Knapp busy afterwards, lining up for hours to shake his hand, have their picture taken with him or to have him autograph a jacket, a Benelli baseball cap or a bright orange clay pigeon.
"In this world, there's nobody better," Sabatino said.
Knapp first started shooting at the age of nine with a Daisy BB gun. He said he got the idea to become a professional exhibition shooter as a teenager after he saw Herb Parsons' shows from the 1940s and 1950s and began to hone his act imitating Parsons for his friends and his family.
Despite some interference from the wind, Knapp said he was satisfied with his performance on Sunday afternoon.
Knapp also fired a much bigger and older weapon.
"I got to fire that cannon," he said, looking over at the New Ulm Battery with its 19th century weapons. "That was worth my whole day."
