RSWC #261, Chad Barber, NRA's America's Rifle Challenge

Riding Shotgun With Charlie

#261

Chad Barber

NRA ARC

At the NRA"s Great American Outdoor Show in February, I met Chad while he was doing a demonstration of the America's Rifle Challenge. When I found out he was only a couple hours north in New Hampshire, I knew we needed to do a show!

Like many others, Chad started shooting as a youth. In Michigan, he was shooting BB guns and .22s. He spent time in the Coast Guard. Then he went to Camp Perry and saw hundreds of people shooting competitions. One of his superiors had a bronze pistol on his uniform and he was very curious about it. He did well with the rifle in the military, but didn't compete. He ended up becoming a firearm instructor early in his career despite being an introvert.

Chad spent a lot of time teaching the fundamentals of marksmanship. Many students want to get to the fun and fast shooting, but they haven't learned to hit the bull's eye. It's easier to shoot an 8 inch circle running around than it is to hit a 10-ring. The traditional shooting sports are much more difficult.

Once he was bitten by the competition bug, he got more into instructing, becoming a range safety officer and a chief range safety officer, as well. He spent a lot of time teaching at police academies as the instructor and coach. His career brought him up and down the east coast and all around the country. Once he got to New England, he thought it was going to be bad. But the area was much better than he thought. He found there's many great ranges, facilities, and competitions that were easier to get to in the small New England states.

Being responsible for six competitive shooting teams at two ranges with the Coast Guard, kept him very busy. One range was nearly condemned. They applied the NRA's range development operations and made it safer for everyone.

Working with the varsity pistol team made him hone in on his coaching skills. When trigger weight is measured in grams, the team of shooters really have to be on top of things. This helped Chad learn more about the mechanics of shootings and the mental game of shooting.

Over time, he developed a sense of mentoring and coaching that could take someone who was new to shooting or had little experience and get them to have a near perfect or perfect score within a day or two.

When the NRA reached out to Chad about starting the ARC program, he needed to get the program immediately. He was tasked with having some national competitions within a few months. This meant it was time to dive into all the rule books for all the various disciplines, learning the terminology for each, seeing which crossover, and developing rules for ARC.