Montana shooter sets sights on Games

BILLINGS – When Seth Berglee went to Beijing last year to teach English, he saw some of the construction for the 2008 Olympic Games. Now he has his sights on going back to compete in those buildings.

Berglee, a sophomore at Montana State University in Billings who lives in Laurel, has been shooting pistols competitively for three years. Last year, he earned a spot on the Olympic Development Team, which Berglee said is like a junior version of the national team.

“They help the best shooters improve,” he said.

Berglee will compete next month at Fort Benning, Ga., for a shot at the 2008 national team. Typically, shooters take about five years to reach the national level.

“I’m trying to shorten it up a little bit,” he said.

If that doesn’t work out, Berglee has the 2012 Olympic Games in his sights.

Berglee is a lifelong shooter. His family ranched in northeast Montana until he was about 15 and everyone shot, he said.

Lots of people can shoot well, Berglee said. Shooting at the competitive level he has reached isn’t like dropping gopher at 80 yards – it is about discipline and consistency, he said.

“It’s more the repetitive shooting,” Berglee said.

After moving to the Billings area, he continued shooting with 4-H and at Yellowstone Rifle Club.

At the club, sisters Rachel and Morgan Glenn – competitive shooters in their own right – needed a member for their rifle team and invited Berglee to join. After shooting air and .22 rifle competitively, Berglee got into pistol competition.

“There’s another event, I may as well shoot it,” he said.

Ralph Saunders, a coach and mentor for many at Yellowstone Rifle Club, loaned Berglee a pistol and helped him get started.

Berglee knows he is a good marksman, but admitted he has had a few rough rounds in high-pressure situations.

“There’s shooting and there’s competing,” he said.

Berglee has invested in his own competitive equipment. He knows the ins and outs of precision equipment but also stressed that personal preferences and how a gun fits the shooter are key to accuracy. If a competitor starts to tense up and begins thinking too much, it can be pretty difficult to hit a bull’s eye. In competitive pistol, bull’s eyes are no larger than a dime.

“Once you get your position down, shooting is about 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical,” he said. “It’s a huge mental game.”

One of the shooting lessons Berglee shared is to focus on the good. For example, he said, rather than thinking “don’t jerk the trigger,” the shooter needs to think “squeeze the trigger.”

“Everything about shooting should be positive,” Berglee said.

That does not mean that competitive shooting is all sunshine and roses.

“It’s a mental battle every time you shoot a match,” he said.

Shooting incidents, and hence guns and their owners, have taken a hard rap in the wake of the mass killing at Virginia Tech. That incident does not embody responsible gun ownership or use, Berglee said.

“Football is more dangerous,” he said. “It makes the point that it’s not the guns that are doing it. This is a very organized, safe event.”