The Future of American Fullbore, Target Rifle, and Palma Just Got Names and Faces
- mac3175
- 5 minutes ago
- 7 min read
The United States National Rifle Team announced the 2026 selection for the U25 Young Eagles Rifle Team, and if you care about the future of this sport in America, this is the kind of news that should stop you in your tracks.
Eleven athletes. Kacie McGowan, Thomas McGowan, Anna Behnke, Zevin Linse, Amber Kingshill, Eli Graff, Hunter Blankenship, Gavin Lucchesi, Bo Kingshill, Casey Hollenbeck, and Natalie Gannavaram. These are the shooters who will carry the American flag to Bisley Camp, England in July of 2028 for the World Long Range Championships.
That is the gravity of what just happened. A national team. Under 25. Representing the United States on the world stage in Fullbore, Target Rifle, and Palma competition.
Understanding What the USNRT Actually Is
For readers who live primarily in the PRS, ELR, or tactical precision world, a quick orientation matters here. The United States National Rifle Team is the premier competitive Fullbore, Target Rifle, and Palma organization in America. It operates on four pillars. Tradition, Competition, Character, and Patriotism.
The USNRT operates under a one team concept by design. It is a structured pipeline of athletes built around four component teams that collectively make up the U.S. Fullbore Team, and the program runs all of them under a single unified training model. That approach keeps development linear, carrying athletes from the Palma team all the way through the Goodwill team so the entire program rises together. In years past the component teams were largely left to train on their own, and that training often was not happening at a high enough level to prepare shooters for the next step up. The one team model is built to fix exactly that.
The Palma Team is the primary squad, named for the historic Palma Match and led by Captain Robert Gill and Adjutant Mike Carlo. Brandon Green serves as head coach of the Palma team and of the USNRT as a whole. The Veterans Team is for athletes 60 and older, led by Captain Jon Howell and Adjutant Mike Schallow. The Goodwill Team is composed of members who have demonstrated long term commitment to the sport. And the Young Eagles are the junior pipeline, with competitions at the U25, U21, and U19 levels, with Charles Rowe serving as Vice Captain. A head coach for the Young Eagles will be named from within the group in the near future, since U25 competition requires every participant on the line, coaches included, to be of eligible age.
Athletes earn their place through rigorous tryout qualification. This is not pay to play. These are the shooters who put in the work and met the standard.
The disciplines themselves each carry their own format and history. Fullbore matches are fired at 300, 500, 600, 900, and 1000 yards. Target Rifle matches are fired at 800, 900, and 1000 yards. Palma is fired at 800, 900, and 1000 yards using the .308 with a 155 grain bullet, 15 shots at each distance for a 45 shot aggregate, and it is the centerpiece event of the World Long Range Championships. All three disciplines are fired prone, iron sights, sling supported. No bipod, no rear bag, no glass. Just the shooter, the rifle, the wind, and the discipline to read it.
The Palma Match itself dates back to 1876, making it one of the oldest international rifle competitions in the world. When the U.S. Palma Team takes the line at Bisley in 2028, they are stepping into a tradition that predates almost every other shooting sport on the planet.
Why This Matters More Than People Realize
Precision shooting in America is having a moment. PRS continues to grow. F-Class is thriving. ELR keeps pushing the limits of what is possible with a rifle. But on the international Fullbore, Target Rifle, and Palma side, the United States has historically been outpaced by countries like Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. Those nations have invested in their youth pipelines for generations. They produce shooters who arrive at world championships already seasoned, already coached, already battle tested.
The USNRT Young Eagles program is the American answer to that. It is a serious, structured commitment to developing the next wave of American shooters before they age out of the window where habits, fundamentals, and competitive instincts are built. You do not become a world class iron sighted prone shooter overnight. You become one through years of training, coaching, match experience, and exposure to the level of competition that lives outside our borders. Putting eleven young Americans on that path, with a clear two year runway to the 2028 World Championships, is exactly the kind of long term thinking the sport needs.
What These Athletes Are Actually Walking Into
Bisley Camp is hallowed ground. It is where the Imperial Meeting has been held since the 1890s. It is where the best Fullbore, Target Rifle, and Palma shooters in the world test themselves every summer against wind, distance, and the relentless precision demanded by iron sights at 1000 yards. For an American shooter under 25 to walk onto those ranges wearing USA on their chest is not a participation event. It is a real competition against real competitors who have been training for that exact moment their entire lives.
The Young Eagles will spend the next two years training, competing nationally, traveling to international matches, and refining the skill set required to be competitive at Bisley. Wind reading at extreme distance. Position discipline under sustained time pressure. Mental management when you are one shot off the leader with three to go. Trigger control through fatigue. Coaching and being coached, because team matches live and die on the wind coach.
This is one of the purest tests of rifle shooting that exists. Iron sights. Prone. Sling. Wind. You against the conditions and the clock.
The Sponsors Who Made It Possible
None of this happens without people writing checks and standing behind these athletes. The Capstone Group, which represents Lapua, Berger, and Vihtavuori, stepped up alongside the NRA Foundation to fund this team. Those are not small commitments. Sending young athletes to national matches, international competitions, and ultimately the World Championships in England requires real money, real ammunition, real components, and real logistical support.
When you see Berger, Lapua, Vihtavuori, Sierra, Hodgdon, and Krieger involved with a program like this, recognize what it represents. These are companies investing in the future of the sport rather than just selling to the present. That is the kind of industry behavior that deserves loud, public support from the rest of us.
What You Can Do
The Young Eagles program runs on donations. If you have benefited from the precision shooting industry in any form,
whether you compete, build rifles, train shooters, sell gear, write about the sport, or just enjoy the discipline of precision marksmanship, this is the moment to give something back.
Head to usnrt.com and donate. Any amount helps. Travel costs, ammunition, match fees, coaching, and equipment for eleven young athletes over a two year development cycle add up fast. The USNRT is a 501(c)(3), so every dollar is tax deductible and every dollar goes directly toward putting these shooters on the line at Bisley in 2028.
If you have competitive marksmanship experience yourself, or a desire to learn Fullbore, the USNRT also has a path for you. Tryout information is on their site.
Say Hello to the Future
Look at the team photo. Eleven young Americans holding rifles, standing on ranges across this country, all of them committed to something most of their peers will never understand. They are going to wear USA on their chest. They are going to face the best in the world. They are going to represent everything that is right about this sport.
That is worth supporting. That is worth celebrating. That is worth showing up for.
Welcome to the team, Young Eagles. Sacramento is watching, Black Plague Precision is watching, and the entire American precision shooting community is rooting for you.
Now go to usnrt.com and donate. CLICK HERE
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501(c)(3) nonprofit. FEIN 84-2269373.Click Here to View Website
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501(c)(3) nonprofit. FEIN 84-4135396.Click Here to View Website
The United States Precision Rifle Association organizes and selects the U.S. team for international IPRF competition, representing American shooters globally while aligning with international precision rifle standards.
501(c)(3) nonprofit. Tax ID 93-4981490.Click Here to View Website
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