Editor’s Note: Doug Koenig has hunted all of his life, has been a Mossy Oak Pro Staffer for 10 years and a professional competitive shooter. He shoots 3-gun tournaments and Sportsman's Team Challenge. He's a handgun world champion and national champion. He's won the Bianchi Cup, the most-prestigious handgun competition in the word, 15 times. He also has a TV show – “Doug Koenig’s Championship Season” that airs on the Pursuit Channel. The show features shooting competitions and big-game hunting. Koenig’s favorite two Mossy Oak patterns are Treestand and Break-Up. But he quickly admits, “I believe I have every pattern that Mossy Oak makes. I use just about every one of them each year, depending on what and where I’m hunting.”
Two weeks ago, I went to a match called the Master’s Handgun Tournament. In this tournament, I shot three different handguns. I shot a Smith and Wesson Model 41 on the bullseye targets, a Smith and Wesson 1911 on the action event, and a Remington P-100 on the long range event where we shot out to 200 meters. In other 3-gun events, I’ll shoot long guns. I use a Ruger 10/22 rifle in the rimfire section. My shotgun is a Remington 11-87. On the pistol events, I shoot Smith and Wesson pistols.
I’m often asked, “Doug, how did you get into competitive shooting?” Twenty-seven years ago my father and I decided to buy a handgun, so we went to a local gun shop that did custom work on all types of guns. Several of the people there shot competitively. These folks invited me to come to a local shooting match. After that first competitive shooting match, I was hooked on competitive shooting.
I think my love for hunting drew me to competitive shooting. Hunting season lasts only a couple of weeks in Pennsylvania. I was looking for something that would give me the same feeling and the same adrenaline rush I got when I was hunting. I love to shoot guns. I’ve found as a competitive shooter that I really get to shoot a lot. I love to shoot, and my love of shooting isn’t just confined to rifles, pistol and shotguns. I like to shoot crossbows, vertical bows, cannons and any other type of device that can be shot for accuracy.
I have the same passion for hunting as I do shooting. I like to hunt everything. With my TV show, “Doug Koenig’s Championship Season,” I've been able to hunt all over the world – New Zealand, Germany and Canada and across the U.S. Next year, I have a trip to Africa planned. I've hunted turkeys, elk, mule deer, whitetails, red stage, tahr, chamois and many different animals. But even having made all those various hunts, my favorite type of hunting is still whitetails. I love everything about hunting whitetails. Whitetails are challenging, especially when you're hunting older mature bucks. Whitetail season really never ends, because there’s bow season, gun season, scouting, food plot management, trail camera surveys and the list goes on and on. I like to hunt anything else where I can use spot-and-stalk tactics.
Doug Koenig: Hunting Prairie Dogs at 400 Yards and Whitetails at over 200 Yards with a Handgun
