The Action Gunner Story
The Short Version
When I started competing in 2014, there was plenty of content about guns. Not much about actually competing with them.
The questions new shooters had weren’t getting answered by people who’d been there. How do you get started? What gear actually holds up when you’re gassed from a jungle run and the timer’s beeping? What should you expect at your first major? The people who knew weren’t writing about it. The people writing about it hadn’t done it.
We’re competitors first. Content creators second. Everything we publish comes from actual match experience—not spec sheets, not manufacturer talking points.
If you want the full story of how we got here, keep reading. It’s a long one.
How It Started
I got into tactical shotgun and 3-gun competition in 2014. Found the Minnesota 3 Gun Group and went full send—volunteering, competing, soaking up everything I could from the people around me. The shooting community up here was something else. You’d have 3-gun one weekend, tactical shotgun the next, a big USPSA pistol match after that. Every weekend there was something worth showing up for.
The tactical shotgun series was a personal favorite. Running a pump shotgun through those matches taught me a lot about fundamentals under pressure. But more than the shooting itself, it was the people I met during those first couple years that really hooked me. Experienced competitors who had no reason to help some new guy figure things out—but did anyway, and went out of their way to do it. The kind of mentorship you can’t buy. That stuck with me.
By 2015, I’d started recognizing a gap. There wasn’t much online content aimed at helping newer shooters understand how to get into competitive shooting. The basics weren’t being covered by people who’d recently gone through the learning curve themselves. So I started 3gunner.net as a personal blog. Nothing fancy—just sharing what I was learning, documenting my own progression, and connecting with others in the sport. That blog opened a lot of doors and introduced me to people who would end up shaping what came next.
The Texas Roadhouse Meeting
In 2016, four of us sat down at a Texas Roadhouse in Minnesota. Nathan Payne, Jake Latola, Dustin Sanchez, and myself. We were all MN3GG members at that point, and we’d each benefited from the same thing—experienced shooters taking time to help us get better.
Somewhere between the rolls and the check, we started mapping out a vision for what would become Action Gunner.
The original idea was straightforward: create content that helps newer shooters and grows the sport. We’d been kicking around the 3-gun angle, but realized pretty quickly that we didn’t want to limit ourselves. We all enjoyed other disciplines too—USPSA, tactical shotgun, and whatever else looked interesting. Why box ourselves in?
ActionGunner.com was born out of that conversation. We started generating video content, shooting matches, covering events, and just generally having a good time with it. The website grew with whatever effort we could put into it, which honestly wasn’t much. We all had work, family, the usual life stuff competing for bandwidth. Action Gunner was lower on the priority list than it probably should have been, but we kept it moving.
That same year, Dustin and I took on volunteer roles with MN3GG running media for the Tri-Gun Championship. It was a good way to develop skills behind the camera while giving back to the community that had helped us. We continued that work through 2019 before COVID shut everything down, then picked it back up in 2021 and 2022 before USPSA Multigun Nationals started running at the same range about a month later. The concern was oversaturation—two major multigun events that close together at the same venue didn’t seem sustainable.
The Shift From Shooting to Capture
2017 was mostly about competing. The 3 Gun Nation series came to Minnesota, and most of us shifted focus to training hard and shooting matches. I was also building a house that year—literally building it—so my bandwidth for Action Gunner got pretty thin. The project stayed alive, but just barely.
By 2018, Dustin had taken a position with JP Enterprises, and I’d started doing contract media work for them. That arrangement let me stay involved in competitive shooting without the sweat-equity drain that Action Gunner had become. The dream stayed alive, just in a different form.
Early that year, Dustin and I made a decision that seemed a little crazy: we traveled to the Missouri 3 Gun Championship without guns. Just cameras. The whole point was to cover Nathan and Jake while they competed.
That weekend, Dustin spiked a fever. A bad one. And he still showed up every day with a camera in hand. Watching him push through that—knowing how miserable he had to be—was the moment I knew we were both serious about this. It was probably stupid, but it was also the kind of commitment you don’t forget. That trip changed how I thought about what we were building.
Later in 2018, I traveled to Hard as Hell for JP to cover Dustin competing alongside team JP shooter Jacqueline “Brojaq” Carrizosa. We put together a recap video featuring Dustin, Brojaq, Dakota Overland, and Josh Froelich competing in the event. The response to that video was significant. We’d found a format that worked, a style that resonated. People wanted more of it.
Going Full Send on The Tactical Games
2019 changed the trajectory. Team JP—myself, Dustin Sanchez, Chris Cazin, Jay Schmitt, Matt Gangl, Kyle Koisti and Peter Johnson—decided to go all-in on The Tactical Games. We trained all spring and summer, then most of us competed that fall between September and November.
Dustin unfortunately suffered an injury that wouldn’t let him compete that year, but he was still very much involved in everything we were doing. That same year, I also started working with Josh Froelich, producing media for his personal brand and sponsors. The contract work was expanding, and it was feeding directly into what I wanted Action Gunner to become.
TTG was a different animal than 3-gun. The fitness component, the tactical scenarios, the mental game required to keep shooting accurately when you’re completely gassed—it demanded a different approach. And it attracted a different crowd. The crossover between tactical shooters, CrossFit types, military and law enforcement, and traditional action shooters created a unique community. Covering those events gave me insight into a whole segment of the shooting world I hadn’t fully appreciated before.
2020: Everything Changes
And then COVID hit.
The competitive shooting calendar got wrecked. Matches cancelled left and right. But enough entities kept running events that some semblance of community held together. You adapt. You figure it out.
That year got complicated in other ways too. The George Floyd riots happened, and Dustin was in the heart of it in Minneapolis. We ended up running a docuseries for JP on what that experience was like. Heavy stuff, but important to document.
On the Action Gunner side, we launched The Tactical Games Skirmishes in our area. We ran one in May, another in October. They were a huge hit—local events that gave people a taste of TTG format competition without the travel commitment. We continued running those consistently through 2022 before the affiliation structure shifted and we put them on pause.
The Texas 3 Gun Championship got pushed to fall that year because of COVID. Josh Froelich and I decided to cover it together—him shooting, me running camera. We’d been kicking around ideas for how to capture match footage differently, and this seemed like the right event to test it.
The over-the-shoulder gimbal work we experimented with put viewers right there with the shooter. First-person perspective, following the shooter through the stage, seeing what they see. We also produced a “What is 3 Gun?” piece while we were there.
Both hit harder than expected.
Here’s the thing about that “What is 3 Gun?” concept—when someone asks what you do with your weekends, or your father-in-law at Christmas wants to know why you had to fly to Texas to shoot guns with your buddies, it’s hard to explain in a way that captures it. You end up saying something like “it’s speed and accuracy, I shoot an AR and a shotgun and a pistol, kind of like an obstacle course” and they nod but they can’t picture it.
What I wanted was something I could just pull up on my phone and say “here, this is what we do.” A tool, almost. That’s what drove that piece of content, and that’s what we’re still trying to do—create things that help people understand the sport, whether they’re trying to get into it or trying to explain it to someone who doesn’t get it yet.
Building Momentum
2021 was when things really started clicking.
I continued competing in The Tactical Games, this time in elite division. Got my teeth kicked in at Tradecraft in Florida that January—humbling experience. Trained hard after that and came back to compete at Texas Shooting Academy in March with a 7th place finish. Dustin tagged along to capture media for JP and help cover that event.
TTG ended up contracting Dustin to cover their April event in Utah. That same weekend, I was covering TX3G in Burnet, Texas. We were running parallel coverage across the country for different events—proof that the demand for this kind of content was real.
That August, we provided double coverage for the first TTG Sniper Challenge. Then in November, I covered the first official TTG Nationals. The request was for complete stage videos, but I also produced individual athlete hype reels that ended up being a big hit. Shooters could share personalized content featuring their own runs, their own moments. That format resonated.
From 2022 on, I continued contracting for TTG providing hype reels and match highlights. Simultaneously, I was building what became F5 Productions with Josh Froelich—growing an agency while keeping the vision of Action Gunner alive in parallel.
The Forced Reset
In December 2023, my gall bladder exploded (well, not literally – but I was told I should have arrived in the ER via ambulance and not driving myself). Put me in the hospital for a few days and forced recovery time for a while after. Not ideal timing, but it ended up being a turning point.
With training restricted aftery surgery, I shifted focus back to Action Gunner and building out the platform properly. Sometimes you need forced downtime to step back and look at what you’re building. That recovery period gave me space to work on systems, refine the website, and plan for actual growth instead of just keeping the lights on.
Where We Are Now
2024 brought some significant developments. Contract media coverage continued, with content being fed into Action Gunner as much as possible. But more importantly, we built out systems for a robust major match calendar.
Here’s the problem we were solving: PractiScore is great for match management and scoring, but you have to be logged in to see any match details. That’s a major pain point for new and existing shooters trying to plan out their season. You can’t browse, you can’t compare dates easily, you can’t get a sense of what’s happening across the country without jumping through hoops.
We fixed that. Action Gunner now maintains the most comprehensive major match calendar on the web—covering USPSA, 3-Gun, The Tactical Games, PCSL 2-Gun, PRS/NRL, and more.
That calendar exists because of Varick Beise and Chad Schwartout. Both are active competitors in local and major matches across the country. They joined the Action Gunner team to run the calendar and interface with match directors. Chad had previously been maintaining a robust spreadsheet that did the same thing, sharing it in our local Facebook shooting groups. We just gave it a permanent home and the infrastructure to grow.
In 2025, I met Alex and Kelsey Rueda through the skirmishes we run at Forest Lake Sportsmen’s Club. Discovered they both share a passion for what Action Gunner does. Alex was already writing for other outlets and wanted to contribute here too. Kelsey does photography and video, has a natural eye for capturing moments, and has a knack for social media.
They both jumped on full send to help in their respective areas. Alex is pushing into 2026 as lead editor while Kelsey handles social media. I’m continuing to drive vision, build systems, and plan for growth.
What Makes Us Different
We compete. Our gear reviews come from actual match use, not range sessions. We know what it’s like when your hands are shaking, the wind is doing something you didn’t account for, and that trigger upgrade either performs or it doesn’t. Range testing is where reviews start. Match performance under pressure is where they’re proven.
We cover the full calendar. If there’s a major match happening in action shooting sports, it’s probably on our calendar. We built this because nobody else had, and shooters needed it.
We tell the story, not just the stats. There’s plenty of content showing you what happened at a match—the 30-second run video, the sponsor shoutout, the trophy pic. That’s all fine. But we see a lot of the “what” and not much of the “why.”
Why do people devote this much time and effort to a sport with no real payout? No prize money worth mentioning, no fame, no career path. Just building relationships, honing a skill set, and showing up to compete against yourself as much as anyone else. That’s the story worth telling.
We’re honest about trade-offs. Every product has limitations. Every setup is wrong for somebody. If we can’t name the downsides, the review isn’t done. We link to non-affiliate products when they’re the better option. We’ve turned down sponsorships for gear that doesn’t meet our standards. Our credibility isn’t for sale.
The Team
What started as four guys at a steakhouse has grown into a dedicated crew heading into 2026.
Nathan Payne and Jake Latola were my biggest mentors in the sport early on. Their foundational work—articles, intro videos, the time they invested in those early years—still forms the backbone of our beginner content. Life pulled them toward family and other pursuits, but their fingerprints are all over what Action Gunner became.
Dustin Sanchez remains an active voice in the shooting industry through Real Avid and JP Enterprises. He was there for the Texas Roadhouse meeting, there for the Missouri trip with a fever, there for the early TTG days. He still provides input on Action Gunner’s direction when we need a gut check.
Varick Beise competes actively in local and major matches across the country. He joined in 2024 to help run our match calendar and maintain relationships with match directors nationwide.
Chad Swartout was already doing the work before he officially joined. The spreadsheet he maintained and shared in our Facebook groups was the precursor to our current calendar system. He came on board in 2024 to formalize that work and expand it.
Alex Rueda brings writing experience from other outlets and a genuine passion for competitive shooting content. He steps into the lead editor role for 2026, helping us scale content production while maintaining the voice and standards we’ve built.
Kelsey Rueda handles photography, video, and social media. Natural eye for visual storytelling, and the kind of hustle that matches what Action Gunner is about.
Shawn Nelson (that’s me) — I’m still driving vision, building systems, running camera at matches, testing gear, and trying to stay competitive when time allows. This thing started as a personal blog in 2015 and turned into something I couldn’t have predicted. Grateful for everyone who’s been part of the journey.
The Mission
On a mission to introduce, promote, and encourage the individual competitor and action shooting as a whole.
One More Thing
We see a lot of the “what” in competitive shooting content. Here’s my 40-second run. Here’s my sponsor list. Here’s my trophy.
That’s fine. Those things are great. Cool scopes. Nice guns. Winning is fun.
But it’s not the whole picture.
We want to show people the “why.” Why do competitors drive eight hours to sleep in a tent and wake up at 5 AM to shoot in mud or dust or whatever the weather decides to throw at them? Why do match directors volunteer hundreds of hours to put on events that barely break even? Why do people who don’t have to show up, show up anyway and put in the hard work?
Match conditions are never favorable. Wind, rain, cold, mud, blistering heat—pick your poison. The range is never close to civilization. Yet people show up anyway, both to put on major events and to compete in them.
That’s what we’re here to figure out. And share. And hopefully, in some small way, grow.