2025 – Paul Friesen

Lifetime Targets

65450

Wisconsin State Titles

12 Gauge (4 times) – 2010, 2020, 2023, 2024

28 Gauge (2 times) – 2020, 2021

Doubles (2 times) – 2007, 2019

HOA (1 time) – 2020

HAA (1 time) – 2020

Champ of Champs (1 time) – 2020

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Paul Friesen began his competitive shooting career in 2003 at the ripe ol’ age of 48. As a youngster back home in Kansas, Paul’s father John taught him how to handle a shotgun. His dad was an award-winning trap shooter, an NRA-decorated small-bore rifle competitor, and an avid upland bird hunter. The two hunted with the family Brittany Spaniel whenever they could. Having moved to Madison with his own Brittanys, Paul recognized that it was time to learn how to hit a crossing target. So, he joined the nearby gun club, Sauk Prairie Trap & Skeet. The Club offered 8 trap and skeet fields with no waiting! He was quickly befriended by several prominent WI skeet shooters. These enthusiasts convinced him try his first NSSA targets at a 2003 summer targets-only competition at Sauk. He posted a 99 in the 12G event with his hunting gun, a Browning, and won the 12G title outright. That competition hooked him on registered targets. The next summer, Paul joined Lee Thomas and Milt McPike to shoot his first 5×500 competitions. Those shoots necessitated the purchase of a real skeet gun, a Browning XS equipped with Kolar tubes, which were fitted by the legendary Billy Spear. Soon, Paul was befriended by another Sauk member, Gary Wipperfurth. They practiced often and especially enjoyed traveling together to Midwest registered shoots. Friesen valued learning from “Wipp” as well as listening to his endless hunting adventures and farming stories. Wipp already knew how to break a skeet target – in 2018, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Skeet Hall of Fame.

Since those early competitions, Friesen has earned a total of eleven Wisconsin State Gun Titles. His first championship was the State DBLs Title in 2007 at Sauk. His most recent title was the 12 Gauge Championship last year (2024). Paul has been selected as a member of the Wisconsin All-State Skeet Team for 20 years and was chosen for the All-State Open Team for the last 9 consecutive years. By the end of 2024, Friesen had recorded 63,000 NSSA-registered targets. He has competed at the Wisconsin State Tournament for 20 years and has been a member of NSSA for 22 years. At the national level, Friesen has also been elected several times to the NSSA All American Class AA Team and the All American Concurrent (Senior) Team. He has placed well at numerous NSSA Zone 5 skeet tournaments in the Midwest. He attributes his recent success to his out-of-the-box Krieghoff K80 with its double release triggers, which he has used for the last several years. The release triggers were necessitated by a bad case of the flinches caused by his hard punching Brownings.

Paul recognized that to shoot competitively, one also needs to give back to the game. He learned early on how to run NSSA-registered competitions from Hall-of-Famer Gary Wehlage. In 2004, Paul took over for Gary and has continued to run Sauk skeet shoots to the present day (21 years). At Sauk, Paul has run nearly 80 NSSA-registeredcompetitions, including the NSSA Zone 5 Championships, the U.S. Open iSkeet Kolar Arms Championships, and seven Wisconsin State Championship Tournaments. Paul has also run an equal number of nonregistered skeet shoots, including Sauk’s popular all-day Winter Skeet Fun Shoots. Gary Wipperfurth assisted routinely. Wipp and Paul have run shoots together for 20 years – they are often mistaken for each other by out-of-state shooters during registration or hooping targets. These friends have carried each other for many years. Nonetheless, Wipp has often yelled at Paul to turn off the computer and get his skinny #$%&# out to the shoot-off field before they make him forfeit. Thus, Paul had to learn to shoot all the while running the shoot. In recognition, Paul was chosen for the Billy Spear Service Award by the WSSA in 2012. He has also served on the Wisconsin Skeet Shooting Association’s Board of Directors for 11 consecutive years and has been the WSSA Treasurer for the last 8 years. He has signed most of your WI Championship purse checks during that period.

Paul is grateful for the unconditional support and encouragement of family and friends. Although shotgunning is a hobby, it still takes plenty of time away from home for practice, competitions, and completing the shoot’s paperwork. He is especially appreciative of his wife Anna, who has supported his skeet addiction from the beginning. Importantly, Anna has often reminded Paul to keep the “right” perspective, especially when his skeet responsibilities too often became “all consuming”. Paul is also appreciative of his comrades at Sauk Prairie Trap & Skeet, especially Gary Wipperfurth, Al Lathrop, the late Lee Thomas, Henry & Elise Duwe, Jack Duwe, Gary Wehlage, Andrew Hensen, Rick Berry, Brian Outhouse, Gerry Zingg, the late Bob Hutter, and many others through the years. Paul is indebted to Don Kelly, who has also been a valued advisor and encourager. Don is a champion supporter of the game of skeet at both the state and national levels. He is dedicated to bird hunting and truly appreciates the thrill of following a good bird dog. To Paul’s own Brittany spaniels, Zach, Petie, Tobie, Molly, Onie, and Ralphie, he asks their forgiveness for the many times he went to the Club to shoot instead of chasing birds with them. Lastly, Paul would like to remind his fellow shooters that the survival of our sport of shotgunning requires unfailing participation and volunteerism at all levels. It demands that we all lend a hand at the local club for events, club maintenance, bookkeeping, and importantly sharing the responsibility of training the next generation to shoot safely and to appreciate our freedom to do so.