12 Shots – 12 Gauge – 0.72 Seconds – New Record of Raniero Testa

TFB readers may remember when Raniero Testa managed to hit 13 clay targets in 1.6 seconds in 2017. In the meantime, the Winchester sponsored pro-shooter was able to best himself, hitting 14 hand-thrown clay targets before they reached the ground. Not one who sits on his laurels, now with the “stage name” RT14, he recently participated in a speed shooting challenge against Fabarm‘s shooter Umberto Tarcinale.

This time there were no targets to hit, the two athletes loaded their highly tuned shotguns and went through a marathon of 1,000 12 gauge shots each, all within one hour. Each 12 round “finger controlled semi-auto burst” was timed and these were the best results:

Here we can see a brief video summarizing the event (attended only by judges due to social distancing regulations):

The time of Tarcinale, while a “distant” second, still beats Patrick Flanigan‘s best of 1.442 seconds, which was actually halved by Raniero Testa. 12 shots in 0.72 seconds is equivalent to exactly 1,000 rounds per minute! If this sounds to you like the mechanical limit of what the Winchester SX3 could accomplish, you may be correct. According to RT14, he equalled the time of the Winchester test bench.

Looking at the photos and videos shared by the champion, we can see that he now frequently uses an Aimpoint RDS on the rib of his shotgun. Indeed, beside Winchester and 3M-Peltor, Aimpoint joined the list of his sponsors. Going through some of his videos, one would, however, realize that most of his skills are more the product of highly trained instinctive pointing rather than traditional aiming (an example below).

He does, however, show a few impressive tricks with Winchester SXR rifles ( Browning BAR models in the USA), proving that his skills aren’t limited to shotguns and clays. We may see less of Raniero Testa compared to other highly accomplished trick shooters, however, a tour of his social media and YouTube channel can be really interesting.

Now he’s training to reach the limit of what is humanly possible with a shotgun, as he wants to beat himself by hitting 17 hand-thrown clays. Stay tuned.