Kyle Litzie’s First Place Performance At IPSC 2024 Rifle World Shoot Competition
IWI celebrates with Kyle Litzie on taking the top spot and securing a United States victory at the IPSC Rifle World Shoot held in Finland, parallel to the Olympics. Kyle is the first American to win Overall and Open competitive divisions. The US men’s team is the first American team to win ‘Team’ overall as well. Kyle shares his thoughts on the championship win, his custom Zion -15 SPR Rifle, and his preparation physically to take on the 30 stage event. We heartily congratulate him on this momentous achievement!
“When I first met and approached Kyle about shooting for IWI, we talked a lot about his vision and goals. From the start it’s been to win a major AK match shooting iron sights with 7.62×39 and to go overseas for a World Championship. It’s been super exciting to be a part of this journey with him. On behalf of IWI US congratulations sir. Now we start the process of running it back in 2028” – Jeremy Gresham, Vice President of IWI US’ Sales and Marketing
“After a successful run at this year’s IPSC World Shoot competition in Finland, I’d like to share the training regimen and the rifle set-up that got me to first place.” -Kyle Litzie
The 2024 Rifle world shoot was truly a world class rifle match. We shot 30 stages that tested every aspect of practical rifle skill. Unlike ‘boring’ olympic shooting sports (except that Turkish fellow) where you stand in one place, IPSC allows you to flow through stages in the most efficient way you deem possible and shoot semi-auto centerfire rifles. This means sprinting, running and gunning, diving into prone and using barricades and props.
The match was scored in hit factor, accuracy+time, which pushes practical accuracy and rewards shooting the A zone of the target while still maintaining speed. We shot from 5 to 388 yards in standing, prone and everything in between. In IPSC they push paper targets much farther than we do in the states, forcing you to call perfect shots or accept brutal penalties. I managed to shoot the entire match with no penalties and the highest count of A zone hits resulting in a first place finish.
The Semi-Automatic Rifle I Used To Win
For several years now I have been using the IWI Zion SPR 18″. The foundation of the SPR makes for an extremely versatile and accurate rifle. The main upgrades I made to the SPR, to outfit it for a world championship, are the UNRIVALED UB-5.56 muzzle brake, UDB-M4-C Buffer system, and the Ultralight Titanium BCG. I also ran the Dissident arms Adaptive Stock.
The stock SPR barrel, Bolt and Receiver set makes for a accurate and reliable rifle, the UNRIVALED parts almost eliminate all recoil from the system and work together in harmony to maintain reliability while still pushing the edge of performance, and the Dissident Stock allows me to dial in the ergonomics with exacting precision.
I top the rifle with a vortex Razor 1-6 and a Vortex Defender ST dot at 45 degrees. The Razor is fast with its extremely bright dot and has high quality glass for the long shots. Those who use them know what I am talking about. I used a carbon fiber handguard to cut a bit of weight, but I won’t mention what company because it was terribly made and I had to heavily modify it to make it useful. I plan on making my own version to ensure there is a well made carbon fiber handguard available in the future. I also have a couple other Prototype UNRIVALED parts on the rifle like a grip I have been working on, as well as a butt pad.
After the last rifle world shoot in 2019 I realized the Europeans had better rifles than us, and it has been my goal to make the ultimate setup ever since. I designed all UNRIVALED parts with my partner Zack Smith to be the best in the world and it was a no brainer to team up with IWI and put our parts on and in a Zion.
I couldn’t ask for a better rifle to use and I can always trust them to be accurate and have tight machining tolerances without the fluff of other brands.
Competition Training & Preparation
To prepare for this match I spent countless hours in the gym, on the range, and dry firing in my apartment. To shoot at the highest level in an IPSC competition requires you to fight a war on multiple fronts.
Time In The Gym
First it requires a level of physical fitness and explosive movement combined with the ability to stop on a dime. I generally spend 3 days a week powerlifting to build my foundation of strength. The other 4 days in the week I will either do cardio hikes in steep mountains near where I live in Orange County CA or I practice sprints in a HITT style training.
Range Time
The next aspect of my training was live fire. As things ramped up I went from 1 day a week at the range to 4 days a week at the range the final week leading up to the match. Despite the government in CA being absolutely horrible we actually have an amazing shooting culture. We have more local matches in the LA/OC area than anywhere in the US. This allows me to shoot local matches for training almost every weekend. Besides local matches I spent countless hours running drills at the range. These varied from focused simple fundamental drills like EL PREZ, at 20, 50 and 100 yards, to complex stages and long range training shooting prone and off of barricades.
Dry Firing For Repetitions
The final and most important aspect of my training is dry fire. 5 days a week I spend 30 min to 1.5 hours dry firing. It is the only way to truly get the reps that are required to be a champion (unless you’re some sort of multi millionaire which I’m not lol)
I think people see dry fire as something to practice manipulations like reloads, but it can be so much more. With the right amount of creativity you can recreate any shooting scenario that you may face without ever firing a shot. My rifle having so little recoil also adds to the effectiveness of this dry training since recoil is the one thing you really can’t experience without shooting.