The First Time I Shot A Sport Pistol

I still vividly remember the first time I shot a Sport Pistol.

It was an old Hammerli AP20, and I had never shot a sport pistol in my life — apart from the almost obligatory tourist stop at a shooting range in Florida, blasting a random assortment of guns for fun like half of us Aussies seem to do when we end up in the States.

Daniel’s first introduction to target pistol shooting

My then coach — and good mate — Robbie had gone to the trouble of collecting me from home, driving me an hour to his pistol club, setting me up on a chair, putting up some 10m Air Pistol targets, and showing me the basics.

I took a few breaths, raised the pistol, and fired it in the general direction of the target.

And somehow… I hit it.

I honestly can’t remember where it landed. I don’t even think I cared.

All I knew was: I hit the target.

And that was enough.

Why the chair?

Well… that’s where this whole story really starts.

And it’s also how I eventually came to be Nationally Classified by Shooting Australia as a World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) athlete.

Robbie and I used to ride motorcycles together years ago. When he lost his foot to gangrene, he mostly gave up riding, life moved on, and over time we lost touch.

Then in November 2020, I had a motorcycle accident that changed my life forever.

And I mean that literally.

I was stupid. I wasn’t wearing the right gear, and I jumped on a high-powered motocross dirt bike without giving enough thought to the consequences.

Before I knew it, I had torn my left foot clean off my leg.

Not “nearly”.
Not “badly injured”.

Actually torn it off.

If you want to read the full horror story, you can do that over on 15 Digits.

After multiple surgeries, a mountain of pain, and what felt like an endless recovery, the surgeons managed to reattach my foot. It was fused at 90 degrees, and I lost about 5cm of length in my left leg.

That was the point I started thinking about Robbie again.

So I reached out.

At the time, I needed moral support more than anything else — and Robbie knew exactly what I was going through.

He could see the decline in my mental health, probably before I was willing to admit it myself.

And he was blunt about it.

He told me I needed to find something new.

A new hobby.
A new passion.
Something to throw myself into the same way I had with motorcycles.

And he had just the thing in mind:

Shooting.

The first thing that felt like me again

At first, I didn’t know if it would be “my thing”.

Then I fired that first shot.

And pretty quickly, I realised it ticked more boxes than I expected.

It gave me focus.
It gave me challenge.
It gave me something technical to obsess over.
And somehow, in a way I didn’t see coming, it scratched that same part of my brain that used to crave adrenaline.

It gave me something to chase again.

So we made the call — I was going to pursue it properly.

That meant learning how to get my firearms licence, joining a club, figuring out disability classification for ISSF / WSPS shooting, and working out how many times a week Robbie was willing to come and pick me up from what was basically my home hospital bed and take me to train.

And before long, I was all in.

Honestly… I also wasn’t terrible at it.

Early training sessions during recovery

Getting a firearms licence in Australia is a long and painful enough process that I won’t drag you through it here.

But what is important is this:

I found myself again.

Or at least, I started to.

I found a reason to get up.
I found a mental health plan that wasn’t written on a prescription pad.
I found something I genuinely loved doing.
And I found something I could be competitive at.

Before I really had time to process what was happening, I was entering Opens — and in 2022, I won my first WSPS State Title.

I also beat Robbie.

At the time, he was the only other WSPS athlete competing.

A moment that shifted the goalposts

And I reckon it was around then — when I got handed that little State Title plaque — that a thought quietly started forming in the back of my mind:

Could I actually represent Australia one day?

At a World Cup.
At an international event.
Maybe even… the Paralympics.

That’s a massive goal, and I’m under no illusion about what it takes.

It’ll take years.
It’ll take discipline.
It’ll take technical improvement, consistency, mental resilience, and a lot of work behind the scenes that no one ever sees.

But that’s exactly what this blog is about.

What I’ll be sharing here

This is where I’ll share the real journey — not just the polished bits.

The training.
The coaching.
The wins.
The frustrating days.
The lessons.
The match plans.
The performance goals.
The gear.
The mindset.
And all the little things that happen in between.

I’ll also share how I got involved with Stefi at Precision Shot Pro, and how I ended up becoming a brand ambassador along the way.

So if any part of this resonates with you — whether you’re a shooter, a competitor, someone rebuilding after life went sideways, or you’re just curious where this all leads —

Stick around.

Because this first shot turned into something much bigger than I ever expected.

And I’m only just getting started.

Athlete Profile – Daniel Michael

Daniel Michael is a WSPS pistol athlete from Victoria, Australia, a member of the Victorian State Team, and a Precision Shot Pro brand ambassador. He found shooting later in life following a life-changing motorcycle accident, and what began as part of recovery has grown into an ongoing pursuit of performance, progression, and the dream of one day representing Australia on the world stage.