ATHABASCA – An Athabasca man is officially the best shot in the country when it comes to the F-Class long distance discipline, after finishing first at a week-long national tournament held in Gagetown, N.B.
Brian Sztym is a contractor by day, working with his wife Lorelei Sztym at their company Blue Sky Ventures, but he’s spent the last decade training and competing as a long-distance sniper, hitting a five-inch bullseye from 900 metres away.
“I enjoy the challenge of having to read the wind, and also the calibre of competitors that we have here in Canada to shoot against,” said Sztym in a July 16 interview.
Sztym said he grew up hunting, spending time in the woods ever since he was a kid, but he didn’t start competing until a chance encounter with a friend of a friend in 2015 opened his eyes to the sport.
“I met a guy while I was on a hunting trip, and at the time he was the captain of the national team and he asked if I would be interested in trying it out just to see if I liked the sport,” said Sztym.
“Lorelei decided that I need a hobby other than working all the time and she told me to give it a try.”
Fast forward a decade, and it turns out Sztym has a knack for hitting the bullseye. While the 2025 win was his first gold medal, he finished second in 2023, and third in 2024, and will be the captain of Canada’s national team when they head to Bisley, U.K. for the 2026 world championship next August.
“I’ve just been competing each year and slowly working my way up the ranks,” said Sztym.
Despite the stellar result, Sztym wasn’t sure if he was even going to be competing this year. A shoulder dislocation back in April made competing a murky prospect, and it wasn’t until the week before nationals, where Sztym finished third in the Canadian Westerns, that he figured he would be okay to make the journey east.
During the event, competitors shoot from the prone position. The long distance can make training a bit of a logistical challenge, but Sztym and Lorelei are both able to practice on a cutline on their property.
“Preparing for the competition is basically load development, so making sure your gun is shooting the best it possibly can, and practice,” said Sztym, who uses a .284 Winchester during competitions.
“There’s smaller matches throughout the year in different places like B.C., a few different places in Alberta, and also in Saskatchewan that we go to as well.”
Next up for the Sztym’s will be a trip to Toronto for another national championship, this time in bodybuilding. Lorelei qualified for nationals after winning the Northern Classic Natural bodybuilding competition last October, and her husband couldn’t be more excited to go support her.
“We just support each other. She loves her bodybuilding, and she competes in shooting as well. We’ve built a network of our friends in both disciplines,” he said.
