The Mind Game
Der dänische FBX-Schütze Jonas Prip unterschätzt niemals seinen härtesten Konkurrenten: sich selbst.
When Jonas Prip talks about shooting, he does not begin with medals, world titles, or championship podiums. He begins with his father. “Long before I was old enough to hold a shotgun, I was already following my father on bird hunts across the Danish countryside.” He watched the dogs, listened to wings beat overhead, absorbed a hunting culture that would shape the course of his life. At ten years old, he fired his first shots.
Today, at 29, the Danish shooter is one of the most respected names in Scandinavian clay shooting. Yet despite a world title, multiple Danish championships, and countless top finishes, his greatest opponent has never been the shooter standing next to him. It has always been himself. Being challenged, he especially values a tip his father has given him early on: Keep it calm, no matter what. “Without my father I would not be where I am today”, Jonas says.
A game of inches. A game of mind.
Ask Jonas what fascinates him most about shooting and his answer comes straight forward. “It’s working with yourself,” he says. “Your body, your mind. When all the hard work finally pays off, that feeling is incredible.” His personal formula for success is simple: “Eighty percent is mind game. Twenty percent is technique.”
That is a bold statement coming from a shooter whose technique has been refined through tens of thousands of cartridges. During his most intensive years, Jonas fired around 20,000 shots annually. Today, with a young family demanding more of his time, that number has dropped considerably. Yet his approach remains unchanged: Confidence comes first. “I always tell myself that I’m the best. I know what I’m doing.”
It sounds almost playful, but beneath the humor lies a serious truth. When shooting against the top shooters of the world, the places of the podium are often decided by a single target – after four days of shooting! At world championship level, one bird can easily move a competitor ten places up or down the leaderboard. The difference between a very good shooter and an excellent one? Jonas: “The last three targets.”
From World Champion to Family Man
One of the defining moments of Jonas’ career came in 2015 at the World Championship in Compak Sporting. The victory earned him the junior world title and was the start of the partnership with Blaser that continues to this day. “But I have always been shooting a Blaser shotgun since 2009”, remembers Jonas. Today he shoots the FBX. “The balance is fantastic. The recoil management is great, and I really like how adjustable it is.” That smooth, controlled movement is critical for Jonas’ preferred shooting style. His go-to technique is swing-through, a method that allows him to connect naturally with the target before accelerating through it. “I like to get right behind the bird, feel it, then pull through and make the shot” says Jonas.
Family, friends and bird hunting
Away from competition, Jonas remains deeply connected to his hunting roots. Bird hunting is still his greatest passion, particularly duck and pigeon shooting. “It’s family tradition,” he says, “and always includes good friends and happy times.”
Those same values are beginning to shape a new chapter in his life. Jonas and his wife have two young children, aged four and two. “The balance has changed,” he admits. “Now it’s family first, then work, then shooting.” Not that shooting is disappearing anytime soon. He just won the Danish DIF Championships with an impressive 196 out of 200 clay targets and finished third at the Danish Championships.
His plans for the coming years already involve combining competitions with family travel, introducing his children to the sport and lifestyle that have defined so much of his own journey. Perhaps one day they will stand beside him on a shooting ground, just as he once stood beside his father. And if they ask him for advice on becoming a better shooter? “Get a gun that fits you perfectly. Then shoot. A lot.”
Text: Alexandra Berton; Fotos: privat, Gunther Stoschek
Danish FBX shooter Jonas Prip never underestimates his greatest competitor: himself.
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