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Team Benelli World-Record Holder Tom Knapp

Tom Knapp is one of today’s great ambassadors for the shooting sports. His amazing shows have been inspiring crowds for decades.

One of the world’s foremost professional exhibition shooters, Tom Knapp performs worldwide, thrilling audiences of all ages with his amazing shooting skills. His extraordinary demonstrations always offer an exciting experience and are enjoyed by hard-core gun enthusiasts as well as folks who have never seen a shotgun up close.

Whether he’s shooting something out of the air—his own ejected shotgun shells, a handful of eggs or fast-moving clay targets—Tom Knapp undeniably puts on a show that you won’t want to miss.

Recognized as the greatest exhibition shooter of modern times, Knapp presents shooting exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, delighting countless spectators with his seemingly impossible shotgun feats. He has also appeared on national television to recreate some of the extraordinary displays of shooting skill of the great trick shooters of the Old West.

World Record No. 1

Tom Knapp joined Benelli in 1993 when he set the world record with his Benelli M1 Super 90 by throwing and breaking nine standard clay targets with individual shots in 2.0 seconds!

World Record No. 2

On July 19, 2000, Tom Knapp, with his Benelli Nova Pump in one hand, threw eight clay targets into the air with his other hand and broke every one of them with individual shots in an amazing 1.87 seconds.

World Record No. 3

On October, 20, 2004, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Tom Knapp set out to make history again. With his 12-gauge Benelli M2, fitted with a ComforTech™ stock and extended magazine tube, Tom launched ten clay targets into the air with one hand and shot all ten with individual shots in an unbelievable 2.0 seconds.

Knapp holds several distinctive world records. Already the holder of two world records for hand-thrown clay targets—9 clays with a Benelli M1 Super 90 in 1993 and 8 clays with a Benelli Nova Pump in 2000—Knapp set out to do it again on October 20, 2004, and achieved the unbelievable, shooting 10 clay targets out of the air in 2.2 seconds with a ComforTech™-fitted Benelli M2 Field. He broke each target with a single shot.

Today, Tom Knapp and sharpshooter Tim Bradley make up Benelli’s Super Exhibition Team. The two have been featured on a mini-series on ESPN2 Outdoors. Each two-and-a-half minute show, produced and filmed in-house by Benelli Multimedia, showcased Knapp’s shooting talents, including an array of his exceptional techniques.

A great craftsman needs the right tools. And the shotguns that Knapp uses to make his amazing shots are made by Benelli. He maintains that hard work and commitment are vital, but adds, “Without the right equipment, I could never do it. That’s why I shoot Benellis.” During one of his shoots Knapp quipped, “The Benelli is so easy to fire, it almost performs without me!”

In 2007, Knapp donated his Benelli M1 Super 90 to the Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody, Wyoming, where it joined the guns of other great exhibition shooters like Herb Parsons and Annie Oakley, on permanent display. (Knapp’s Super 90 wasn’t worn out, by the way. Despite firing more than half a million rounds, it was still going strong.)

Stephen McKelvain, Benelli USA’s VP of Marketing & Communications, sees Tom Knapp as a true asset for Benelli. “We consider ourselves really fortunate to have an exhibition shooter of Tom’s experience and extraordinary talent representing Benelli,” he remarked. “His performances show that Benelli shotguns can handle any extreme shooting challenge that Tom puts them through.”

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