18 minute read
PRS PROFILE: WELCOMED ABOARD
It wasn’t until after a tour of duty in the Navy that Jose Garza II became interested in precision rifles, but five years in he’s competing in national-level events.
WELCOMED ABOARD
A relative latecomer to the precision shooting world, Jose Garza II’s been embraced by it, and hugs back.
PHOTOS BY JOSE GARZA II
Unlike many of the shooters profiled in these pages, Jose Garza II didn’t grow up hunting and shooting, nor did he harbor a lifelong interest in firearms. His path to competitive shooting and the Precision Rifle Series is a much different one.
“I was the son of a single mother working two jobs to provide for her family,” he explains. “I didn’t have a father growing up to teach me about firearms or hunting, unlike the other boys. After high school I joined the Navy, working as an aircraft mechanic on the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier, so no firearms training there either.”
It wasn’t until Garza got out of the military and moved home that he started getting interested in firearms in general.
“In my free time I watched a lot of YouTube,” he recalls. “I discovered John McQuay, also known as ‘8541 Tactical.’ He had a whole playlist on precision rifles. I then purchased a Remington 700 SPS AAC-SD 20-inch .308 Winchester similar to what John McQuay had, in an HS Precision stock and Bushnell scope. I purchased Federal Gold Medal Match 168-grain Sierra Match factory ammo because that is what I thought you were supposed to do. Once I had it, I had no idea what to do with it.” After attending a nearby precision rifle class where he didn’t learn as much as he wanted to, Garza researched local clubs and found Texas Precision Matches.
“I reached out to the match director via email, explained that I was totally new, I didn’t know anything, and had limited gear other than a rifle,” he says. “The director assured me that it was OK to ‘just show up!’ so in October of 2017 I showed up to my first match ever. I didn’t know a single soul. As soon as I arrived, I introduced myself to the first person I saw. I explained, ‘I’ve never been here before and I have no idea what I’m doing.’ A gentleman by the name of Tyson Brown giggled, smiled, and said, ‘Right this way.’ He led me to the office where you signed in and paid.”
“At the time, you had to pay in cash; I didn’t know that. I had no cash on me and the nearest ATM was too far to get to. It was at this very moment I knew that
A Houston resident, Garza entered his first local shoot in October 2017. A cash-only event, another person in line paid for his entry.
Learning how to handload his own ammunition was an early step in Garza’s path, and his instructor – his stepfather – also became his shooting coach.
JOSE GARZA II’S RIFLE & GEAR
• Cartridge: 6mmBRA • Barrel: Bartlein Barrels Heavy Varmint (28-inch) • Muzzle brake: American Precision Arms
Gen 3 Self Timing Muzzle Brake • Stock: Foundation Stocks • WieBad Mini Stock Pad • Action: Defiance Machine Deviant Tactical • Mount/rings: American Rifle Company
M-Brace Mount • Scope: Kahles Scopes DLR or Vortex Razor
Gen III • Trigger: Trigger Tech Diamond this group of people were on the right path; the person behind me heard what was going on and offered to pay my match fee just so I could shoot. I was so grateful and humbled, I really could not believe it! Afterwards I told him, ‘We’re going to be friends’ and that I would pay him back. At the end of the day, I got my butt kicked, finishing nearly last place, but I didn’t care. I had an absolute blast! I met several people and the trip down the rabbit hole began.”
Every month for the next six months, Garza continued to show up to matches, where “I got my teeth kicked in, but I learned every single trip.” Soon he realized that if he was going to continue to shoot, he needed to learn to handload, so he enlisted the help of his stepfather Steve Hickman, a Vietnam vet, retired police officer and firearms instructor. “I was really nervous and quite frankly a little afraid of blowing myself up,” says Garza. “But it all worked out and, moving forward, he would continue coaching me through my precision rifle journey.”
After six months of competition, Garza was all in. He just needed one more thing.
“I reached out to Mr. Bug Holes himself, Greg Young at Southern Precision Rifles, and ordered a full custom rifle: Defiance Machine receiver, McMillan stock, Bartlein barrel, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor,” he explains. “After a fourmonth wait, I had it in my hands. My performance skyrocketed, (but) after some time, I plateaued. I learned an important lesson: gear isn’t everything! I had to practice and get training. I later reached out to Phil Velayo, who was incredibly helpful when I first got my custom rifle, regarding rifle setup and
“I got my teeth kicked in,” recalls Garza of his early matches, “but I learned every single trip.”
Acquiring a top-tier long-range rifle really sparked the shooter’s performance, but when it plateaued he realized that lots of practice and training were also needed to improve his scores.
length of pull. I’m forever grateful to him.”
The rest is history. Garza participates monthly in club matches, and more recently has gathered the courage to jump into the “Open Class” two-day national-level matches. “I’d like to get to three or four national-level matches (a year) in hopes to qualify for the finale,” he says.
Garza recalls a moment from his very first national-level match in Carbon Hill, Alabama. “There was a stage that was a reverse ‘KYL’ (Know Your Limits). Traditionally, there are an array of targets on a rack that progressively get smaller and smaller. On this stage, you had to start with the smallest target and you had to hit the first target in order to move on to the next target. I saw several professional-level shooters get zero points on this stage. In my mind, I thought it was going to be the same for me; however, I think I just got lucky. On my third shot trying to hit the smallest target, I saw in my scope the target spun violently! As fast as I could, I moved on to the next, and on to the next, and I completed the stage with the maximum points. I was thrilled beyond belief!”
Garza is proof that even if you didn’t grow up around firearms, it’s never too late to start.
“It doesn’t matter what background you have. Where you came from. What your past is. If you’re interested in this sport, just start! Reach out to a local club and show up! You will not regret it!” Editor’s note: For more information on the Precision Rifle Series, visit precisionrifleseries.com.
“If you’re interested in this sport, just start!” urges Garza, who has shot 56 Precision Rifle Series matches so far. “Reach out to a local club and show up! You will not regret it!”
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The Battles That Shaped America
Actor Kelsey Grammer’s new series depicts turning points in US wars.
STORY BY CHRIS COCOLES • PHOTOS BY FOX NATION
Our country takes immense pride in its military history, and even the battles lost take on a sentimental sense of nostalgia and inspiration.
In a new subscriptionbased Fox Nation streaming series hosted by actor and producer Kelsey Grammer, some of America’s most pivotal skirmishes in its most critical wars are analyzed and dissected by the historians and military experts who appear on the show with their interpretations.
The first season of Kelsey Grammer’s Historic Battles for America premiered on May 1 with eight episodes that cover a period from the 13 Colonies’ battle for independence from Great Britain to the Texas revolution to the Civil War and, finally, to General George Armstrong Custer’s doomed campaign at Little Bighorn.
In a press release, Fox Nation president Jason Klarman called Grammer “a legend in the entertainment industry, and we are proud to bring his talents to our platform.”
Actor Kelsey Grammer made a career from his comedic portrayal of wisecracking Dr. Frasier Crane on the iconic sitcoms Cheers and Frasier, but he’s also a history buff who has an appreciation for our troops in past wars. That passion was the driving force behind his new Fox Nation series, Kelsey Grammer’s Historic Battles for America.
The first episode of the series focuses on the Battle of Bunker Hill in and around Boston, the first major skirmish of the War for Independence. It was technically a Continental Army defeat at the hands of the British, but it’s also considered the moment when the colonists were considered formidable enough to be a difficult rebellion to turn back.
WHAT CAN WE learn about United States history through its wars? That extraordinary achievements can be done by ordinary men – at least ordinary until they become legendary.
In an episode about the Battle of Brooklyn (Long Island), which occurred just over a month after the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, Continental Army General George Washington’s troops were on the verge of a catastrophic defeat and literally backed into a corner.
“George Washington and 9,000 of his men find themselves surrounded in Brooklyn, New York, by the largest military force yet assembled in North America,” Grammer narrates in the episode. “With his back pinned against the East River, Washington must find a way to save his troops and keep the dream of America alive. The fate of the revolution and the future of a newly independent nation hangs in the balance. One wrong move and the entire army could be captured, Washington himself drawn and quartered, and the whole cause irrevocably doomed.”
Of course, we know that General Washington – future first president and the patriarch of the Founding Fathers – led the ragtag Continental Army past the famed British Redcoats (featured in the very next episode of the series, “Yorktown”). But the series delves into plenty of “what ifs” as it analyzes these events that could have changed the history books forever, such as how vulnerable Washington and his men were in present-day Brooklyn and adjacent New York City.
There’s also the Custer episode, where one of our most self-promoting and arrogant commanders was thinking about joining Washington and Ulysses S. Grant (more on him later) as war-heroes-turned-presidents of the United States. Except he was outfoxed and ultimately slaughtered along with his Seventh Cavalry troops by another group fighting for freedom, the Lakota, Cheyenne and other tribes fronted by leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, in one of the bigger losses in American military history.
Custer and celebrated but similarly destined martyrs like Alamo defenders Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie – they were the biggest names of the 250 or so Texans who were overwhelmed by the Mexican army – also get plenty of air time in the first season. But the series is locked in on some of the most crucial swing moments of important victories in our nation’s first centuryplus of existence. It’s clearly a passion project for the show’s namesake.
KELSEY GRAMMER’S CHARACTER Dr. Frasier Crane became one of TV’s most iconic roles, its shelf-life lasting two beloved series spanning the mid1980s through the turn of the century.
Dr. Crane, the vain and narcissistic but also brilliant and kind psychiatrist, was one of those everybody-knowsyour-name patrons at the bar on the sitcom Cheers. When the series
General George Washington, who would soon become free America’s first commander in chief, was featured prominently in the first three episodes of the series chronicling key Revolutionary War conflicts. “Washington’s tenacity and commitment to the idea of this being a free nation that respected individual rights,” Grammer recently said in a Fox Nation interview. “His intuitiveness was breathtaking. For him to single-handedly endure through what he did against all sorts of odds.”
The ragtag group of American patriots who fought their way to freedom helped create a new country independent of its former overseas overlords.
ended its epic 11-season run in 1993, Grammer’s Crane alter-ego was directly spun off into a show aptly called Frasier, wherein the doctor leaves Boston for his hometown of Seattle and hosts a local radio show. Like Cheers, Frasier was a big hit and also stayed on the air for 11 seasons before its final episode in 2004 (a reboot of the series is reportedly in the works).
Crane was Grammer’s careermaking gig and the now-67-yearold, who was born in the US Virgin Islands and raised in New Jersey and Florida, won two Golden Globes and three Emmy Awards for the role. He’s also had a long career of film and additional TV credits and has been a successful producer along the way.
But he also has a love of history and was inspired to kickstart his current project. In an interview with Fox Nation anchor Dana Perino, Grammer cited a high school history teacher who was partly responsible for his reverence for the US military legacy that his series chronicles.
“I have a long and sort of abiding appreciation for what people have done for this country,” he told Perino. “And it does seem to be woefully lacking in our curriculum these days. A lot of kids I don’t think even know who George Washington is. And that seems impossible to me.”
And Washington’s legacy as the commander who somehow made an impossible, against-all-odds fight a successful one has stuck with Grammer, who during the process of making this series reached a level of appreciation for the “Father of the Country.”
“Washington’s tenacity and commitment to the idea of this being a free nation that respected individual rights… His intuitiveness was breathtaking. For him to singlehandedly endure through what he did against all sorts of odds. We had a third of the country that wasn’t interested and a third that didn’t care. And a third that was willing to die for it. Maybe that’s not much different than today. I don’t know.”
The sacrifices of so many – in the fight for independence, in a hopeless cause to defend a tiny mission in modern-day San Antonio, and in the blood-soaked battlefields of Virginia and Maryland – are inspiring.
“It’s always sort of the scope of the size of what they achieved,” Grammer said in the interview. “The commitment it took, the actual human toll that was part of the sacrifice that these men made. And the men who survived afterward continued to make.”
SOME OF THE most compelling episodes of Kelsey Grammer’s Historic Battles for America highlight the Civil War, which in many ways defines what America was and should even remind us of what
General George Armstrong Custer was vain and a self-promoter who had aspirations to become President of the United States. Instead, he would be defeated (and killed) by the Native American tribes he attacked at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana.
America can still be, even as division in this country mushrooms.
The show features three critical battles in the conflict: 1861’s first Battle of Bull Run, Antietam (1862) and the Vicksburg campaign from a year later. All three fights proved to be both sobering and tide-turning in this most vicious of American wars.
“Ever since the framers of the Constitution proclaimed that all men are created equal, but then preserved the institution of slavery,” Grammer narrates in the Bull Run episode, “many felt a Civil War between North and South was all but inevitable. But very few could ever imagine how long that war would last and just how horrific a toll it would take, starting with Bull Run.”
Bull Run was fought at a time when nobody expected any serious fighting, to the point that curious onlookers came over from Washington, DC, to picnic and watch the action. Antietam proved to be the bloodiest single day in American history, but most importantly was the platform for President Lincoln to follow through on his Emancipation Proclamation to finally free enslaved Americans.
And Vicksburg became the lesser celebrated of two major Union victories (along with Gettysburg) that remarkably happened at the same time and turned the tide for good. Grant led a challenging march through the swamps of Mississippi and Louisiana to get in position and finally capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg along the Mississippi River. That triumph cut the South in two and – along with Gettysburg’s Union troops that stymied General Robert Lee’s gamble and seemingly futile Pickett’s Charge – all but dashed Southern hopes, ironically right around the same time as America celebrated its 87th Independence Day in 1863.
Grant, who like Washington parlayed military glory all the way to the White House, particularly inspired Grammer, he told Perino in their interview. Grant had his own issues away from the battlefield victories that he made his career from. He was a failed businessman in nearly every venture he tried and he drank too much, even sometimes while deployed in combat.
But at the same time, he was an effective fighting general – despite
the enormous casualties his units suffered in a costly but successful strategy – that the Union sorely lacked in the early years of the war. Such a gameplan filled with casualties on both sides was needed to eventually suffocate the Confederacy and unite a divided nation when the Rebels threw down their weapons at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, in 1865.
Grant, whom Grammer called an “extraordinary guy,” is just one of many only-in-America characters depicted in the series who shaped the nation through war. Editor’s note: For more on Kelsey Grammer’s Historic Battles for America and to subscribe, go to nation.foxnews.com/kelsey-grammershistoric-battles-for-america-nation.
General Ulysses S. Grant was a failed businessman who drank too much, but he was the fierce fighter the Union needed to defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War. His biggest triumph was methodically capturing the heavily fortified Mississippi River port of Vicksburg in 1863. “I really didn’t realize the breadth of his dedication,” Grammer told Fox in his interview about future President Grant. “Even in the face of the fact that he had some personal, what they like to call ‘demons’ these days. He dedicated himself to making a couple of very unpleasant decisions in order to fulfill the promise of freedom for everybody.”
