ACCOKEEK, Md. — Five years ago, breaking a clay target at 180 yards with a shotgun seemed like the outer edge of the possible. Professional exhibition shooter Steve Gould, who set that mark in 2021, has now moved the edge considerably: a 110 mm clay target broken at 201 yards, the first time any shooter has crushed a clay beyond the 200-yard line.
Gould made the shot with Benelli’s Ethos SuperSport A.I. shotgun, built around the company’s Advanced Impact barrel and choke system, loaded with Federal Heavyweight TSS No. 7 ammunition. According to Benelli, independent third-party analysts verified each distance to within fractions of an inch using a Trimble surveyor-grade total station.
The 201-yard break capped a session that produced three distance benchmarks, each tied to a different class of shotshell. Gould opened by breaking a clay at 130 yards with standard target loads, a distance long considered out of reach for conventional target ammunition. He then stretched to 160 yards with Federal Prairie Storm, a lead-based upland hunting load. Tungsten Super Shot carried the final and farthest attempt.
“This is more than just a new record,” Gould said. “This is proof of what can happen when groundbreaking shotgun technology, premium ammunition and relentless determination come together. We believed 180 yards was pushing the limits of what a shotgun could accomplish. To break a target at 201 certified yards is simply incredible.”
Distance shooting with a shotgun compounds two problems at once—patterns open up and pellet energy bleeds away, so a clay might survive even a direct hit. Benelli designed the Advanced Impact barrel and choke system to fight both, maintaining downrange velocity, tighter patterns and greater retained energy than conventional barrel systems. Federal’s Heavyweight TSS attacks the same problems from the payload side. Tungsten Super Shot is far denser than lead, which packs more pellets into the shell while each pellet holds its energy longer, and the same No. 7 TSS load helped Gould reach 180 yards in 2021.
One half of the Gould Brothers exhibition shooting duo, Gould has been rewriting this particular record for the better part of a decade. He and brother Aaron broke a clay at 160 yards in 2019, and Steve’s 180-yard shot two years later was widely expected to stand for a long while. The new mark beats it by more than 20 yards.
“Records are meant to be broken, but milestones like this redefine expectations,” Benelli USA CEO Tom DeBolt said. “Steve Gould’s achievement is a testament to innovation, dedication and the relentless pursuit of performance. The Ethos SuperSport A.I. was built to push boundaries, and today it helped make shotgun history.”
Watch the full world record attempt. Learn more about the Ethos SuperSport A.I. shotgun at benelliusa.com.
