In a weekend defined by hard holding and sharp shooting, Cathy Winstead-Severin of Team Lapua emerged as the standout competitor at the 2025 Iron Man Silhouette Regional Championship. Held June 7-8 at the Deep Creek Rifle Range in Missoula, Montana, the event drew some of the sport’s most skilled competitors to Big Sky Country—and Winstead-Severin proved she was the one to beat.
The Iron Man Silhouette Regional Championship, hosted by the Hellgate Civilian Shooter’s Association, is a true test of skill and endurance. Competitors fire eight 40-shot matches—split evenly between smallbore and high power—across two intense days. It’s a format that pushes even the most seasoned competition shooters to their limits.
Winstead-Severin, a fixture in the silhouette rifle shooting world, navigated the course with poise and precision. Her edge came not just from experience, but from solid equipment choices. She used Berger 109-grain Long Range Hybrid Target bullets for the heavy ram targets, while relying on Lapua’s 90-grain Scenar-L for the lighter chicken, pig, and turkey silhouettes. For the smallbore matches, she turned to Midas+ rimfire ammo, carefully matched to her rifle for optimal performance.
“I always love shooting up in Missoula, at this range, which is tucked into the mountains surrounded with family, longtime friends and the smell of pine. With the match being double what is normally shot in a day, it is named the Iron Man for a reason,” Winstead-Severin said. “It tests you mentally and physically. Thanks to everything coming together this year, for the match, I was able to capture the win with the help of Lapua products and of course my dad, who is my spotter.”
Fellow Team Lapua shooter Erich Mietenkorte, who had won the Iron Man Silhouette Regional title four years in a row, finished second this year—a strong showing in a field stacked with talent. Winstead-Severin, also a past four-time consecutive winner of the Iron Man Silhouette Championship, added another title to her already impressive résumé.
Beginning her shooting career at age seven in a BB gun program, Winstead-Severin won her first NRA Silhouette championship in 1998 and has since earned numerous national titles in smallbore and high power hunting rifle, cementing her legacy as one of the sport’s most accomplished competitors.
The NRA provided gold, silver and bronze regional championship medals for the high point aggregate in each of the four rifle types. Event sponsors contributed additional honors, including the four-gun regional championship trophy and aggregate class awards spanning all eight matches. High point recognitions were also available for junior, senior, and women competitors, provided each category had at least three entrants. Smallbore awards were distributed Sunday morning following the final match, while high power and aggregate awards concluded the event on Sunday afternoon.
The Deep Creek Rifle Range, nestled in the rugged Montana landscape, was the perfect stage for Winstead-Severin to secure the title this year.
With the Iron Man Silhouette Regional Championship trophy now hers once again, she already has her eyes on future competitions. “[I’m] looking forward to a summer full of more shooting and more great memories on the range,” she said.
Learn more about silhouette competition at nassasilhouette.org.
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