# Kiriakou's skeet shooting

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Kiriakou's skeet shooting," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-skeet-shooting/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The competitive shooting hobby that began when an octogenarian instructor at the Farm watched John Kiriakou, who had never fired a shotgun, hit steel plates at seven, twelve and twenty-five metres with a Remington pump action, and took him aside afterwards.*

- **Weapon introduced on:** Remington pump-action 12 gauge
- **Instructor:** A southern shooting instructor near his 80th birthday
- **Third reason for the Remington:** *"It makes that bitchin' sound"*
- **Afterwards:** Competitive skeet shooting at clubs around Washington

**Kiriakou's skeet shooting** began as an accident of training. Having worked through pistols in the [shooting house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shooting-house), the class moved to the Remington pump-action 12 gauge, a weapon [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) had never handled, having never fired a rifle or a shotgun in his life.[1]

The instructor was an old southerner near his eightieth birthday with a cheek full of chewing tobacco. *"Okay, youngster. So you're the one who ain't never touched a gun before."* He asked whether Kiriakou knew why they used the Remington pump action, and gave three reasons: buckshot will kill anyone breaking into your house; they are easy to load, fire and clean; and, racking it, *"it makes that bitchin' sound."* Kiriakou says he still laughs about it.[2][3]

## The plates

The drill was to knock down steel plates the size of a pie plate. Kiriakou hit both at seven metres, both at twelve, both at twenty-five. Told to try three at a time, he asked how one loads the third; the instructor showed him to hold a cartridge between two fingers of the left hand and feed it as the action opens. He did three, then four, and never missed.[4][5]

The instructor took him aside after dinner and said it would sound crazy, but he thought Kiriakou could be a competitive skeet shooter. *"And that is how I became a competitive skeet shooter. And I was darn good at it."* He shot at clubs around Washington and as far away as Warm Springs, Virginia on the West Virginia border, clay pigeons and, as he puts it, all kinds of stuff.[5][6]

## See also

- [The shooting house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shooting-house)
- [The Farm](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-farm)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 29:34. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
2. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 30:06. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
3. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 30:36. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
4. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 31:07. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
5. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 31:40. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/
6. S1E8 The James Bond Academy (2025-12-29), at 32:12. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6948511af7567117397d1a93/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-29-dead-drop-s1e8-the-james-bond-academy/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-skeet-shooting/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt