It was almost becoming old hat in the Rifle event of the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

Jerry Miculek would fire off a bunch of rounds in a blinding hail of bullets and falling targets then walk to the medal platform and walk away with the gold medal in 2001 and 2002.

Meanwhile, Doug Koenig, three-time silver medalist, was getting all too familiar with being bowled over by Miculek and walking to the platform to accept the silver medal with Miculek's credo ringing in his ears.

	Doug Koenig (above) finally got the better of Jerry Miculek in 2003.

"My philosophy is: Let it rip," Miculek said after each gold medal round. "I shoot on percentages. At least a third of it (bullets) will hit (the target).

"If a guy hears me hitting it off, it might distract him. My goal is to have everyone as aggravated as possible."

Koenig was at the top of the aggravated list, as Miculek blazed through medal rounds on the way to setting speed records and stacking up gold medals in the Great Outdoor Games.

But that all changed in 2003.

In an amazing turnabout, Koenig let it rip against Miculek, wiping out 14 targets in 16 shots with a time of 18 seconds to finally win the elusive gold medal.

"That's the run I've been wanting to have against Jerry for a few years," Koenig said after the match. "I knew I needed to exorcise the demon of Jerry."

But that doesn't mean Miculek is completely exorcised. As a matter of fact, he may have a score to settle in the 2004 Great Outdoor Games.

"I was not where I would like to be physically," said Miculek, who explained that he was taking antibiotics for a puncture wound in his left hand during the competition.

In a game that lives by hand-eye coordination Miculek competed with a staph infection in his thumb in the 2003 Great Outdoor Games. The day before the Rifle event, he had multiple injections in his thumb.

"My shot was off," he said. "I felt pretty wacky during the shooting and wasn't seeing what I wanted to see through the scope."

For anybody else that would have to seem like an excuse. But for a shooter who had won every gold medal he ever attempted to win until last year, it's a possible reason for losing you have to listen to.

And what makes it more fun is the obvious match-up that is looming on the horizon in the 2004 Great Outdoor Games.

Miculek has obviously healed from his 2003 injuries. But Koenig has a level of confidence that can't be denied.

One can only hope that these two will meet in the final round of the rifle event.

The shooters in the contest compete in a head-to-head bracketed format, where two shooters stand side-by-side and race each other to see who can shoot 14 targets the quickest.

The targets include a horizontal row of 10 targets, varying from three to six inches in diameter. Once those are down, shooters switch to the "tree," a horizontal row of four targets, starting from the bottom with a 31/2-inch circle and ending at the top with a 11/2-inch circle.

The game measures accuracy and speed.

In 2004, it will measure who has the demons and who doesn't.