MADISON, Wis. — When 17-year-old Travis Mears stepped to the awards stand to receive the gold medal he earned in Saturday night's ESPN Outdoor Games Shotgun competition, he looked like he'd been there before.

And he had, if only in his mind.

"I've done a lot of mental training for this," said Mears.

	Travis Mears was nearly perfect in taking Shotgun gold at the 2004 Games.

The Burleson, Texas, teenager missed only two of 95 clay targets thrown his way in advancing to the final and beating former gold medalist Robbie Purser in the third round of a tiebreaker.

"Before I go to bed at night I lay there and shoot a round in my head," Mears said. "I see all the targets getting smoked."

Mears backs up the mind games with plenty of actual shooting. He wasn't particularly impressed with his gold medal winning performance.

"At home, I shoot 100 straight all the time," he said. "If I don't shoot 100 in a row, I start over and keep shooting until I do."

It took every bit of that to beat Purser, a 43-year-old UPS employee from Macon, Ga. Purser won his gold medal in 2002 and took a bronze medal last year. Although the silver medal gave Purser a complete set of Great Outdoor Games hardware, he left disappointed.

"I had a course set up in my backyard and I really practiced hard for this," Purser said. "I was a lot more prepared than I was last year."

Rob Purser had to endure an overtime battle to take the silver medal.

Purser's run to the finals included a 17-15 win over Andy Duffy in the semifinals, in which Purser survived a gun jam. Duffy, a 41-year-old shooting instructor from Ronan, Mont., defeated another young gun, 18-year-old Brett Dorak of Sobieski, Wis., to win the bronze medal.

Five of the eight quarterfinalists were under the age of 19.

"Everybody was talking about all the young guns tonight, but there were only four adults (in the 16-person field) to start with," said Purser. "Nobody else is old enough to buy beer.

"And you may have noticed two of the old-timers were up there (on the awards stand) at the end."

The Shotgun competition ended about 10:30 Saturday night. Purser surveyed the scene of "young guns" congratulating Mears and Dorak, last year's silver medalist at age 17.

He smiled and added, "It's past their bedtime."

Shotgun - Finals

1. Travis Mears, Burleson, Texas
2. Robbie Purser, Macon, Ga.
3. Andy Duffy, Ronan, Mont.
4. Brett Dorak, Sobieski, Wis.
5. Anthony Matarese Jr., Pennsville, N.J.
6. Jamie Riggs, Franklin, Tenn.
7. Chris McClelland, Stewartstown, Pa.
8. Richard Aitken, Colorado Springs, Colo.
9. Jeff Vick, Northport, Ala.
10. Tony Rivera, San Antonio, Texas
11. Cory Kruse, Liberty Hill, Texas
11. Jon Krueger, Sunman, Ind.
11. Kenny Stringer, Garland, Texas
11. Scott Robertson, Flower Mound, Texas
15. Justin Huckabay, Lubbock, Texas
15. Tre' Sides, Montgomery, Ala.