Katie Harris' inevitable gravitation toward the shooting world comes as little surprise to her father, who owns the very firing range that has provided his daughter a training ground.

"She's been shooting her whole life," said Joe Harris, owner of Creekside Firing Range, "it's what I do for a living."

Her rise in the shooting competition arena, however, has caught many off-guard because there aren't many shooters like Katie.

"She's kind of like a media magnet for the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the shooting sport because not many young girls do this," Harris said. "Plus, it helps she's good."

"They've got her posted as a rising three-gun star, somebody to keep an eye on," he added of the NRA website.

At 15, Katie finished fourth in the women's division and won the junior division at the USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association) Multi-Gun Nationals last month in Las Vegas.

"She won the high junior in nationals," Harris said of his daughter's most recent accomplishment. "She's competing against all boys, 18-and-under, for that."

Katie, who began shooting at local matches in May 2009, doesn't get fazed competing with guys -- or girls.

"I'm not really nervous anymore because I'm so used to it," she said.

But she admitted to some nerves at the Adams Arms Ozark 3-Gun Championship at Lake of the Ozarks, Mo.

"At the Ozarks, I was kind of nervous at the last two stages because I just didn't want to lose," Katie said. "I had one bad stage. That kind of tore me down a little bit. And the lady I was going against, who got first in ladies, she was doing really good on that stage so I didn't want to mess up on any one."

Katie practices four times a week, her father said.

The hard work seems to be paying off. She finished near the top 50 at a competition a couple weeks ago, which may not sound like a high-place finish until further considered.

"Guys kept calling, 'How's she doing? How's she doing? How'd she finish?' I said, 'Well, she finished 51st overall, second in women's,'" Harris said. "That's out of 211 shooters, and the top 30 percent of 'em are pros. She shoots with some of the best in the country because ... they know her already.

"We were shooting with two national champions in our squad. They asked Katie to shoot with 'em because she's (a) safe (shooter). ... She jokes around with 'em and they're a lot of fun. They're just fun to shoot with."

In her brief career, Katie has already shot with some of the sport's biggest names, like Taran Butler, Kurt Miller, Robert Morrow and female champion Tasha Hanish.

"The big names actually want her to succeed, for her to do well, because if we don't get more young people into the sport, it's going to die off sooner or later," Harris said. "I mean three-gun right now is the fastest-growing shooting sport in the country."

Katie, who started out shooting in pistol matches, prefers three-gun competitions, where she shoots a 9 millimeter, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .223 rifle by Sabre, one of her biggest sponsors.

As her star has risen -- and to even reach this point -- Katie, a sophomore at Woodland High, has had to miss days of school to make competitions.

"We've been traveling all over the country," Harris said. "They've excused her for missing 13 days this fall. She's got a big schedule."

The two have been to Las Vegas, Missouri and Mississippi and have a big competition scheduled in December at Fort Benning, where close to 300 shooters will assemble, Harris said.

"The school's been pretty good about it," he said. "Actually, the teachers -- her individual teachers -- have been better than anything about it."

Traveling for competitions doesn't leave as much time for her friends, but they stay in constant communication, Katie said.

"They text me constantly, saying, 'How are you doing? Are you doing good? Are you beating her?' and everything else," said the teenager, who could earn a scholarship to college for her shooting prowess.

While being away from friends and having to make up tests is a part of it all, Katie appears to enjoy each aspect of her sport's requirements -- including the travel.

Her favorite place thus far -- Vegas.

"He took me up and down the strip about four times, taking pictures and looking at everything," she said of her and her father's September trip. "We were at this really cool ride at New York-New York. It was awesome."