We are extremely pleased to see a jump in the number of clubs participating this year!

Good luck to all of you!

ISRPA Board

On behalf of the Idaho State Rifle and Pistol Association; we have

discussed this position paper in regard to grant monies and the American

Wetlands Conservation Act program. In general we would support the

activities that preserve and enhance game habitat and our ecosystem.

At another level, it seems repulsive that we should have funding

collected (generally tax dollars from us) at the federal level, then pay

a bureaucrat at the federal level to decide how much of that money we

should be able to get back through a grant for a cause that we like and

support. Simply cutting out the middle man, the federal government in

this instance, seems much more efficient and appropriate. The notion that

these grant monies are somehow “free money” is pervasive and

ill-conceived.

As sportsmen’s groups, I often hear us claim with pride that our sporting

activities in Idaho are supported by sportsmen’s dollars and our IDFG is

not funded with general funds from the state. I would suggest that to be

consistent with that creed, we should not be dependent upon federal

monies, either, with the exception of Pittman-Robertson funds which are

generally collected from firearms purchasers. The merits of that

particular federal tax and redistribution can be saved for another day.

So, in general we support the mood and movement in Congress to reduce

federal government spending in ALL areas including this State Wildlife

Grant program and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.

We oppose the position paper presented and we would appreciate having our

position distributed to the ISCAC member organizations.

Matthew Faulks

Idaho State Rifle and Pistol Association

Both print and web versions of the Cartridge Comparison Guide provide data for thousands of cartridge/bullet/velocity combos. Charts provide cartridge ballistics including downrange energy. The energy numbers are critical for hunters, who need a round with enough energy to make reliable, “clean kills” on their chosen game.

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In addition to cartridge ballistics and energy data, the Cartridge Comparison Guide contains a firearms lexicon, as well as a section on “What to Consider When Selecting a Cartridge”. Helpful Appendices cover: Cartridge Selection for Game Animals, Bullet Selection/Design, Bullet Expansion, Wound Channel Characteristics and more.

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.22 Tactical Precision Rifle Class

Saturday, April  24^th, 2010

Sign up at noon

Location: Parma Rod and Gun Club- Parma, Idaho.   http://www.parmarng.org/

Directions: http://www.parmarng.org/MapToRange/MapToRange.html

This class is for shooters who are interested in getting started in .22 Tactical Precision Rifle Matches and shooters who want to increase their knowledge of Tactical Precision Rifle.  Both experienced and beginning shooters will take away useful info from this class. The class will consist of a several hours of classroom and several hours of field practice and application on the firing line. The class will last until somewhere between 2 and 5pm, depending.

Topics covered will be the following as how they relate to .22 Tactical Precision shooting

1.    Safety

2.    Rifles

3.    Optics

4.    Ammo

5.    Misc. Equipment

6.    Angles used in shooting, MOA, MIL

7.    External ballistics and sight adjustments

8.    Marksmanship, including position shooting

9.    Spotting

Class Requirements

A.    Eye and ear protection

B.    .22 rimfire rifle(if shooter does not have a rifle yet, they will still learn a ton in the classroom.  NO .17 rimfire or .22WMR)

C.   Bipod or rest

D.   100 rounds(min) of ammo

E.    Suitable range wear

F.    Good attitude

G.   Shooters mat or ground gear or knee/elbow pads, tarp

H.   Pad and pen/pencil

I.      Drinks/lunch/snacks

RSVP so I can have enough classroom materials.

steve fransen: parma22lr-at-yahoo.com

The Parma Rod and Gun Club has four .22 Tactical Precision Rifle Matches scheduled in 2010.  The dates are:

• Saturday, May 8^th, 2010
• Saturday, June 19^th, 2010
• Saturday, July 17^th, 2010
• Saturday, August 21^st, 2010

Sign up at 8:30am, walk-through at 8:45am, shooing starts at 9am.

Location: Parma Rod and Gun Club – Parma, Idaho   http://www.parmarng.org/

Directions: http://www.parmarng.org/MapToRange/MapToRange.html

.22 Tactical Precision Rifle Matches combine several different types of rifle shooting into a fun and exciting new sport.

.22 Tactical Precision Rifle combines:

• tactical scenarios
• precision fire
• practical field shooting
• action shooting
• long range/distance shooting

From its start, these rifle matches have been primarily focused on being a fun and affordable shooting sport.  Courses of fire are designed to be shot with inexpensive factory rifles and reasonably priced scopes.

.22 Tactical Precision Rifle Matches are adaptations of centerfire Tactical/Precision match formats to rimfire rifles.  The reason for this is rimfire is much less expensive to shoot than centerfire.  This allows shooters to train, practice and shoot more.

These matches are multi-stage, multi-distance events that shooters will find challenging and fun.  The stages are shot at shorter, caliber-appropriate distances.  Target sizes and distances are reduced to scale specifically for .22 rimfire rifles.

The targets are reactive steel and are at distances that vary from 25 to 250 yards.  Steel targets provide instant shooter feedback and make the matches flow better because the firing line is not shut down from time to time to score paper targets.

Come on out and give it a try!  .22 Tactical Precision Rifle Matches are challenging, very affordable, and will test and develop your rifle marksmanship skills.  It is fun stuff and you’ll meet some new fellow shooters.

Equipment

.22 rimfire rifle – bolt action, semi auto, pump, etc.

Optics are highly, highly recommended and really preferred.

• If one wants to shoot with iron sights (like an Appleseed rifle), go for it. Just realize the game is built around scoped rifles.
• You can see all the targets with the naked eye from the firing line so a peep rear and post front sight will work if you have enough adjustment to get to 250 yards.
• A Mil-Dot scope is recommended but not necessary.

A bipod can be useful, but one can shoot off a ruck or backpack if preferred.

Spotting optics – binoculars or a spotting scope are helpful, but one can use their rifle scope for spotting (a cheap $20 pair of binoculars will work great too).

Transport gear – rucksack, duffle, backpack, or shooters box to transport stuff from firing position to position.

Ground gear – shooting mat, blue tarp, knee and elbow pads, old hunk of carpet, or nothing, shooters choice.

Dope sheet-you should have ‘come-up’ data out to 300 yards.

Misc. gear as needed.

Rules

Safety first!  The 4 rules apply so engage your brain.

The 1^st Law of Gun Safety – The Gun Is Always Loaded!

The 2^nd Law of Gun Safety – Never Point A Gun At Something You’re Not Prepared To Destroy!

The 3^rd Law of Gun Safety – Always Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Behind It!

The 4^th Law of Gun Safety – Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target!

Unsafe actions by you will mean a disqualification from the match.

A hit is defined as making the steel target move (ricochet, dirt splash or chain strikes do not count).  Any paper is scored as defined by COF description.

Only .22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle rimfire ammo is allowed,

.17 rimfire or .22WMR is not allowed.

Divisions are: Semi-Auto Rifle, All Other Action Types, and Juniors.

Match details

12 stages, approx 120 scored rounds

Bring 200 rounds

Entry fee = $10

Match should last until around noon

Bring your own drinks and snacks

The match will be shot at the Small Bore Range which has several gravel firing positions in addition to a concrete firing line so bring a shooting mat or tarp if you don’t want to roll around in the gravel.

Contact questions: Steve Fransen, Email Parma22LR@yahoo.com

In the past two years IDSSA has had remarkable success.  Idaho now has some of the strongest range protection laws in the country. Instructors, match directors, and match officials no longer have to fear nuisance lawsuits that threaten to put them out of business. Firearms laws are now required to be uniform throughout the state. With your help we will add to these successes in 2010.

We are currently drafting bills which (among other things) will remove some location prohibitions on concealed carry and offer an opportunity of rehabilitation for certain people under Federal firearms restrictions. When the legislative session in Boise starts we will monitor the legislative proposals and report to you on bills that have the potential to affect firearm ownership and use or shooting ranges whether obviously firearms related or not. Finally, as part of our core mission, we continue to work with multiple government agencies and elected officials to improve funding for shooting ranges and locate land for new ranges.

We could not have accomplished anything without you, our members. Your continuing support is what makes our efforts possible going forward. If you or your club has not renewed your supporting membership yet please take this opportunity to do so. No one takes a salary and all membership funds go directly to supporting our mission. Membership support is our sole funding source.

As always: thank you again for your support and if you or any of your club members has any questions or concerns about issues that they would like to see addressed please feel free to give me a call.

The Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance is organized under IRS Code section 501(c)(4). Contributions are not tax-deductible because of our lobbying activities.

Best wishes in 2010,

Mike

Michael C. “Mike” Brown

Executive Director/General Counsel

Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance

208 835-3737

208 835-3744 Fax

www.idahossa.org

P.S. I have included a  membership application if you need to update your information.

IDAHOSSA Application Link!

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg heads a group called “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.” The name is deceptive – Bloomberg is mostly interested in further restricting legal gun ownership.

His most recent tirade comes in the wake of the Fort Hood shooting. In an op-ed­ in the Washington Post, Bloomberg complains that the FBI is not allowed to keep a registration list of gun owners.

Federal law prohibits the government from maintaining or compiling a registration list of gun owners. President Clinton ignored the law and kept files of lawful gun purchasers (those who went through an FBI background check before they were allowed to purchase a firearm) for at least six months.

Congress rightly stepped in and required that the records of lawful transactions be destroyed within 24 hours. It is bad enough that American gun owners are presumed to be criminals until they can prove otherwise to the government, but to add to that unconstitutional requirement the ability of the government to maintain gun owner registration lists would only lead to more intrusive laws, greater restrictions on gun rights and more civilian disarmament.

Gun control laws do not reduce violent crime rates (in fact the opposite is more likely the case). But what is the government’s typical response when its gun control laws prove ineffective? The common refrain is that law was too weak, or too small, or didn’t go far enough. The solution, therefore, is to enact yet more laws.

That is exactly the position of Mayor Bloomberg. Sixteen years ago, the gun control crowd pushed the so-called Brady law, wherein all firearms transactions conducted through federally licensed dealers would be regulated. But, of course, that was not enough for them. Now anti-gunners want to maintain lists of gun owners and expand background checks to private gun sales.

Bloomberg also believes that people who are suspected of crimes should be prohibited from purchasing firearms. Anti-Second Amendment advocates like Bloomberg want to deny gun purchases persons listed on the governments so-called terror watch list – a list that reportedly contains over 400,000 names.

Why is due process so offensive to the gun control crowd? If we can deny civil liberties to citizens on the basis of being suspected criminals, we may as well run the Constitution through a shredder.

It is a shame that Bloomberg did not take up the cause of legal gun ownership at Fort Hood. The military’s anti-self defense policy is one reason that a man armed with a couple of handguns was able to murder 14 people on a military installation.

Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone told reporters after the Fort Hood shooting that, “[W]e don’t carry weapons here, this is our home.” It may come as a surprise to many people that military installations are for the most part gun free zones. Only police are allowed to carry firearms on base – most soldiers are not allowed to carry weapons on base when not training.

Why isn’t Bloomberg outraged over the disarming of our servicemen and women on base? This is a “loophole” that can and should be closed quickly.

At the very least, those who hold a Texas concealed carry permit should be able to carry on post. That type of legal gun ownership would make the 33,000 people who reside at Fort Hood safer.

Bloomberg, of course, would not go for it because it doesn’t fit his extreme gun control agenda.

If Bloomberg’s organization were really just against the criminal misuse of firearms, its existence would be meaningless. A more fitting – and honest – title for Bloomberg’s group would be simply “Mayors Against Guns.”

Gun Owners of America

– Vote is scheduled for Saturday night

Friday, November 20, 2009

Tomorrow will be as important a day as any in our lifetimes in determining whether the anti-gun health care bill moves forward.
The key vote will be on shutting down a Republican filibuster of the ObamaCare bill, HR 3590.  In the Senate, we are faced with a health care bill that:
* Costs $2.5 trillion during its first ten years of full implementation (2014-2023);
* Increases insurance premiums and imposes $376 billion in tax increases — many on the middle class; and
* Cuts Medicare by $465 billion, while increasing health costs by over $100 billion.
Fox News is reporting today that the word “tax” appears 183 times in the health care bill.  Is Obama serious?  Is that what he and Reid want to do to us in the midst of a recession?
Of course, all this increased spending — and taxes — means that you will have less money to spend on pursuing your real passions:  like providing for your family and purchasing guns and ammunition!

The strategy in the Senate is to cram this bill down the American people’s throats before we have a chance to fully read and evaluate it.  And the vote on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. will determine whether, at least initially, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be able to get away with this.

Gun Owners of America has already gone into several states represented by key Democrats who will be central to the Saturday vote.  But this is sufficiently important that all 100 senators need to know where we stand.

Finally, as we have mentioned several times in the past, the mandates in the legislation will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database that was created in section 13001 of the stimulus bill.  This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned… or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms.

And, the special “wellness and prevention” programs (inserted by Section 1001 of the bill as part of a new Section 2717 in the Public Health Services Act) would allow the government to offer lower premiums to employers who bribe their employees to live healthier lifestyles — and nothing within the bill would prohibit rabidly anti-gun HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from decreeing that “no guns” is somehow healthier.

We all need to contact our Senators right away.
Do you want left-wing bureaucrats appointed by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid determining whether you should own a gun via the health care system?
If not, then you need to call right away.  Our gun rights — and the fate of our economy — are hanging in the balance.

ACTION: Call your two U.S. Senators.  Please urge them to vote against “cloture” on the “motion to proceed” to HR 3590.

You can call your Senators toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.  The phones are ringing off the hook right now on Capitol Hill.  More likely than not, you will have to try several times because the circuits have been overloaded.

But don’t be discouraged… keep calling!
Also, ask your wife, your relatives, your neighbors, your church — everyone, short of your dog — to do the same.  This is crunch time!
NOTE:  The alternate, non toll-free, number is 202-224-3121.

—– TALKING POINTS —–

1) Support the filibuster of HR 3590 by voting NO on cloture.

2) Socialized health care is too expensive.  I would rather spend my money the way I want to spend it!

3) Increasing my taxes during a recession is insane.

4) This bill will threaten to register me as a gun owner, because the mandates in this bill will force my medical information into the database that was created by the stimulus bill.

5) Vote NO on this bill!

Whether the Second Amendment right to keep and
bear arms is incorporated as against the States by
the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or
Immunities or Due Process Clauses.

Please Click the Link Below to view the Amicus Brief Draft

AB Draft 11 11 09 – McDonald v City of Chicago

Idaho Team Competes in the

NRA Junior and Three Position Junior Olympics Airgun Championships

By Randy Shikashio

Introduction

The NRA and USA Shooting has been running the 3P Air Rifle championships almost since the Atlanta Olympics back in the early 1980s. The 1984 Olympic was the introduction of air rifles and pistol shooting as an Olympic Sport. The air rifle competitions were created in response by both organizations to get kids involved in the shooting sports and to create a pool of shooters that can be used to develop the next generation of Olympic Shooters and for NCAA Collegiate and University Rifle Teams. USA Shooting is the governing body for the Olympic Shooting Sports in the United States. The 3P Junior Olympics is actually run by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) and the main reason USA Shooting is the word Olympics, but they have been using the match to help train youth in 3P rifle shooting so that it would easier for kids to transition into three position smallbore bullseye rifle competitions. Three position rifle shooting is shot in the prone, standing, and kneeling positions. The United States has four position (4P) rifle shooting competitions which in addition to the other three positions adds the sitting position to the competition and is most familiar to shooters in the United States. However, the United States is the only country in the world that shots the sitting position and has not been part of competitions in the international shooting community.

Competition Events

The NRA and USA Shooting 3P Junior Air Rifle Championships consist of two different competitions. The two different rifle events are the precision and sporter class. There is a third part of the competition which is the air pistol competition, which was run by the NRA, but was moved over to the USAS part of the competition. The guns in international competition will all use the same ammunition, which is a .177 cal wad cutter pellet. The wad cutter pellet is used on paper targets as they use a nice clean hole, which is important when scoring a target. If you use other types of pellets they will tear the paper, which make scoring the target very difficult. The velocity of the competition guns are all under 575 ft/sec as the higher speeds reduce the accuracy of the guns.

The main difference between the two different events or classes is the precision class which uses the same rifles that you would see at the Olympics and at NCAA competitions. The rifles are made so that you can adjust almost every part of the rifle to fit an individual’s body. For example the butt plates can be adjusted for different lengths and the pistol grips can be angled from left to right and at different horizontal and vertical angles. The forearm of the rifle can be adjusted for different heights. The sights are all sophisticated peep sights, which with different accessories the rear sight can be adjusted to vary the amount of light the shooter will see and the front sight has a number of different size and types of apertures that can be used to accommodate the shooters visual preference.

A precision rifle has very specific limits such as the maximum weight can only be 11 pounds. The depth or thickest part of the rifle can only be 90 mm. If you calculate the weight of the rifle with the number of times a rifle will be lifted it can be a physically demanding sport. However, most competitors, especially the less experienced, will not be lifting the rifle that many times. You usually will see the more experienced and hence better competitors reject many shot attempts before they finally execute that one perfect shot and hence you must develop patience and some physical stamina to be a top competitor.

A precision rifle competitor will generally wear doubled layered canvas shooting coats and pants which are stiff to help support the competitor in shooting at a 10 ring that is no larger than .5mm or about the size of a period. They will generally wear special high top shooting boots that are flat soled. If you look at a regular shoe you will see that the soles will have a curve like a rocking chair, which can cause a shooter to rock like a the rocking chair in the standing position. The other piece of equipment they will wear is a shooting glove which is padded just enough to dampen the hear beat and to protect their hands from handling the rifle. A shooter at some point has to be able be physically fit in that the sport requires a great deal of stamina to be able to focus for almost two hours. In addition, if you are shooting a 60 shot match a shooter will generally lift that rifle more than sixty times required number of record shots as most of those aiming attempts will be rejected forcing the shooter to put down the rifle and start over the aiming the shot process. A shooter can be lifting that rifle over 300 times during the competition to get that one perfect shot.

The Sporter Rifle has virtually no adjustable features. For those few rifle that have adjustable features they can only adjusted once and cannot be moved for the rest of the competition. The rifle has very specific limits on cost and weight. The rifle cannot weigh more than five pounds and the cost cannot be more than $500. All precision and sporter rifles must be approved by The National Airgun Consul or Committee, which is composed of coaches, representatives from the various national shooting organizations, and other members approved by the committee. The sporter rifle competitors are only allowed to generally wear street cloths, no other special shooting cloths are allowed except for a shooting glove. High top boots are not allowed in the sporter class. Typically tennis shoe’s are the most common shoe seen on the firing line.

The sporter class was originally created to help keep the cost down for young shooters to get into the sport and at the same develop young shooters in the basic principals of rifle shooting before they move into the precision rifle class.

Preparations

The road or path to the National Rifle Associations (NRA) and USA Shooting (USAS) Three Position (3P) Junior Olympics Airgun Championships can take about a year of planning and training. There usually is a qualification match for those that wish to attend the competitions, but this year the NRA changed the format and opened the competition to everybody that wished to attend as an individual or team. The NRA, just this year, opened the match to everybody in hopes of getting more kids interested in competition shooting in hopes of getting more kids interested in competing. There are those that think that by lowering the standards for attending the competition that it would it would lower the scores for the overall competition. However, the scores for this year’s competition were to have some of the highest scores in the history of the event. Granted some competitors had scores on some days that were lower than their averages, but part of the competition experience is to learn and was a good training experience for most of the kids and a motivation for most to do better next time.

For most of the kids they have been training year round, because they are attending competitions through out the year. The kids especially need to train year round if they are setting goals such as earning scholarships or to medal in their particular chosen rifle or pistol events. Currently, Randie Nelson and Will Brown being seniors in High School from the Cedar Hill Jr Gun Club have the best opportunities in the state for scholarships or for winning top spots in their particular chosen events. The other kids going to the championship are younger and less experienced. NCAA bars college coaches from talking to prospective scholarship potentials until they are at least juniors. Randie has the interest of two or maybe three colleges or universities to be on their rifle teams. Will has won the gold medal in Free and Air Pistol at the Junior Olympics at the Olympic Training Center at Colorado Springs, Colorado early this spring and is now on the National Development Team, which will give him the opportunity to compete on the National Team and maybe even the Olympic Team. He appears to following in the same path that Nick Mowrer, last year junior Gold Medal Winner and Cedar Hill Gun Club member in the same events.

Qualification for the Junior Championships

Although the NRA no longer requires a qualification match to attend the championship the USA Shooting 3P Junior Olympic competition still has requirements for a qualification match, which was held at the Twin Falls Gun Club early in the spring. The match originally qualified a team of five kids, with one being the alternate, to participate in both the NRA and USA Shooting Junior Olympics, but three of those members had to be replaced for various reasons. The final team members for the competition could not be finalized until a month before the competition. The team roster had to be revised via phone for both competitions at three different times during the month of June. The final team roster was composed of Randie Nelson, Marianna Molinari, Hayden Quilter, and Mitchell Van Patten was the final precision rifle team. Randie Nelson and Mitchell Van Patten were the two experienced members of the team. Randie is a veteran of at least five 3P National Champions and Mitchell has been to one before attending this year’s competition. Mitchell was to compete as an individual competitor in the NRA Sporter Rifle Competition as well as being a member on the precision rifle team. Mitchell was the Bronze Medal winner in his age category in the NRA Sporter Rifle Junior Championship last year. Although he is small and not as experienced as many of the other kids at the competition last year his performance at last year’s sporter competition was inspiring to many of the older kids and too many of the other range officials and coaches.

Travel and Arrival at Camp Perry

The team members were to leave from two different locations; half the team flew out from Pocatello, Idaho. The other team member was to fly out from Boise with one member driving to Camp Perry, Ohio. For the team leaving Pocatello the eight hour flight was uneventful, but for the Boise flight they had three flights canceled due to weather conditions. These delayed the flight arrival time six hours later from the original arrival time of 6:30 pm or about midnight. The team was pretty exhausted by the time they arrived at the car rental center. The team had to wait an hour for the California shooters who had arrived with three teams at the same time as the Boise Flight. The California teams had reserved three vans for the trip and so it took about an hour to resolve the paper work before they got to the Idaho Team. It’s a good thing that the team had reserved the van in advance because there was not a van available in the whole town of Cleveland for this competition. Elke Quilter was the designated driver with the Team Coach Randy Shikashio as the secondary driver. Elke and Brent Van Patten, parents of the competitors, were very important in helping out with the kids and assisting with getting the team to and from the competition.

The Idaho Team was to finally arrive in Port Clinton at the Best Western Motel, at around 2 am. The town is located about 10 miles just outside of Camp Perry. The team was to get only five hours of sleep before they had to get up for the registration and equipment check for the NRA rifle competition that morning. The team had to meet in the lobby at 7 am for continental breakfast and head to the Camp Perry new air gun range, which is a state of the art in that the targets are all electronic run by the CMP. As part of the check-in process, the competitors’ equipment such as their rifle and shooting cloths must be checked to make sure that they are within specifications specified by the rules governing the competition. The team was scheduled for a practice session shortly after they completed their check-in requirements and paid their match fees. The team was able to complete their check-in process and get to their practice session on time because they arrived early for the check-in process. Randie was the only person on the team that had any experience with the electronic targets after participating at Fort Benning, Georgia at the USA Shooting National Championship. The others on the team had no problem with the system and the only they had to get down was the two button process in moving from a practice target to record target.

CMP’s New Range

The CMP was able to build a new range last year and that has 80 firing points (40 points on each side of the range) that are electronically controlled from one central point in the center of the range. The electronic target system is being adopted by many of the NCAA colleges and universities. The Olympic Training Center was the first to adopt the same system about five years ago and has been installed by other institutions for it’s accuracy over paper targets. The Megalink System, made in Norway, is one of the few approved by the Olympic Committee to be used at an Olympic event. Prior to the approval of the Megalink System Sius Ascor, a Swiss Company, was the only other approved system and being the sole supplier of electronic target systems they are very expensive. Since the approval of Megalink the cost of their system is about a third of a Sius Ascor System. The biggest advantage of the electronic system is that it finally gives the spectator away of being involved in the competition. The other advantage of the system in the long run is that electronic system is cheaper to run than a paper system and that the scoring is more accurate and the results can be made within minutes. The competitors each have their own computer monitors at each firing point. The monitor shows and records that exact value of each shot down to a tenth of a point, which is only necessary when the finals are conducted. The monitor is able to show a running total of all the shots. The range has eight large screen monitors for the audience to see the progress of up to ten competitors at a time.

A part of the competition that has help raise audience participation was the introduction of the Finals in the competition. The NRA generally does not conduct finals at the end of their matches. However, USA Shooting has conducted finals at all their national championships. The final was introduced at all international competitions to give the top eight competitors a chance to earn an additional 109.9 extra points. The final has added some excitement to the matches and with the addition of electronic the audience has been able to watch the results of all the competitors with every shot, which keeps interest by the audience high.

CMP Range Target Control Center	Part of the Range’s East’s 40 Firing Points

Marianna with target monitor to her right	Team score board and one of eight large screen monitors

NRA Competition

The first days of the competition was got off to a rough start and for many the scores for most of the competitors were lower than their normal scores. The reasons can vary such as shooting on a strange range and many are not used to shooting electronic targets. The other condition they have to contend is that this is a national match and the mental pressure to perform adds to the other pressures. Mitchell was the first member of the team to compete in that his relay to shot sporter rifle was before he had to shot the precision rifle portion of the match with his team. The precision team was scheduled to shot on the second relay, so he had to shot right again right after he finished shooting sporter. Mitchell was disappointed with his score of 517 out of 600 for sporter on the first day, but he still managed to place in about the top 30% of the 79 sporter shooters in the NRA competition. Randie got off to a great start and at one point we thought she would clean prone by scoring a perfect 200, but she shot three nine’s giving her a 197which the was the closest to date she came to cleaning prone. Her final score on the first day was 580 out of 600, which was higher than she scored last year. There were 15 kids who were able to manage to clean prone that day, which was a good indication of the high level of competition at the match. Marianna was off to rough start and the new range conditions and her inexperience affected her performance, but she managed to push through with a score of 498 on the first day. Hayden was equally affected by his experience level, but like Marianna he did his best and scored a 521 on the first day. Mitchell was doing well until he got to standing and lost about 10 points lower than his normal score, which gave him a score of 540.

Mitchell shooting the prone position in the sporter rifle class

The second day of competition generally went well for everybody, but Randie hit a rough spot in her kneeling, which is generally one of her best positions and like Mitchell the previous day it cost her 13 point below her normal score. Her final score for the second day was 563. Marianna and Hayden did better on the second day with scores of 527 and 522, respectively. The match scores for them were their personnel best scores to date. Mitchell would come roaring back on the second day with a personnel best score of 565. He would come close to cleaning prone with a score of 197. He scored a 521 in sporter on the second day of competition placing him 25^th overall. Although the sporter scores are generally lower than precision, they are also done without the aid of much of the shooting equipment such as the shooting coat & pants that a precision shooter would use.

Relaxing Between Competitions

There was not much time to relax between the two different competitions. The team did manage a few hours to take a boat trip over to the Commodore Perry Island, named after the famous Naval Hero. The team was able to meet some of the team members from the Alabama Team members, while visiting the Island. The biggest challenge was keeping the girls away from the boys from the other teams. The island has only about 300 full time residents and the other parts of the island are dedicated to catering to the tourist or visitors to the area. The team had to rush back to the mainland as they were invited to attend a turkey roast put on by the Ohio Team. These activities help make the kids develop relationships that can last a life time.

Idaho team members Marannia (in a Black shooting coat), Hayden, Randie, & Mitchell in the kneeling position

NRA Awards Ceremony

The NRA Award ceremony was held in the auditorium of one of the oldest building on base. The high-light of the award ceremony was when Mitchell was awarded second place for his age group in sporter. The kids and parent’s all stood up to give little Mitchell a standing ovation for his accomplishment. He was an example someone who did not let age or size stand in their way of competing.

USA Shooting 3P Junior Olympic Air Rifle Competition

The USA Shooting 3P Junior Olympic Air Rifle Competition was structured differently than the NRA Championship in that the competition was broken up into separate competition days for the precision, sporter, and pistol competition. The NRA combined the rifle events (precision and sporter class) together whereas the USA Shooting competition held the precision class for three days, the following three days were devoted to the sporter class and the final three days to the pistol event.

The first day of the USAS Championship was devoted to registration and practice just like the NRA Championship. However, since they and the other competitors who were present for the NRA competition were pretty much use to the range conditions and consequently for those competitors the sessions went much smoother with fewer problems. The CMP made sure the competitors knew how to run the electronic monitors just as they did during the NRA Championship.

The first day of competition got off to great start for the team with scores higher than the one’s they got during the NRA Championship. Randie was within one point of cleaning her prone position, but the nine on her last shot dashed her chance and finished with a 199 in prone. The advice she got from Newt Engles the University of Akron Rifle Coach the day before the match made all the difference. Her standing scores went well until her last ten shots then she shot a string of nine’s finishing with 190 out of 200 in standing. She still had a chance to come out on top in kneeling, but had some problems with the kneeling position that normally is her best position. Her kneeling was a score of 186 in which normally the score is in the low to mid 190s. She was to finish the day with a total score of 575 placing her in the top 50% on the first day of competition. Mitchell was to shot consistently in all his positions with scores of 187 prone, 180 standing, & 185 kneeling with a total score 552. Hayden was able to get a great start in prone by shooting a 190 and then he got to standing and scored a 157, which was below his normal performance for this position. Kneeling was much better where he finished with a score of 183 making his total score for the day of 530. He was disappointed, but determined to do better tomorrow. Marianna was to place right behind Hayden scores where she shot a 185 in prone, 153 standing, & a 183 kneeling ending her day with a total of 521.

Randie Nelson in the kneeling position	Hayden Quilter in the kneeling position.
Marianna Molinari in the standing position	Mitchell Van Patten shooting kneeling

The second day of competition started off great with Randie scoring a 197 in prone, 185 in standing, & a 189 in kneeling. She couldn’t find the position she had on the first day of competition and fell below her 190 average in standing. She recovered in somewhat in kneeling from the previous day and ended with a total score of 571 for the second and last day of competition. The combined scores placed her in the 49% for the competition. If she could have been able to hold her normal standing scores, which are in the 190s, her standing would have the top 10%. This illustrates that a few points can make a big difference in your standing in the competition. Mitchell was able to start off fairly good, but some nine’s started to creep into his prone scores giving him a total of 187. His standing score of 187 was a big improvement over the fist day’s standing scores, which made him very happy. The kneeling score of 182 was slightly below the previous day’s scores, but was considered to be fairly consistent with his other kneeling scores. His total scores placed him in the 197^th place but given that he has only been shooting about two years he shot great. He will be a fierce competitor given a few more years of experience and some physical maturing. Marianna was able to start the match with a good prone score of 188, but had problems with her standing and kneeling positions and ended with scores of 162 and 174, respectively. Hayden’s scores were almost identical with Marianna’s score. He shot 176 in prone, 164 standing, and 178 kneeling. They both were disappointed in their last match scores, but with more experience they both can do better in future competitions. They both have less than a years of experience in competitive shooting and will perform better when they have more experience. There are shooters out their who may think they can do better, but the differences is that these kids made the effort.

The finals where held about a little over an hour after the last relay finished. The final’s part of the competition will give the top eight competitors, as described previously, a last chance to improve their ranking in the match. The shots are measured down to the tenth of a point for of the ten shots in the final and a competitor can add another 109.9 points to their existing total. The electronic targeting system made scoring the finals very easy compared to the old paper target days. The paper targets had to be scored by hand with a special made gauge, which took three times longer to run the finals. The procedure for the final is that each of the top eight competitors are brought in and are given a few minutes to prepare for the finals and then are introduced one by one starting from competitor number eight to the spectators. The competitors are then given about five minutes of sight-in time. When the five minute sight-in period has ended the competitors will be given the command to load by the Chief Range Officer and when the command to “start” is given the competitors have 75 seconds to make the shot at the end of the 75 seconds the command is given to “stop” and the score for that shot is announced to the audience for each of the competitors. If a competitor shoot’s a score between 10 and 10.9 the audience gives applause for those shot values. This procedure is repeated for each of the ten shot during the final. When the tenth shot is fired the competitors are told to standby while the scores are checked for ties. If there is a tie then each competitor who has a tied score goes into a separate sudden death match where the first competitor to score the highest value is declared the winner. The score from that sudden death match is not added to the scores from the final. If the there are no ties then after final score is added to the scores from the regular part of the competition the winner is the highest total from the two combined scores.

This year’s winner in the precision rifle class was Denise Martin from the Spokane, Washington Club. She ended the match with impressive scores from the USA Shooting Nationals at Fort Benning, GA just a week before this competition with scores of 395s out of 400 and this competition with scores of 595 on the first day and 594 on the second day. She was the winner in the finals adding another 103.4 extra points to her score giving her a total of 1292.4. The winner in the team category was the Fort Benning Georgia Junior Rifle Club. The club had a total combined score for the event of 4643 out of 5000.

The scores from this event where probably the highest scores ever seen since the events where started. There were several national records broken in both the precision and sporter rifle categories. The top third of the 226 competitors shot a score of 579 or better. The top 50% would shot 572 or better. You can see from these numbers that the spread of the scores was not all that high and the winners and losers from these matches can be determined to score differences as small as a tenth of point. The scores also illustrate that in this competition a competitor is truly going up against the best of the best shooters in the country.

Return Home

Although the team did enjoy themselves and were more excited about attending the competition they where all tired and were ready to head home the next day. The team checked out of the motel and went to breakfast at 7 am and headed out for the Cleveland Airport at about 8 am for the two hour drive to return the rental and get to the Delta terminal. The check-in process was rather long and going though security with our guns took a little longer than normal. A few of the teams had problems with the airline in that some didn’t drain their air cylinder all the way and instead of allowing them to drain the cylinder the rest of the way or mailing the cylinder back home the particular Delta supervisor at Cleveland just confiscated the $200 cylinders. The Idaho Team fortunately didn’t have to suffer this type of customer ruddiness. The time to check-in for each of the times we had to change planes was only about 30 minutes, so the team had to rush to make each connection. The team finally arrived home about noon and the Boise part of the team made in late in the evening. The team is excited about competing at next year’s competition either at Albuquerque, New Mexico or Anniston, Alabama. A few of the team members will also be competing at the Junior Olympics at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado and at the USA Shooting Nationals at Fort Benning, Georgia during March or April and June of next year.

Thoughts for the Future

Competition is one of the keys to expanding the number of shooters in this country. The other key will be to reestablish shooting back into the school programs to keep expanding the junior shooting in the numbers needed to keep shooting in this country a viable sport. The numbers in the Georgia shooting programs are a good example. They are discussed below to illustrate this point. The kids and adults that get involved for these types of competitions can help grow the sport of shooting than the usual occasional weekend shooter or plinker. A regular competition shooter usually spends more time, money, and training and because they have made these commitment of resources they have more at stake and will get more involved in promoting the sport and more involved actively against efforts by politicians trying to ban guns. The plinkers don’t have much at stack in the sport and tend to get less involved in the sport or in the politics to defend the sport.

Idaho has over the years been hard pressed to field a team to participate, but has managed to field a junior team over the last 15 years from the Meridan Optimist and Blackfoot Cedar Hill Jr 4H Clubs. The time, commitment, and expense can be factors in the level of participation. There is perhaps many other different explanations for the low participation. If a person would be to examine the number of shooters in this state compared to other states. Idaho has one of the lowest level of participation by juniors in competitive shooting. California, New York, and Massachusetts have a higher participation level of participation than Idaho, despite the political anti-gun sentiment and the kids from those states are not any different when it comes to time or money than the kids in Idaho. Another factor is that a major portion of the time is raising enough money to attend these competitions and the support from the shooting community can be from spotty to great. Fortunately, for this year the funding has been better than average. Shooting competitions in general does not have the public exposure or funding of other sports may receive. However, there has been many years were the funding has been very small even in the best of economic times. The importances of the exposure that these competitions give are discussed below.

Another important factor is that these types of competitions are important as they are one of the few shooting activities that involve thousands of kids from across the nation to be able to attend these national junior championships. You would be hard pressed to find another shooting activity that has this kind of national support for training and recognizing juniors for their efforts. The international shooting sports that these kids participate can be the backbone for re-growing the shooting programs in Idaho, which has shrunk to depressing low levels of participation and support. There are various reasons for the low level of participation one is that the parents get the kids involved into to many activities. There are other reasons, but the one most disturbing is the hostile reaction by many of the existing adult gun clubs to having a junior program and until this changes the youth programs will always be small until one day the adult gun clubs will be on their way to extinction.

As mentioned before, the State of Georgia has the most successful junior program in the country as the state now has close to 400 schools that have an international shooting program. The legislature went so far as to change the law in the state to allow kids to bring their guns back into the schools, which you can’t even do in a supposed pro-gun State of Idaho. The programs were much easier to introduce into the schools as the sports they were introduced as Olympic Shooting Sports and that is a much easier to buy in from the school administrators and parents, especially the mothers. The only other shooting activity that has similar support is the trap and skeet events, but these shooting sports are all tied to the same organizations that support the Olympic and international shooting sports. The schools are going to be the only way to gain large number of junior shooters needed to keep shooting a strong sport.

Although the other shooting activities that are available to the public are fun and in some ways can be just as challenging. These shooting programs would be much less acceptable to a school or community. First of all you are trying to gain support from people in the school and the community that are generally non-shooters or are not very active in shooting. Another factor that must be considered is that these same people have been exposed to such negative media that introducing a shooting program that depicts shooting people or animals would be from more difficult to impossible in these circumstances to get these programs into the schools. The Olympic shooting sports have been acceptable to communities and schools because they are for some reason less threatening to the mothers and non-shooters in the schools and communities.

Why is getting large umber of juniors involved in these shooting programs important? Simple the shooting sports are in general literally a dying sport. If you look at the age of the membership of many clubs a significant number are 50 and above. The clubs in Southeast Idaho are probably in the range of 60% or higher in this age group. What is happening is that members in these clubs are dying faster than they are being replaced. The Cowboy Action Shooting programs in Southeastern Idaho have an average age in the sixties. Although the number doesn’t reflect the total number of gun owners who do not belong to a club in the area or country it will be the members in these clubs that form the main support on political action or support for gun programs. An example of why we cannot just rely on just the total number of gun owners is that there are 80 million plus gun owners in the country, but less than 5% of that number is providing the support for pro-gun programs. The groups of gun owners that don’t belong to some shooting organization are not receiving information and consequently the chances that they will be involved in helping support gun programs are not very good.

The NRA and the support received from organization like the Idaho State Rifle & Pistol Organization have helped this year’s team make it to the championship, which has been appreciated. These programs have given kids the exposure and opportunities tied to these programs, better and more consistent support will need to be given for these programs to continue. The youth programs in Idaho are small and have declined over the years compared to our surrounding neighboring states. As an example, the American Legion use to have about eight active shooting programs and now that number maybe as low as two. However, it can be changed for the better and the communities can receive the benefit as well. As an example, the club in Blackfoot was able to bring in the NRA Junior Championship a few years ago at Idaho State University were it brought in about 245 of the then best junior competitors from across the nation. Four national records which held for several years were set at that competition. Idaho was able to hold the record for the number of competitors at this competition until this year Camp Perry was increased to 297. The competition brought in almost half a million dollars into the community of Pocatello for the four day event. The event did stir interest by the university at looking at a shooting program, which shows what the program can do if given better support. The bottom-line the competition has stirred more interest in the sport and the kids are looking forward to next year’s competitions, which is important if the shooting programs are going to grow.