Junior Shooters

Posted by Junior Shooters

By Glenn Sapir, National Shooting Sports Foundation

Happy and proud, those are two good emotions that we all like to feel. Judging by the description given by a few kids from Texas after earning their Junior USA Shooting team patch, nearly 150,000 young people from around the country were feeling happy and proud last year.

USA Shooting supervises the Olympic shooting team that performed at the Summer Games in Beijing, China, in August. That same governing body has authorized the issuance of two patches – one for accuracy with a rifle, the other for proficiency with a shotgun?and under the administration of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the Junior USA Shooting Team patches are distributed year after year to young shooters 18 and younger who make the grade.

NSSF is the association that represents the shooting sports, hunting and firearms industry, and it is always striving for increased, safe participation in recreational shooting. It offers the rifle target used to qualify on one of its websites?www.nssf.org/JrUSA and an instructional score sheet for earning the shotgunning patch on the same site. The targets and score sheets are also available upon request from NSSF. Boy Scouts and Scout leaders get a copy of it each year in the special supplement NSSF provides to the movement’s magazines for youth Boys’ Life and its magazine for leaders’ Scouting. In fact, in 2005, for example, 85,000 Scouts earned patches.

“I find it to be a great addition to the merit badge program I run for the Boy Scouts of America,” said Larry Parker of Swazey, New Hampshire.

It is not only Scouts, however, that receive the patches. Any adult can supervise a kid who wants to try to earn a patch. For example, the 4-H is a nationwide organization that has embraced the patch program. One 4-H club that awards shooting patches to its members is the Collin County (Texas) Field & Stream 4-H Club.

“Our members range in age from eight to 18,” said Club Manager Raye Murrell. “We shoot rifle, pistol, black powder, and shotgun sports, in addition to archery. We also have a hunting and wildlife program.” The kids in the club practice the different shooting disciplines, and getting good enough to earn a shooting patch is a real incentive. Murrell says earning the patch is a very good way to get her kids to focus on their shooting to earn that kind of reward, and it is a great method of preparing for competition.

Carson Campbell, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Farmersville, Texas, Junior High School, is one of those people who earned a patch while practicing.

“I got my first gun when I was five, and I started competitive shooting about a year ago,” Carson said.

His club practices at the Dallas Gun and Pistol Club, and one day, while practicing with his BB gun, “I put five shots in the black part of the target,” he said. For that, he earned the Junior USA Shooting Team riflery patch, which he now displays in his room. “I felt happy and proud at the same time when I earned the patch,” Carson said.

Another member of the Field & Stream 4-H Club is 14-year-old Devin Gallegos, a ninth-grader at Prosper, Texas, High School. Placing fives shots into the target from the prone position is how she earned her riflery patch. She now proudly displays it on her 4-H duffle bag, which she carried with her to all of her practices last spring as she prepared for the state shooting competition in San Antonio.

Thomas Finley, now nine, placed five shots into the target with a BB gun to earn his patch while practicing with the Field & Stream Club when he was still eight years old. The third-grader at Press Elementary School in McKinney, Texas, says earning the patch meant a lot to him.

“I was proud. It was the first time I received any type of award through the 4-H program,” Thomas said. “My mom sewed it on my camouflage hat.”

All three of the Field & Stream 4-H Club members, and the many other club members who earned their riflery patches, are looking forward to adding the shotgunning patch.

“Our members have been really excited with their patches,” Club Manager Murrell said. “The patch incentive turns regular practices into something special, and puts a tangible reward in the kids’ hands when they leave.”

How to Earn Your Team 2008 Trap and Rifle Patches

To learn more about the patch program and how you can earn either or both patches, or how an adult can lead a patch-qualifying shoot, visit www.nssf.org/JrUSA.

Visit www.nssf.org/JrUSA to download and print a bull’s-eye target for BB rifles, air guns or .22 rifles, and a score sheet for trap or skeet shooting. Follow the directions below to shoot the target or a round of trap, skeet or sporting clays, send in your scores via mail or Internet and earn your Junior USA Shooting Team 2008 patch. Good luck! You must be supervised by an adult for this activity, and the supervising adult must score and sign your target.

The first thing you will need to do is know these safety rules:

1. Always keep the muzzle of the gun pointed in a safe direction-never at yourself or others.

2. Always wear ear and eye protection when shooting.

3. Keep the gun’s action open. Do not load it until you are on the shooting range and ready to shoot. Unload it as soon as you are through.

4. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are aiming at the target and are ready to shoot.

5. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it. Shoot only at targets with proper backstops.

6. Treat every firearm as if it were loaded. Don’t rely on your gun’s safety.

7. Use only the ammunition that is correct for the firearm you are using.

8. Store guns and ammunition separately in locked, secure storage.

For details about these safety rules and information about safe firearms storage, visit NSSF’s Project ChildSafe website, www.projectchildsafe.org. Beginning shooters must be supervised by a qualified adult-parent, scout leader, camp director, or firearms instructor at a shooting range.

Additional Rules for Earning Your Patches

Rifle Patch

1. Under adult supervision and using the target that you can download and print at www.nssf.org/JrUSA, shoot a total of five (5) shots at the target and reach a minimum score of 35 points. You may make several copies of this target and practice until you achieve the goal-but only five shots are allowed per target.

2. If you are shooting a BB gun, set your target out 15 feet from the shooting station. If you are shooting an air gun, set your target out 33 feet. If you are shooting a .22 rifle, set your target out 50 feet.

3. Have the supervising adult score and sign your target.

Shotgun Shooting Patch

1. Under adult supervision, using the shotgun shooting score sheet available at www.nssf.org/JrUSA, shoot a regulation round of trap, skeet or sporting clays.

2. To earn a shotgunning patch you must shoot a complete round of trap and skeet (25 targets) or sporting clays and earn a minimum score of 7 broken targets.

3. The score sheet printed in this section may be photocopied and used for practice until a qualifying score is achieved.

4. Have the supervising adult sign your score sheet.

The quickest way to get your patch is to order it online at www.nssf.org/JrUSA. If you don’t have access to the Internet, send your target/score sheet to: USA Shooting Junior USA Team 2008, c/o NSSF, 11 Mile Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470-2359.

Be sure you completely fill out the web form, or carefully print your name and address on the target in the space provided. The National Shooting Sports Foundation will send your patch.

Junior USA Team 2009 patches will, of course, be awarded next year, and previous participants can earn a new year’s patch.

Copyright and Published by Junior Shooters and Junior Sports Magazines Inc. December 2009

Categories: Airgun, Associations, Clubs & Teams, Merchant Links, Rifle, Shotgun Sports
Tags: 4-H, Glenn Sapir, jr shooter, jr shooters, JrUSA, junior camps, junior shooter, junior shooters, junior shooting camps, junior writers, kids, learning to shoot, National Shooting Sports Foundation, NSSF, Olympics, patches, shooting, shooting patches, shooting sports, shotgun, skeet, trap