Purchasing BB Guns

I am going to be placing an order for BB guns from Daisy in a few days. Anyone that is interested in purchasing a gun should let me know as soon as possible. In case I didn’t mention it, Daisy allows our club to purchase the 499B (the gun we use for the club) directly from them for about $80.00.

If you have any questions feel free to call me anytime. My cell number is 329-0720.

In the news..

We were very fortunate to have Amy Mearkle from WTAJ TV-10 visit us on Wednesday.  Amy is doing a story on the reduction in the number of hunters in Pennsylvania.  Amy said the story will be airing on Monday 11/19 at 6:00 PM.  She interviewed us to find out what our goals were in teaching kids about shooting sports.

It was very interesting having here there. And I'd like to thank Ray Amato for letting her know about the club.

Be sure to watch out for the story!

Week 7 - Our first Match!

This week we had some fun with out first "match".  Our goal was to introduce everyone to the general structure of a match and to let everyone gauge their progress.

We started by having all the kids register by  writing their name on the scoreboard and on three targets.

We had time to run two relays through three positions (off-hand, sitting and prone.

Allen Wagner ran the match as a normal match would be run with normal time limits and all range commands. 

Everyone had a great time and it was obvious that everyone has been improving. (see scores below)

	Off Hand	Sitting	Prone	Total
John Paul G	72	80	92	244
Amanda W	81	77	84	242
Ariana G	80	82	76	238
Ashley W	56	81	83	220
Jacob H	57	75	84	216
Mary G	77	53	79	209
Ellesha G	42	75	74	191
Emily H	45	74	71	190
Matthew G	68	70	50	188
Ryan K	60	62	59	181
Calvin A	49	50	63	162
Caroline S	59	47	49	155
Tessa C	35	49	68	152
Jack S	17	46	48	111

 

Nice job!

Week 6 - Starting to keep some scores!

Tonight we learned the 3rd position (sitting). Thanks to Ernie Harpster for explaining the sitting position to everyone and thanks for Ellesha for being a great demonstrator!

Everyone did very well with this new and sometimes awkward position. It takes a little getting used to, but it will soon become a very comfortable position to shoot.

We decided to start tracking scores tonight. I thought that the students would like to start seeing their progress so I will post the scores here.

	Sitting
Ariana G	91
Amanda W	86
Ashley W	81
Ellesha G	77
Jacob H	75
John Paul G	74
Emily H	72
Caroline S	69
Matthew G	66
Ryan K	65
Mary G	62
Calvin A	53
Jack S	51

 

	Off hand
Ariana G	79
Emily H	78
Amanda W	74
Mary G	67
John Paul G	61
Jacob H	58
Ryan K	55
Ashley W	54
Matthew G	48
Caroline S	42
Ellesha G	39
Calvin A	33
Jack S	23

Next week we are going to have an informal "match". We will probably shoot prone and off-hand. This should be fun for everyone.

5th week update

Last night we covered the Firing Line Commands that a Range Control Officer would issue at any match. These command are listed in the NRA BB Gun rules (Section 10.7). It is crucial that we know and understand these commands as we will be hearing tham at any match.

We also covered how to call a shot. Remember that we call a shot by using two parts, one is "clock" position, example:

• The shot is directly above the center, it is at 12 O'Clock.
• The shot is directly below the center, it is at 6 O'Clock.

(just imagine the target with a clock face)

The second part of the shot is just what ring it is in. So, using the two examples above, if the shot lands in the 7 ring we would call the shot as:

• 12 O'Clock, 7
• 6 O'Clock, 7

It is important for all of us to use this standard method of calling shots.

Finally, we introduced time limits on our shooting. Our 2 minute prep periods turned into an average of 10 minutes, but it worked out well anyway. Thanks to Alan Wagner for once again demonstrating how to properly shoot in the prone position. Everyone had a chance to shoot prone and off-hand and I was very pleased with the results. Nice job kids!

BB Gun purcahses

A few people have asked about purchasing a BB gun for thier kids personal use/practice. I can get the BB guns directly from Daisy for about $80.00 plus a couple dollars shipping.

Membership is full

We are very happy that there are so many young shooters interested in joining the team. Unfortunately at this time, we are to the max in our membership. We are happy that the word has spread and there are eager participants. We will keep a waiting list of people interested and contact them if there are openings.

Thanks for your support!

4th week already!

It is the 4th week already and all the "young adults" are doing very well. So far we have learned the basics of the prone and off-hand positions.

I am sure that tonight everyone learned a very important lesson about the off-hand position... It is difficult! The good news is that I saw some very good shooting tonight for these first timers!

Next week we will try to do both prone and off-hand positions. We will also start working withing a time limit for each relay. We will start with a 5 minute prep period and a 10 minutes to shoot. In the future, the prep period will be 2 minutes as that is what is normal for competition. 10 Minutes may not seem like much time, but you will find that it is plenty. If we can stick to the time limits, we will have no problem shooting at least two positions per night.

I appreciate all of the feedback that I have received to help make the operations of the team smoother. I am new at this and all the comments and recommendations are VERY welcome. If you have any other ideas, questions or concerns you can call me anytime (814-329-0720).

I now have more Bellwood Sportsmen's membership cards. If you have already given me (or Terra) money for the card see us at the next meeting to get the card. If you (or your team member) don't have your Sportsmen's membership yet just see me at the next meeting. Cost for the membership is $10.00 for adults and $3.00 for juniors (12 & under).

Parents, if you need any help coaching, please let me know. We are extremely fortunate to have the help of some incredibly experienced shooters that are more than happy to help. I don't want anyone to feel like they are on thier own with coaching. We are all there to help each other.

Finally, one of my goals for this has been to have fun while teaching a valuable skill. The kids are shooting well and we all seem to be having a good time.

Thanks again for all the effort that all of you are putting in to this.

Dave.

Second Week Photos

Please click on photo to enlarge

Our guns are done!

Last Tuesday I picked up our guns from Wagner's Firearms. Steve Wagner, Allen Wagner and Ben Franklin spent a considerable amount of thier time to get the guns ready for the team.
In addition to all the donated time, Steve Wagner donated a considerable amount of gear to the team.

• 10 guns cases
• 10 slings and sling swivles
• 20 pair of shooting glasses
• 10 BB seating rods (Steve couldn't be happy with a simple stick, so he created the rods with a tool handle and PVC welding rod)
• A cleaning kit

Many thanks to Steve, Allen and Ben!

Additional Team Information

I will post frequently asked questions here:

• Open to kids between the age 0f 8 to 15
• An adult is required to attend. One adult can supervise/coach up to two kids.
• Club Fee $25.00/non-members - $15.00 for current BSA members.
• A currect Bellwood Sportsmen's club membership is required. Adult $10.00 / Junior $3.00.
• All equipment is provided.
• The club meets Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Bellwood Sportsmen's clubhouse.

First meeting

Last night was our first meeting of the Bellwood Sportsmen's Youth BB Gun Team. This was to be an informal meeting / orientation. Thankfully, Terra (my wife) and Jack Igou (my Dad) were there to help.

We had 8 kids and their parents show up for the meeting. I was very happy with how well the kids did shooting off the bench. Some of the kids had never shot a gun before and they did very well.

We distributed the Daisy BB Gun course book and talked about our next meeting.

I'll post details of the next meeting here. Tentatively, I would like to have someone in to show the kids a variety of other guns. We will also cover range safety and start reviewing the course book.

I hope to see everyone there next week!