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!