Bellwood Sportsmen's Youth BB Gun Team

10 Week BB Gun Course

2008-09-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

We will be conducting a 10 week BB gun course starting on Sept 24th. If you know anyone that is interested in this program please have them contact me.

Wednesday nights starting Sept 24th 2008 6-8PM

Held at the Bellwood Sportsmen’s Club

Boys and Girls from ages 8-15 are welcome

Shooters will learn basic marksmanship and gun safety.

Cost—$15 for Sportsmen’s Members / $25 for non-members

All equipment is provided

An adult is required to stay during the classes to learn and act as a coach for the shooter. (no coaching or shooting experience needed. we will teach you everything you need to know)

For more information, please call:

David Wertz at 814-329-0720

** There is room for a maximum of 16 participants. Please contact me to confirm a spot in the course **

2008 State BB Gun Match photos

2008-05-04T06:46:00.003-04:00

Steve Wagner (Wagners Firearms) put this together on his web site. You can tell he spent a lot of time taking photos and notes. Thanks Steve!

http://www.gswagner.com/bellwoodbb/2008champmatch/2008champmatch.htm

Daisy Ten Week BB Gun Course

2008-03-24T22:09:00.001-04:00

We will be conducting a 10 week BB gun course starting the 2nd week of April. If you know anyone that is interested in this program please have them contact me.

Wednesday nights April 9th—June 11th, 2008 6-8PM

Held at the Bellwood Sportsmen’s Club

Boys and Girls from ages 8-15 are welcome

Shooters will learn basic marksmanship and gun safety.

Cost—$15 for Sportsmen’s Members / $25 for non-members

All equipment is provided

An adult is required to stay during the classes to learn and act as a coach for the shooter.

For more information, please call:

David Wertz at 814-329-0720

Trip to Alexandria Sportsmen's

2008-03-24T21:52:00.001-04:00

Terry Lightner has invited the team to see their Junior Rifle Team during their last practice of the season on Wednesday March 26th at 6:30 pm. The team shoots 22 caliber rifles. Anyone that is interested in attending is welcome to go.

If you are interested in going, give me a call for direction or to ride with one of us. (814-329-0720). We will be heading to Alexandria at 6:00 PM.

State Match Pictures

2008-03-24T21:07:00.001-04:00

State Match Results

2008-03-24T17:42:00.001-04:00

Well done team!

I would like to thank everyone that participated in the state match for your outstanding performance. You should all be very proud of what you accomplished in the past 6 months.

TEAM A	P	S	K	O	Total	Test	Final
Ashley W	92	88	75	80	335	84	419
Amanda W	93	92	78	67	330	74	404
Abbey C	90	87	75	86	338	78	416
Ariana G	90	92	86	74	342	86	428
Ellesha G	74	80	67	75	296	82	378
Team Total	439	439	381	382	1641	404	2045


TEAM B	P	S	K	O	Total	Test	Final
Jack S	89	87	71	53	300	62	362
Caroline S	80	84	69	67	300	84	384
Calvin A	88	75	72	71	306	72	378
Mary G	85	84	73	74	316	80	396
Ryan K	71	84	66	76	297	76	373
Team Total	413	414	351	341	1519	374	1893

Alternates
John Paul G	89	83	83	71	326	82	408

Centre Daily Times Article

2008-03-24T12:43:00.001-04:00

Cori Bolger of the Centre Daily Times wrote a very nice piece covering the State Match.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/480247.html

State Championship Teams

2008-03-20T18:33:00.001-04:00

Here are the team rosters for the State Championship match.

Team A

Ariana G
Ashley W
Abbey C
Amanda W
Ellesha G

Team B

Mary G
Caroline S
Calvin A
Ryan K
Jack S

Remember to bring your BB Gun, Registration Form *AND* a copy of your birth certificate for the registration on Friday evening.

We have 18 meal tickets which is enough for the 10 shooters and the coaches (we have 4 shooters that share the same coach). Additional meal tickets are $6.00/ea. Please contact me as soon as you can if anyone needs additional meal tickets for extra attendees. Please call my cell phone 814-329-0720 with counts if you need them.

Also, feel free to call me with any questions any time.

See you on Friday!

March 19th Scores

2008-03-20T18:13:00.001-04:00

These scores are only for two positions (200 points max).

	O	K	Total
Abbey C	80	90	170
Ariana G	82	87	169
Ashley W	79	85	164
Amanda W	75	79	154
Mary G	66	83	149
Ellesha G	58	83	141
Ryan K	61	69	130
Caroline S	59	65	124
Calvin A	42	73	115
Jack S	51	63	114

Hunting related test questions

2008-03-12T23:02:00.001-04:00

I asked Mr. Harpster about the the hunting related test questions and where we could find the information. Here is his response:

"Page 6 & 7 cover shotguns and rifles. Page 9 rule 10, P. 10, 11, & 12 cover the hunting related info."

State Championship Match - birth certificate reminder.

2008-03-12T22:59:00.001-04:00

Please remember that you will need to bring a copy of a birth certificate for the registration on the evening of the 21st or the morning of the 22nd.

March 12th Scores

2008-03-12T22:54:00.001-04:00

Everyone did a fantastic job tonight! Once again we see more improvement across all the shooters.

	P	O	K	Total
Ariana G	91	84	91	266
Ashley W	93	82	84	259
Abbey C	88	81	87	256
Amanda W	92	83	74	249
Ellesha G	84	62	89	235
Mary G	75	57	75	207
Caroline S	76	63	65	204
Calvin A	74	56	53	183
Ryan K	72	49	60	181
Jack S	60	71	49	180

Congratulations to Ariana for her 1st place score of 266! That is her best score to date!

Photos from March 9th Match

2008-03-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Steve Wagner for taking and posting these pictures.

http://www.gswagner.com/bellwoodbb/bellwoodbb.htm

Practice match results March 9th 2008

2008-03-09T22:04:00.001-04:00

I'd like to thank everyone for coming out to the practice match at the Northern Blair Rec Center today. All of our shooters did very well today especially given that it was their first exposure to a real match.

The state championship match on the 22nd will be in the roughly the same format except there will be 3 times the teams at the event.

Below are the scores from the match. Nice job shooters! It is great to see the continued improvement in the scores. Let's keep it up.

Name	Test	P	O	S	K	Total
Ashley W	84	85	83	90	79	421
Abbey C	68	87	83	81	87	406
Ariana G	72	86	73	84	90	405
Jacob H	80	83	67	81	81	392
Emily H	72	83	72	78	77	382
Ellesha G	80	78	69	80	57	364
Calvin A	84	84	35	78	77	358
Ryan K	76	61	65	71	69	342
John Paul G	64	65	60	76	66	331
Jack S	64	76	53	66	65	324

I'll post the remainder of the scores when I have the official results.

NRA Youth Education Grant update

2008-03-07T07:04:00.001-05:00

I was notified via email yesterday that we have been approved for the NRA Youth Education Grant that we applied for last fall. Here is part of the email I received.

"Thank you for your interest in The NRA Foundation Grant Program. The proposal from your organization has been received from the State Fund Committee. The State Fund Committee has recommended funding be awarded in the amount of $1,000.00 for the Bellwood Sportsmen's Club Youth BB Gun Club."

March 5th Match Scores

2008-03-07T06:49:00.001-05:00

	P	O	S	Total
Amanda W	89	83	91	263
Emily H	90	75	83	248
Ariana G	80	80	86	246
Ashley W	88	79	78	245
Abbey C	79	78	84	241
Jake H	85	75	73	233
Mary G	79	65	68	212
Calvin A	63	57	80	200
Ellisha G	65	45	75	185
Ryan K	43	62	61	166

Feb 27th Scores

2008-02-27T21:49:00.001-05:00

Once again everyone did a fantastic job tonight. We had a new shooter that took 1st place. The judges were a little skeptical of Alan's age and after an ID check we found that Alan is in fact over the 15 year age limit (by at least a few years).

So for the rest of the shooters, here are the scores.

	P	O	K	Total
Alan Wagner*	92	73	89	254
Abbey C	83	79	88	250
Amanda W	91	75	72	238
Ariana G	79	76	78	233
Ashley W	69	75	83	227
Emily H	79	75	73	227
Jake H	80	68	69	217
Mary G	76	57	78	211
Ellisha G	82	45	73	200
Caroline S	69	55	70	194
Ryan K	64	44	54	162
Jack S	77	25	52	154

Feb 20th Scores

2008-02-22T07:33:00.001-05:00

The scores are really coming up! Everyone is progressing well. Let's keep it up!

	Prone	Standing	Sitting	Test	Total
Amanda W	93	85	89	13	280
Ashley W	88	76	86	11	261
Ariana G	85	78	83	11	257
Jake H	88	72	83	12	255
Abbey C	76	79	81	12	248
Caroline S	81	56	80	12	229
Emily H	79	57	73	13	222
Ellisha G	84	51	74	11	220
Mary G	77	61	70	8	216
Jack S	80	42	60	9	191
Ryan K	68	55	51	13	187
Calvin A	63	45	64	13	185

* The test had 14 questions

Feb 13 Scores

2008-02-14T07:24:00.001-05:00

	Prone	Standing	Kneeling	Total
Ariana G	85	82	82	249
Amanda W	89	79	80	248
Abbey C	80	62	77	219
Ashley W	89	47	79	215
Jake H	80	49	85	214
Emily H	86	68	56	210
Mary G	77	50	73	200
Ellisha G	63	56	67	186
Ryan K	80	43	39	162
John Paul G	69	24	64	157
Calvin A	57	46	49	152

2008 Pennsylvania State Rifle & Pistol Assn. BB Gun Championship Match

2008-02-06T22:53:00.001-05:00

HOST Club: Tussey Mtn. Jr. Rifle Club

LOCATION: Northern Blair Co. Recreational Center

Old Route 220, Tipton, PA

DATE: Saturday March 22, 2008

Eligibility: Open to all Pennsylvania sponsored shooting education teams. A boy or girl may compete through December 31 of the calendar year in which his or her fifteenth (15th) birthday occurs. (NRA Rule 2.3)

A competitor may not compete if permission slip, release form, and adequate proof of age (copy of birth certificate) is not submitted at the time of registration.

Feb 6 Match scores

2008-02-06T22:49:00.001-05:00

Tonight we completed shooting 3 positions and another practice test (scored this time).

	Off Hand	Sitting	Prone	Test	Total
Ashley W	66	84	84	13	247
Ariana G	63	89	79	13	244
Abbey C	72	78	72	14	236
Calvin A	62	82	75	10	229
Amanda W	61	64	85	14	224
Ellesha G	59	68	76	14	217
Mary G	56	59	83	11	209
Jack S	49	66	75	12	202
Caroline S	62	58	65	14	199
Ryan K	48	69	56	14	187

The test had 14 questions.

Update

2008-02-01T07:26:00.001-05:00

We would again like to thank all the kids , parents and grandparents for all their support. We are very pleased and somewhat surprised at the tremendous turnout for the first year of the club. We have been asked where this is all going. These are our thoughts:

Bellwood Sportsmen’s BB Gun Team will run until the State Championship Match on March 22nd. We will spend the next several weeks practicing and studying the Daisy handbooks to prepare the kids. We know that not all the kids will be interested in competing, so we are asking the kids to sign up for the competition, with Adult consent.

Here is a schedule with some dates other than our regular meeting days:
• Practice Match - Sunday, March 9th - Northern Blair Rec Center
• State Championship - Saturday, March 22nd - location TBD

The Team will resume in the Fall with the beginning of the school year. At this time, we would like to create a competition team that will allow us to get more involved with competing against other area teams. We would also like to invite new team members that would like to learn the sport of BB Gun shooting. We are not sure at this point what the schedule for this would be. Please let us know if any of the kids are interested in continuing with a BB Gun Competition Team next year.

If there is enough interest, we may organize some informal matches after the Championship. Possibly once a month at the Sportsmen’s club.

For more information and schedules of events, please visit:
http://bellwoodbbgun.blogspot.com -AND- http://www.bellwoodsportsmen.com/

Jan 23rd Match scores

2008-01-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

	Prone	Standing	Kneeling	Sitting	Total
Ashley W	90	63	78	87	318
Amanda W	84	58	67	83	292
Abbey C	74	59	73	81	287
Ellesha G	68	78	62	79	287
Caroline S	71	65	69	67	272
Calvin A	69	42	68	59	238
Jack S	57	51	59	56	223
Tessa C	78	45	49	42	214
Ryan K	34	52	49	49	184

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T18:58:00.000-05:00

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We will be back in the swing of things starting Wednesday, Jan 9th 2008.

Purchasing BB Guns

2007-12-06T07:21:00.000-05:00

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..

2007-11-17T20:42:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-11-17T20:27:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-11-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T22:23:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-10-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Please click on photo to enlarge

Our guns are done!

2007-10-15T05:46:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-08T06:46:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-04T06:58:00.000-04:00

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!