There is a brand new junior air rifle team developing in Middlebury, Indiana. Their home base is American Legion Post 210.
The Legion Post has a Facebook page where photos of early practices or meetings can be viewed.
The team is led by two Life Members of the NRA and the Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association. The Coach, Paul Gittinger, and the assistant Coach Paul Carlson are also members of Post 210.
Both coaches are NRA Level 1 Rifle Coaches. They both have extensive shooting experience in several disciplines. The Post Commander also plans on taking the Level 1 Rifle course as soon as it is available.
At the first meeting, there were 8 juniors in attendance along with their parents. Within the next two weeks, 10 juniors were practicing with the team. They all seem to be enthused about learning a new skill. Among the members, there are 3 sets of siblings. And most recently, two new junior athletes joined the team last evening to make a total of 12.
At the 3rd meeting those athletes in attendance chose a name for their team. They will be known as the Middlebury Legion X-Ringers.
The team is focused on learning safe gun handling in the 3 positions of air rifle competition. We are working on the prone position. At the third meeting, after considerable safety training the juniors made 3 shots on a target at 10 meters off a table. Here is that target:
Not too bad for brand-new junior athletes.
The ages of the athletes range from 9 years to 15 years.
As a new team, we need just about everything. We do have 4 Crosman Challenger PCP rifles derived from a grant. We have borrowed 8 older model Challenger PCP rifles from our friends at the X-Count. We do have some target holders, backers and a curtain for the indoor range plus some shooting mats. But we need everything else to outfit the team. We have at least one father thinking about buying a rifle from CMP for his athlete.
Fundraisers are the forte of the Post Commander. So we plan on raising funds soon for our needs. Any help form the wider shooting community would be very helpful and appreciated.
We have affiliations to make and organizing to do too.
With a little more work we may see you all on the range soon.
Submitted by Paul E. Carlson
ISRPA Life Member and Member of the Board of Directors