Grant County 4-H shotgun team won first place

By Yourwellness Last updated May 23, 2014 9

By Susan Dunlap

SILVER CITY &GT;&GT; Five Grant County 4-H teams, which included two shotgun teams, a rifle team, an archery team and a hunting skills team, competed at the National Rifle Association’s Whittington Center near Raton the first weekend of May. Shotgun team one took home a first place trophy from the Whittington Center and will be competing at the national 4-H sports invitational contest in Grand Island, Nebraska, June 24 through 29.

“I think it’s definitely a positive sign of continued improvement and I guess the diligence of our leaders and the youths’ commitment,” Sam Lowry, agriculture and 4-H agent for the New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service in Grant County, said. “It’s quite an exciting positive achievement by our 4-H youth. I hope we can maintain the high level of competitiveness.”

The state contest was attended by over 200 4-H youth and consisted of competition in the following categories: Archery, .22 rifle, .22 pistol, shotgun, muzzle loader, air rifle, air pistol and hunting skills.

The kids who participated from Grant County 4-H range in age from 14 to 18, competing in trap and skeet. When shotgun team one travels to Grand Island, they will compete in trap and skeet, plus sporting clays.

“Sporting clays are a simulated hunting-type scenario, where the targets come from different trajectories, so you don’t know where they come from,” Lowry explained.

Shooting trap requires shooting at clay targets that are moving away from the shooter. Shooting skeet means shooting at clay targets that are crossing from both high and low trajectories simultaneously, according to Lowry.

The 4-H teams have been practising since February at the Grant County shooting range.

Shotgun team two placed 11th at the competition. The rifle team placed seventh. The kids who competed in archery placed third and the hunting skills team placed fourth.

“Our focus is not necessarily to create champion shooters, but champion kids,” Lowry said. “We teach leadership skills, how to set goals, how to achieve those goals. They learn focus and team work. Winning in marksmanship is a by-product 4-H teaches our kids.”