TargetTalk

I am a 16 year old precision smallbore and air rifle shooter. My skills have greatly improved over the course of my career but i find it difficult to find matchs to get my scores out there. If you have any suggestons on how to find more matches or matches to go to i would really appricate it.
And I live in southeastern Kentucky if that helps.

You, or your coach should be receiving match bulletins.
If you are not ask the match director or stats person to email them to you.

Then you can email these to coaches you are interested in. When you email them, they may ask for a shooting "resume" .... work one up and keep them informed.

Note that if you are not a senior in high school they will probably not reply back to you other than a "thanks" ... this is due to NCAA regs
(a junior if you are talking with service academies)

If you go on the CMP website, Brad Donoho has written a great series of articles for the shooter that is interested in shooting after high school.

(PM me if you cannot find them, I have them in a PDF set we use for our clinics)

I known where you are coming from. Lack of matches in the area is one reason I have held off getting back into international style shooting. Seems all of the matches here in the eastern and southern parts of KY are aimed at the action sports - IDPA, three gun, cowboy action etc. There is a new range opening near Mammoth Cave at the old Park Mammoth Resort and Hotel. They have been doing 3-gun and sporting clays, but are going to have a 50m range from what I have been told. They are just getting started so it may be a bit before there are 50m smallbore matches there. I have found very little in the state as far as air rifle matches go.

Not sure why it posted my last message as a guest, but oh well. Shooting at the college level is definately something to consider. I shot on a very good Junior team in high school for a couple of years and then actually walked on to one of the best collegiate teams in the US. You will have to have decent scores of course (I was shooting around 1100 smallbore and in the 370s air rifle). One major drawback to walking on is that there is usually not any scholarship money available, you do it because you want to shoot. If you have not placed well (or even shot at) regionals expect to get red shirted. Yep, they even do that for shooters! I sat out my freshman year and then got to shoot my sophomore year. Unfortunately I had to withdraw from shooting as my major course of study required me to be away on field research and classes during most of the rifle season. Still it was a great experience.

Anthony,

The pickings are slim in KY for SB rifle. I have knowledge of only one club shooting smallbore prone in KY, that is the Louisville Rifle and Pistol Club where they have a great range and host great matches....The KY state rifle and pistol assoc also sponsors teams during the year.

If you like you may contact me at mdelcotto@gmail.com and I will keep you posted on what is going on here in the state.

What town do you live in? Mark DelCotto

Mark, sent you an email.

One problem for me is that I don't have a coach or team to work with. Any advice for an individual shooter?

Having a team is certainly a big help, as well as having a coach. When you shoot on a team there is always a little friendly rivalry that helps to keep pushing you. Also, your team mates can help point out what you are doing wrong and right. There is a huge lack of junior teams in this state. My advice is go to as many matches as you can (hard for an individual shooter, but try to get to as many as you can). Nothing can replace shooting in competition.

Some other tips:

Keep a shooting journal and write in it every time you shoot - practice and competition. Record your scores, how you were calling shots, problems and solutions you had, range conditions, how you were feeling, etc. This is the one thing that helped to increase my scores that cost absolutely nothing to do. You will find that your journal becomes your most important piece of equipment.

Set goals: Write them down in the front of your journal. Have goals that are possible but not easy to gain. I always had a the simple goal of beating my top scores. In addition I had larger goals such as making a college team, winning a regional, and making it to an Olympic qualifier. Look them over often.

Visualize good shooting: When not shooting visualize yourself shooting well. Look the bullet right through the x ring. This trains your mind to the fact that you shoot Xs. SOunds corny, but it did seem to help me. If your goal is to win the gold then visualize yourself on the podium. Another one of those training aids that is free.

Work on your form and dry fire: If you can't get to the range then do dry fire practice. I dry fired a ton and live fired smallbore once a week (only time I could get on the range) and live fired air rifle 3 times a week in the basement. You can learn a ton about your form and point of aim from dry fire. Again, nice and inexpensive.

Don't get too hung up on equipment, great scores get turned in at every match by people shooting 20 year old guns. Work on the basics and then worry about getting the latest and greatest gear. I shot some very respectable scores with an old spring air Anschutz air rifle and an Anschutz club standard stocked smallbore.

Where in KY are you at?? Send me a PM if you want, I am happy to help out if I can.