September 29, 2006

COLUMBIA-"Are you ready?" Roxana Kessler asked, watching her youngest son, Jacob's, face as he uncased his shotgun. The youngster was about to shoot a round of 25 clay targets at the state 4-H Shooting Sports Program competition. He mumbled a brief reply, not meeting his mom's inquiring look.

A few days short of 13, Jacob didn't want his mother fussing over him. He had done well in the .22 cal. rifle competition earlier that morning and was confident in the shotgun skills he had learned on hunting trips with his dad and friends. He walked casually onto the trap field, where he and four other youths received instructions from the safety officer. After finding their shooting stations, the first shooter called out "Pull!" and a 5-inch clay disk rocketed away at 40 mph. The competition was underway.

When Jacob's first turn came, he missed. "Lost bird!" called the field judge. Roxana groaned in sympathetic disappointment. Jacob turned to glance at her, saw the concern in her eyes.

He had won the Ray County competition leading up to the state event, but now he missed several targets in a row. Roxana was in full mom mode now, wondering about his shooting form and offering pantomime pointers when he looked to her for support.

"That's okay," she called out. Then she wondered aloud if she was allowed to shout advice and encouragement from the sidelines. "He will come away from this with something," she said philosophically. "He'll learn something."

All around the rear of the trap field, similar personal dramas were playing out. Families in lawn chairs pulled for their respective shooters. Quite a few targets were escaping unbroken. Jacob wasn't the only one feeling the pressure of competition.

When the round was over, Jacob's disappointment was visible in his posture. He didn't say much, only that he should have done better. It turned out he did okay, placing second in his round. And he still had his good score in the .22 competition to feel positive about.

Jacob was one of more than 850 shooters at the event Sept. 16. His shotgun was a serviceable youth model. He wasn't a novice to shooting, but he was not a veteran target shooter, either. Given a choice, he would rather hunt. However, the 4-H Shooting Sports Program allowed him to pursue his passion for shooting and hunting during the off-season.

Other competitors ranged from casual target shooters like Jacob to youths who compete in Junior Olympics and NRA-sanctioned events. Their firearms ranged from "little rabbit .22s," as Roxana called them, to expensive competition-grade firearms.

The competition site, 220-acre Cedar Creek Rod & Gun Club east of Columbia, echoed with gunshots all day. Youngsters aged 8 to 18 competed in shotgun, .22 ca. rifle, air rifle, BB gun, small-bore pistol, air pistol, muzzle-loading rifle, archery and hunting skills competitions. In all, they fired more than 28,000 shots, an average of more than 2,000 per hour.

With more than 1,800 people in attendance, the event was a model of efficiency. Youths strode purposefully between venues carrying cased firearms. Local contingents established impromptu headquarters consisting of dozens of lawn chairs clustered around motor homes and impressive trailer-mounted barbecue grills. The atmosphere resembled a huge family reunion.

"This program has seen huge growth in the past eight years," said Gerry Snapp, a 4-H Youth Development Specialist with the University of Missouri Cooperative Extension Service. He said the national 4-H Shooting Sports Program began in 1981. Missouri organized its program in 1985, and it grew rapidly. Now it has 5,500 youths enrolled in 94 county programs, making it the state's second-largest 4-H program.

"Our state shoot began many years before there was a national 4-H competition," said Snapp. "As a result, we take a slightly different approach than the national event. For one thing, we have different events. Also, instead of being a competition for the best of the best, where only winners from county events compete at the state level, anyone who competes in a county-level 4-H shooting competition can take part in the state competition. There is no minimum score required. Our goal is to encourage the highest level of participation. That has helped make this the largest competitive event in Missouri 4-H."

Girls and boys compete on an equal footing. The 4-H Shooting Sports Program's goals are to teach safe and responsible use of firearms, to teach the fundamentals of shooting, to connect youths with caring adults, and to teach life skills, such as goal setting, decision making, self-discipline, responsibility, safety, concentration and the wise use of the environment.

Roxana Kessler said some of those goals seem to have been realized in Jacob's case.

"Jacob did so well at the local trap competition. I think he thought he was going to come in and wipe it out. He was really upset when he didn't shoot as well as he thought he would. It was better for him to learn a tough lesson like that now, at a young age, instead of a much harder lesson later on.

"I really thought, 'Oh, boy, it's going to be a long ride home,' but I was surprised at how quickly he recovered. He took maybe 10 minutes. You know, he just had to mourn about it a little bit. Within an hour of leaving the shoot he was talking about how he was going to prepare for next year, so I think he learned his lesson pretty quickly."

She said the competition not only didn't discourage Jacob; it made him think about long-range goals for his shooting. "He has talked about scholarships quite a bit," said Roxana. "He knows that there are far more scholarships in rifle than there are in shotgun. Quite a few colleges have shooting teams, and he has even talked about the Olympics. I'm glad he has something that really fires him up and he can work on - anything besides video games and TV."

To learn about a 4-H Shooting Sports Program near you, contact your county University of Missouri Cooperative Extension Service office.

Sponsors of the shooting event include the George Clark Missouri Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Big Game Hunters Foundation of St. Louis, Cedar Creek Rod and Gun Club, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the National Rifle Association Foundation and Brenda and Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA.

-Jim Low