Flathead shooters head to nationals

Montana will be represented this year at the NRA Jr. Air Gun Championship and Training Summit by five shooters from the Flathead Valley.

The 2009 Montana Rifle & Pistol Association Jr. Precision Air Rifle Team includes Carmen Luke, Whitefish, Leland Fabel, Kim Wiherski and Adam Reynolds, Kalispell, and ReAnn Wilson, Bozeman.

Luke, Wiherski and Reynolds all shoot with the Whitefish Junior Rifle Club. Fabel shoots with the Flathead County 4-H Shooting Sports, and Wilson shoots with the Gallatin Valley Sharpshooters in Bozeman but has Flathead roots, as her father lives in Kalispell.

The team has spent the last several weeks practicing at the North Valley Shooting Foundation Gallery Range near Whitefish.

This is the first time that the Montana precision team comes from one area of the state. Precision coach Velma Luke said she enjoyed the time spent training such a talented group of shooting athletes.

"We had a very unique opportunity this year, with all five members of the team being together for quality practice before the big match," she said. "They bonded as a team, and each shooter has shown improvement."

The NRA Jr. Air Gun Championship will be held this year at Camp Perry, Ohio, on July 1-3. The course of fire is 120 shots fired over two days. Each day, competitors will shoot 20 shots in each of three positions — prone, standing and kneeling.

This year's team is very experienced, as Luke is going to the nationals for the fifth time, Fabel for the third time and Wilson for the second time. Wiherski and Reynolds are first-time competitors at the national level.

The team members qualified for the Montana Rifle & Pistol Association Jr. team by shooting at an NRA Jr. Air Rifle Sectional held last winter in both Whitefish and Bozeman.

The precision team will be joined in Ohio by Montana shooters from Superior and Bozeman, who make up the 2009 Montana Rifle & Pistol Association Jr. Sporter Air Rifle Team.

Fabel chose this year to leave his sporter air rifle at home and shoot on the precision team. He is the 2008 NRA National Jr. Sporter Individual Champion, and he also led the Montana Rifle & Pistol Association Sporter Team to yet another National Championship last summer.

Target air rifles are broken into two categories — sporter and precision. Both shoot the same caliber lead pellet propelled by compressed air, both shoot at targets from a distance of 10 meters, and both require the shooter to hit a dot the size of the head of a pin to score a perfect 10 points.

Beyond that, the rifles have very different actions, sights, adjustments and specifications. Precision rifles are those used for collegiate, international, and Olympic competitions.

The Whitefish Junior Rifle Club and the Flathead 4-H Shooting Sports programs will accept new junior shooters in the fall. For more information, call Velma Luke at 862-0045 or the Flathead County Extension Office at 758-5553.