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As some of you already know, I have been coaching both 4-H club members and hunter education teams for many months now.
I teach both archery and shotgun to these young people. We are not training militarists, we’re training safe, ethical, knowledgeable, and skillful hunters.
I would like to tell you what it takes for one of these youngsters to become skilled in the use of the various types of firearm or bow.
The first step is the successful completion of a Virginia Hunter Education course. This is a 10-hour course, and is required before the youngster can begin the basic course of marksmanship in either rifle or shotgun. In the case of archery, there is no basic course of study. A student must get out on the range and learn about the equipment on his own before starting to shoot. Learning archery is a slow process since the individual must slowly build up those specialized muscle groups that you use only while shooting a bow.
During the basic marksmanship course, the shooter learns how the firearm works and how to clean it properly and safely, and then progresses to the range where the first shots are fired.
Remember now, these are youngsters, and attention span sometimes is a problem. Particularly on the range, extreme care is exercised to make sure that a student does not become bored. During long sessions, or when a student is not shooting frequently, horseplay can quickly erupt, destroy concentration, and end an otherwise good range experience.
Last November, many of the senior members of the 4-H Shooting Sports Club started asking me when we would start training for the 1986 Virginia Hunter Education Championship. Our first session was held Dec. 22, 1985, and in that session we had 14 shooters competing for 10 slots. Two teams of five members would be selected from this group.
Each Sunday, except Easter, has seen 14, then 12, then 11, now 10 youngsters training in rifle, shotgun, and archery. Some of those Sundays were cold, snowy, windy, wet, muddy, or just plain miserable, but we never missed a training session.
The studerits have now completed the hunter education course, the basic rifle course, the basic shotgun course and the basics of archery, and have been trained in wildlife identification, outdoor skills, survival techniques, arid the use of a map and compass.
At this point in training, the average youngster has fired two thousand rounds of .22 ammo in rifle practice, 450 to 500 rounds in shotgun practice, and has probably shot 1,500 to 2,000 arrows through his bow.
This youngster can identify 50 species of waterfowl and upland game birds, male or female, and can navigate a map and compass course well enough to avoid getting lost.
His shooting skills have dramatically improved to a point where he is now proud of his shooting, and anyone who witnesses that shooting would be impressed. In short, this kid is no longer an average anything. He’s special.
Now we have 10 of these very special youngsters — two teams, a junior team and a senior team.
The senior team has two new members since the 1985 championship, and the seniors are beginning to work together like a glove — five individuals sharing a common goal.
The junior team is composed of one previous team member from the 1985 championship, and four new members, as yet untested competitors. This team you might compare to a mitten, one veteran competitor and four newcomers to the shooting sports.
Only one of these 10 boys carries my name, but they’re all mine! I’m
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