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OSU Extension

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES
February 22, 2019 - 8:35am -- young.1414@osu.edu

The 4-H Shooting Sports Program promotes Youth Development through participation in the shooting disciplines of Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun, Muzzleloader, Archery, and Crossbow. Hunting & Wildlife and Living History also fall under the 4-H Shooting Sports umbrella. These differ from traditional 4-H projects in that they require a member to take the project under the direction of a shooting sports club that includes state certified shooting sports instructors. We have 15 awesome certified instructors on our team!

We meet on Wednesday evenings at the Butler County Sportsmen Rifle and Pistol Club. We started back on January 2nd. Our program is divided into seasons and we are currently in our “Winter Season” which runs through March. While indoors, we teach Rifle, Living History and Hunting & Wildlife. We also use the “Safe Use of Guns” Project as an intro to safe gun handling and the rifle discipline. We currently have 62 members taking part in our Winter Season. We will have a new session of Safe Use of Guns starting on Feb 20th that will run for six weeks. You don’t have to join a shooting sports club for this project, but our terrific instructors and appropriate facilities make this a great place to take the project if you are interested. Many of our members belong to their home club but come to us for their Shooting Sports projects.

Our members in the “Safe Use of Guns” group are currently learning about safe gun handling in the home environment and on the range. They are shooting .22 rifles from a bench (sitting at a counter) position on the 50 foot range while our instructors and older members help them. They are doing great and they are getting all of their shots on the target (not an easy feat when starting)! This program runs for 6 weeks and then they transition to beginning rifle.

Our members in our beginning rifle group have started working through the rifle project book. They are learning more of the fundamentals of target shooting. They are also shooting .22 rifles from the bench position under the watchful eyes of our instructors. Once ready, these members will move into our regular Rifle group.

Our members in the regular Rifle group continue to work through the project book. While on the range they are beginning to shoot from different positions such as Prone (laying down), Sitting and Kneeling on the floor.

Our older/more experienced members are spending their evening helping the other members with their projects both on and off the range. They can shoot Offhand (standing) or any position they want to work on.

We also have groups of members working on the Hunting and Wildlife Project and the Living History project. All the members, whether taking those projects or not, have the option to participate in activities those groups are doing. The Living History Group has recently provided us with mac and cheese through the ages!

Our upcoming service project is our 2nd annual “Ladies Day on the Range” that we put on in conjunction with the Sportsmen Club. We invite up to 60 ladies to participate. Our families help provide lunch. Our female members assist with instruction at all the ranges as well as help with food and photos. Our male members help with setup and cleanup.

Spring will be here before we know it and we will be into our “Spring Season” and can move to the outdoor ranges. At that time our members will choose from Archery, Crossbow, Muzzleloading or Shotgun.

Come Fall, we will have another 8 week session which will include shooting Pistol and Advanced Rifle on both the indoor and outdoor ranges. We also hold another session of Safe Use of Guns at this time.

If you are interested in any of these activities, stop out and see us.