NRA Disabled Shooting Services Manager Vanessa Ross poses with three competitors, left to right: David Blevins, John Powell, and Barbaro Ponce.

NRA's Disabled Shooting Services touch many lives. John Powell competed in one of the department's very first indoor air rifle competitions. (Read about it here.) The MormonTimes ran the following article on Monday, and we think it's worth a read.

Disabled Texan relishing life

There's not much of anything that gets in John Powell's way.

The 61-year-old competes in the National Rifle Association's disabled shooting program and took second in the nation last year. At a recent competition in Houston, he finished second overall in the air rifle shooting and third in obstacle courses and wall climbing. He also took fifth in the disabled division of the Houston marathon.

And he's a second alternate on the U.S. Paralympic wheelchair curling team, set to compete in Vancouver this month.

"I just like the challenge," said Powell, a member of the Dallas 5th Ward, Dallas Texas East Stake. "I haven't met a challenge yet I didn't like."

When he was much younger, Powell played basketball, bowled, hunted and was an archer.

Continue reading here.

The NCAA Rifle Championships are right around the corner!

From NavySports.com:

Navy Rifle Claims MAC Championship

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The Navy rifle team rallied from an 11-point smallbore deficit to defeat Akron in the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference Championship, 4584 - 4564, on Saturday afternoon. The win improves Navy's record to 8-1 overall, heading into next weekend's NCAA Championship.

Navy failed to win the smallbore discipline at the MAC Championships for the first time since 1999, but the air rifle title was the program's seventh straight.

"Getting ready for NCAAs, this was not the score we wanted. We had been shooting significantly higher scores in practice, so today was a disappointing day," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "Hopefully, today's performance is a wake-up call."

The Mids trailed 2282 - 2271 after the smallbore portion. Kenan Wang and Chris Burleson led Navy with a 571 each. Ryan Williams totaled a 569, and Alison Lankes rounded out Navy's scoring with a 560.

The Mids then rallied in air rifle, outscoring the Zips, 2313 - 2282, to earn the 20-point victory overall. Lankes led Navy with a 583. Burleson followed with a 579, while Wang and Williams scored a 577 and 574, respectively.

Navy will now practice for a couple of days before leaving for Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA Championships on Wednesday.

Continue reading here, and don't go anywhere! Our very own Kyle Jillson will soon be reporting live on this year's collegiate championships.

Trey Tuggle recently accepted the newly created position of Tactical Rifle Coordinator. This position is part of the NRA Competition Division’s efforts to bring more people into shooting sports. Tuggle works with Jan Raab. Tuggle comes to the NRA from a tactical background. He is a former US Navy SEAL sniper and is an entrepreneur, having created a counterterrorism assault vehicle company called Patriot 3.

The focus of the Tactical Rifle Coordinator will be to promote the use of optics at existing High Power Matches as well as to move the NRA forward with a sanctioning process for Multi-Gun Action Shooting Events.

Look for new and exciting things to come from the desk of the Tactical Rifle Coordinator. Contact Tuggle via email  at ttuggle@nrahq.org!

Steve Hoback submitted the following:

On February 6, 2010, the NFL Alumni hosted the 11th Annual NFL Alumni Sporting Clays Team Challenge presented by NRA Sports. The event, held annually in conjunction with Super Bowl Weekend in the host city, took place at Markham Park’s sporting clays facility in Sunrise, FL. It included many NFL alumni as well as a few current NFL players. In total there were 120 shooters making 24 sponsor squads with each team captained by an NFL celebrity. The NFL Alumni Sporting Clays Team Challenge serves as a major funding vehicle for the youth-oriented programs of the NFL Alumni, Inc., a non-profit charitable organization with a motto and mission of Caring for Kids.

Extreme sport shooter Patrick Flanigan kicked off the festivities with a great show of marksmanship and showmanship. Patrick’s show rocked the landscape with bangs and booms and stunned the crowd with his display of accuracy and skill. The exhibition reached its peak with members of the local youth trap league hurling eggs as far as they could while Patrick blew them out of the sky!

Team NRA SPORTS-2, who removed themselves for prize consideration, won the event by seven shots posting a score of 191 out of 250. The team was made up of two former players, Jack Youngblood, a Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinee and Dave Butz, a member of the Washington Redskins Super Bowl Championship team; Taurus International President & CEO Bob Morrison, Skeet Champion Todd Bender; and Doug Koenig, one of the top action pistol shooters in the world.

Presenting sponsor NRA Sports helped the NFL Alumni advance its mission of Caring for Kids by underwriting costs. Other valued sponsors were American Airlines, Cabela’s, Great HealthWorks, Otis Technology, R&R Pheasant Hunting, White Flyer Targets, Winchester Ammunition, Tiffany & Co. and many more.

The results of the 250-target team competition and the 50-target individual competition were as follows:

First – TEAM LEUPOLD – (184 out of 250)
Larry Ball – NFL Alumni (35 out of 50)
Manny Fernandez – NFL Alumni (30 out of 50)
Avery Ball (36 out of 50)
James Harrod (46 out of 50)
Guy Roper (37 out of 50) More...

From our Competitive Shooting Division:

F-Class championships in March instead of October this year, in Sacramento, CA

Have you ever wanted to shoot in a National Championship? Here is a great opportunity, right in your own backyard. There will be shooters from across the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, and likely from Australia and South Africa. We expect upwards of 150 competitors.

We will only be shooting at 600 and 1000 yards. There will be three days of individual competition and a one-day team match. Lunch will be served at the range each day, and a huge barbecue is included for Saturday. The awards for placing high in the standings will be great, but the prizes drawn randomly from all of the competitors participating will be even better.

Bring out your precision rifles and show us what you got!!!

More...

The Telegram & Gazette, based in Worcester, MA, offers this story:

‘Love’ means shooting pistols for local GI eyeing Olympics

WESTMINSTER — U.S. Army Spec. Tyler C. Imig cannot believe he gets paid to do what he loves best: shoot pistols.

“I am still surprised that I get to do this,” he said. “How often do you get paid to do something like this?”

With a goal to qualify for the 2012 Olympic shooting team, the 24-year-old pistol shooter currently ranks No. 8 in the country.

A 2005 graduate of Oakmont Regional High School, Spec. Imig said he enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell last year to start his career as a shooter.

“I got a letter from the Army telling me that I could enlist and be placed on the national team, so that’s what I did,” he said.

Today, he is under a four-year contract with the Army and stationed at Fort Benning, Ga.

As a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Spec. Imig is one of six shooters in his division. He shoots both air pistols and free pistols, which are classified as international precision events.

While other young adults his age look for employment in their fields, Spec. Imig is literally in the field, spending his days shooting and training other soldiers to shoot.

Continue reading here.

The NRA's Disabled Shooting department hears a variety of positive stories from competitors, hunters, and others who are able to find a welcoming place in the shooting world. Below, read about one extraordinary young man who isn't letting his handicap keep him from his dream:

Blind man shoots in competition matches

SHERMAN, TX -- One Texoma man is proving it's possible to overcome any obstacle-- If you just don't give up. He shows us how he's taken what some view as a handicap, and turned it into motivation to achieve his goals.

Competitive shooting. It's a sport that's popular across Texoma, with all sorts of people. John Flyum is one of them. But this durant resident's not your average shooter.

"I only see small portions of the target," Flyum said. "That's why it takes me longer to figure out what I need to shoot and what not to shoot."

Ten years ago, John was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle wreck, leaving him 95 percent blind.

While some people may see John's blindness as a handicap, through these doors he's just another one of the guys.

"After he showed safety and everything, and was safe on the range, he was good to go," said Jason Webb owner of Red River Firearms.

"There were some initial apprehensions, since he's blind. Within the first few minutes able to see he was a safe shooter, he had good handling skills, we went from there," said Howe Police Sergeant James Doyle.

John's pistol is equipped with special sights, and he memorizes the locations of the targets. He's shot in International Defensive Pistol Assocation, or IDPA matches, at ranges from Alaska to Ada, Paris, and Sherman, for more than a year. 

Continue reading here.

Read NRAblog coverage of NRA Disabled Shooting Services. 

Results are in for the Men’s 4x7.5 km Relay in Biathlon: a gold medal for Norway, silver for Austria, and bronze for the Russian Federation. Team USA came in 13th place.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Olympic biathlon coverage this winter. Just 882 days until the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London!

The final biathlon event at this year’s Olympic Games, the Men’s 4x7.5 km Relay, is scheduled to start at 11:30 PST at Whistler Olympic Park.

The American relay team consists of Lowell Bailey of Lake Placid, New York; Jay Hakkinen of Kasilof, Alaska; Tim Burke of Paul Smiths, New York; and Jeremy Teela of Anchorage, Alaska.

More...

"Yup, it’s hard to believe but it’s that time of year again!" writes Dan Holmes over at ProneMatch.com.

"Team housing reservations for Camp Perry should be postmarked between March 1, 2010 and March 31, 2010. You can download all of the lodging forms you may need here."

Stay tuned to both NRAblog and ProneMatch.com as the 2010 National Rifle and Pistol Matches draw near. Submit your story or suggestion to GOblog@nrahq.org.

The team and individual participants of this year's NCAA Rifle Championships have been announced by the Men's and Women's Rifle Committee:

Men's and Women's Rifle Committee Announces 2010 Championships Participants

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Rifle Committee has announced the team and individual qualifiers for the 2010 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Rifle Championships.

Hosted by Texas Christian University, the championships will be held March 12-13 in Fort Worth, Texas, at the TCU Rifle Range and the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

A total of 48 competitors were selected for the championships. The top eight teams in both the smallbore three-position and air rifle events were selected based on the average of the three highest regular-season aggregate scores with no more than one match at any given site. The average of the three highest scores was added to the aggregate scores from the designated qualifiers to determine the top eight teams.

See the rest of the article and the list of chosen participants at the NCAA website here.

Hat tip to John Parker for sharing the following article about an exceptionally talented teen shooter:

Fifteen Year Old Wins Nevada High-Power Rifle Championship

Madison, NC - Remington Arms Company, Inc. would like to congratulate Tyler Rico on his recent victory at the Nevada Regional High-Power Rifle Championship held on February 13, 2010. Rico scored an incredible 791-26X to be awarded the overall "Open Winner" match rifle champion while also securing High Master Class and NRA Junior Class titles at the recent Boulder City event.

This NRA-sanctioned match, held at the Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club, is one of many competitive events conducted throughout the year with individual winners qualifying for the National Championships held at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ohio. Rico secured his win by completing the four-stage course of fire that included 20 shots standing at 200 yards; 20 shots sitting at 200 yards; 20 shots from the prone position at 300 yards; and 20 shots from the prone position at 600 yards.

Rico, age 15, is a former Junior National High-Power Rifle Champion. He and his father, Cecil Rico, joined the Remington High-Power Rifle Team in October 2009, and reside in Tucson, Arizona.

Remington congratulates Tyler on his wins and wishes him continued success in upcoming shooting competitions!

 

The team from the Russian Federation won the gold medal in today’s Women’s 4x6km Biathlon Relay; France won the silver medal; and Germany won the bronze medal.

The American biathlon team came in 17th place.

The last Olympic biathlon event – the Men’s 4x7.5 km Relay – will take place on Friday.

The Women’s 4x6 km Relay is scheduled to start at 11:30 PST at Whistler Olympic Park.

On the American biathlon relay team are: Sara Studebaker of Boise, Idaho; Lanny Barnes of Durango, Colorado; Haley Johnson of Lake Placid, New York; and Laura Spector of Lenox, Massachusetts.

More...

The Men’s 15 km Mass Start is scheduled for 11:00 PST at Whistler Olympic Park, followed by the Women’s 12.5 km Mass Start at 1:00 PST.

In the mass start event,

the 30 best-ranked competitors start together and must stop four times at the shooting range to take five shots at a target. If an athlete misses a shot, the athlete must ski a lap around a 150-metre penalty loop. If a competitor is lapped during the competition he or she must withdraw immediately.
(Vancouver2010.com)

The first one across the finish line wins.

Only two American biathletes have achieved the ranking necessary to compete in today’s Mass Start: Tim Burke of Paul Smiths, New York; and Jeremy Teela of Anchorage, Alaska.

More...