4-H shooting sports

[sljacob]

I attended our local 4-H livestock meeting with my daughter tonight. After it was over I spoke with our county agent about the possibilty of forming a local 4-H shooting club and volunteering as a leader. Man did his eyes light up as well a several of the youth that was in ear shot. seems it is somthing he has wanted to do for quite a while but has been unable to find anybody willing to step up as a leader. This is somthing that has been on my mind to do for about a year now but I have no idea what it would take to get it started.
I do know that there in a training program coming up soon that I woud have to attend, other than that I am mostly in the dark. Our extention agent is going to dig up what he can and get it to me this week that should help. I have not fully commited to this yet until I know a little bit more about it, however I think it is a great opportunity to pass on a little of my passion for shooting to the younger generation.
If anybody here has any experience with this please chime in. Any advice would be greatly appreaceated.

[41mag]

You might touch base with the NRA or the Civilian Marksman Program, I'm sure that either of them should have info on getting things up and running.

[ffg]

The NRA has certification courses for the coaches, I took the course many years ago so I could coach when my son was involved with the 4H shooting program .
This was in the in the mid 80s so things might have changed .
Good luck.
John in Texas

[Triggernosis]

Yep, I'm the rifle instructor for our county's 4-H shooting sports club (we even have a Facebook page - Wilson County 4H Shooting Sports - check us out). Our club is sending 3 kids to the Nationals in Nebraska this year.
We have 45 kids ages 9-19 and they are the best group of kids I've ever worked with.
4H is all about youth development - we just use shooting as a tool to get there.
Also, 4H shooting sports is the largest competitive shooting group in the world.

I'm an NRA cert. rifle instructor as well, but it doesn't count for 4H - you'll have to take their training as well (usually a weekend for each discipline). They teach you about how to teach kids, recognize signs of abuse, etc....it's much more than just teaching them to shoot.

[DLCTEX]

We have a local man who has worked with the kids in 4H shooting trap and has had great results. He puts in a lot of time and effort, but the rewards are many.

[edler7]

The local 4H uses our range several times a year for their shoots. Seems as though once a year, they have a state wide shoot there, too.

It's good to see so many youngsters having a good time at the range.

[429421Cowboy]

Can't say enough good about 4-H! I am a Livestock leader and a coach for the Meats judging team. I know that more than half of our countie's 400+ kids are in at least one disipline of our shooting sports program, aside from their other projects. I know the NRA helps our county alot, and i would suspect you could find a range that will sponsor the program. Good luck with it!

[Agent1187]

I was in 4-H shooting sports for my entire 4-H career, and I must say that many of my fondest times in 4-H were somehow tied to shooting.
Safety - Safety - Safety - Safety! The safest run ranges were always the most fun.
For your own sake, don't be the only one who knows what's going on or is solely in charge. The lower the stress it is on you, the less likely you'll burn out, and the more enjoyable it is to keep doing it. Our leader was in the hospital, and had to draw up the entire archery course on a disposable floormat because he was the only one usually involved.

[shooterg]

Our local chapter of Izaak Walton hosts the County 4-H shooting sports group - mostly shotgun here but they do it all. Everyone of 'em I've met was a great kid.

[Idaho Mule]

NRA, CMP, but first I would probably look up the local Hunter Ed. instructors. You should be able to get their contact info from Utah Fish and Game , or whatever they call it there. If you can't find anything and need help let me know and I will try my best from here to get what you need. JW

[sljacob]

thanks for all the replies,

I agree that the 4-h program is a great organization for the youth, I was involved in several clubs as a kid and my daughter is curently in the horsemanship and livestock clubs and my wife helps teach horse training as well.
I met with the county agent today and he found out that the state 4-h shooting sports training is this friday and saturday in salt lake city, I'm sure I can get a lot of questions answered there. I have a lot to do before this becomes a reality, we don't even have a formal shooting range in this county, but if I can make it work I think it would be worth it.
Thanks again for all the positive responces.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I am a rifle , pistol and muzzle loader instructor for our county program.

take the rifle training first , then as soon as you can take coordinator or if your spouse or another parent wants to help but doesn't feel comfortable teaching shooting they can help you a lot with the coordinator position taking care of paper work , the state typically has very good resources

if I were starting up a brand new program my first year i would concentrate on air rifle , the daisy 853 is available rebuilt from the CMP for 100 each +shipping they are good guns

my next year if it looked like i had the shooters i would start 22 rifle through the cmp you can order savage 22 rifles they are good but only the club can order these there is some paperwork to make them county extension office property.

the air rifles any one in your club can order they ship to the extension office then you pick them up and they are who's ever paid for them this way kids can buy their own rifles and get a lot of practice in at home

old road signs screwed to ply wood with 2x4's on edge with card board stapled to the front work well as pellet traps for the 853 with wad cutter pellets we get our old signs from the dnr.


there are 2 ways to go club wise you can do like we are a county shooting sports committee and the kids need to belong to a regular club in the county then they can all attend our functions , this is how many are set up sort of like the animal projects or the other route start a shooting sports club that kids interested in shooting first and other things second can join you still invite the kids from other clubs to join you for shooting , this has it's benefits but triple or quadruples the paperwork and time you put into it. so start small with a committee and one day add a club if you get big enough.

we have all disciplines we share some of them with the neighboring county archery , shotgun , rifle , air rifle , pistol ,air pistol , and muzzle loader the shotgun instructors run the shotgun portion of the program at a separate range i am not involved with that at all , archery is indoors at a local archery club my kids go to that i go but not as a leader I don't have that certification yet , not sure i am all that interested in it they do a good job with the archery program on their own.

we used to do everything in one day 1.5 hours of each 6 weeks in a row , it didn't work now we do a day for everything, a air rifle clinic at a local indoor archery range , a sign up and sight in day sight in is optional , muzzle loader day, air rifle day , 22 rifle day , pistol day, and fun day this is working better time and not conflicting with to many other projects at the same time is always a problem we do the muzzle loader first the end of April we had snow and driving winds for it this last year by June just over a month later we were cooking in the 95 degree heat , there just are not enough weekends it seems.

good luck with your program.