Does anyone have a child doing shooting sports in 4-H?

[CLHCO]

My kids are looking at doing that this year. We're hoping to get a recurve bow for my older daughters to share and my son will likely get an air gun of some type.

In some of these 4-H programs it seems like the kids with more money have an advantage for better equipment. Is this the case with the shooting sports? We can't afford a top of the line bow or air gun but I don't want to hinder them simply from equipment alone. Also, are there standard restrictions we need to be aware of or does anyone have any brand type recommendations?

Thanks!

[BeachGirl]

My daughter shoots Sporter Air Rifles for our local 4H club. She is quite good at it too. We have the benefit of borrowing equipment from the local gun club. This is the second year of the project. I know of one gung ho parent from last year with money to burn who purchased top of the line equipment for both of his daughters in the project. They did not continue in the project again this year. I spoke with the Range Master at the club about getting my daughter her own gun. He said to start out with something in the $450 - $600 dollar range and if they are interested in competitions, work up from there. He did show me brochures from the Daisy company along with others that I cannot remember right now. My finances just don't allow me purchase right now but I may have to next year for various reasons.

Maybe you can see if someone you know would let you borrow this equipment for a trial? That way you can see if your children really are interested in this. We had a very large group of kids at the beginning of the year. They had to be split into three shifts of shooting. We are down to a core group now of 4 kids. I get to shoot since they have space available. The kids were bored of trying to concentrate on learning to adjust the sights and other things. It weeded out the non-committed really quickly.

Good luck with your project!

[tlcmom]

He has been the county champion in both for the last three years. I would talk to the leader about what type and brand to get. They have a lot of knowledge that they can share. In our area the leaders have to have special training to be a shooting leader.

Unfortunately it is true, some kids have much better equipment than others. I would try and find a used bow. You might try looking at Pawn shops, they usually have a lot in there. That is where my son's bow came from. Just make sure you know what you are looking for ahead of time.

[snickelfritz]

In some of these 4-H programs it seems like the kids with more money have an advantage for better equipment.

I wasn't involved in shooting sports, but I was involved in livestock projects.

We couldn't get near to spending the amount of money that some of those kids did on their show animals. My parents just tried to find a middle road. Buy the best they could, do the best you could with it. Many times, by hard work (in our case...exercising, gentling the animal, working with them, practicing showing) you could up your placement some and be eligible for showmanship awards.

It also taught us the value of money. That you can't always buy the best. That's ok. It's normal. If they get really involved, maybe they can pick up odd-jobs to help buy better equipment?

By the way...I LOVE 4-H and FFA. The things I learned (responsibility, public speaking, etc....) are invaluable.

[Amy in NH]

My dh runs a shooting sports project for our club. The County Leader's Association has equipment that we borrow. If anyone brings their own firearm they are expected to let each club member have a turn with it so they can all have the benefit of exposure to different firearms. I think it varies by club/county. We don't have regional or state competitions, though, so I can't speak to that.

[CLHCO]

That's good to know and I hope the same is true here. I have a call in to the local county shooting sport leader. Hopefully I'll know more soon.

[Margaret in CO]

Our club works this way--they do rifle at the local gun club--they have to use gun club rifles--NRA requirement. The children work up through the NRA levels--my ds just got his 7th bar of Sharpshooter last night. For archery, the boys shoot their own bows. We used a recurve bow for one year until we saw a commitment, and then went with a Genesis bow. Our boys only shoot competetively one place, so the real competion is in their record books and projects. We all know that Conner will beat the other boys at shooting, but my ds will beat him on the board and interview... :D In fact, we worked it out this year so as to not have more than 2 children in each category--one boy was still a junior, we had my ds do a misc poroect, my dd do a rifle project, but she's in senior, etc. It worked well. We sent 4 kids to state!

[transientChris]

Both my daughters have been doing air rifle this year. They don't have guns and even though the leader let my youngest borrow a bb gun for practice at home, we haven't done anything yet because we live in a house with a rather little yard.