By Kathy Konek
On February 15th the Kootenai Valley Rifle Club, in Bonners Ferry, hosted a Sectional Rifle Match. This is a match where you shoot at a local range then your score is sent to the NRA and all sectional scores are accumulated and your national ranking determined. Those results will be posted by the NRA later in the year. This year shooters from Sandpoint (Sndpt) and the Kootenai Valley (KV) teams were represented.
The first match of the day was a junior smallbore rifle match and followed by a junior air rifle match. A junior is anyone under 21 years old.
The smallbore match was shot indoors using a single shot .22 caliber rifle at target 50 feet away. To score a 10 the competitor must hit a dot not much larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
Ten competitors would shoot two targets in each of the prone, standing, and kneeling positions using iron sights. A possible 600 points was the goal. Kyalynn Comer (KV) would earn the Match Winner honors with a score of 523. This was an improvement of 25 points over the previous year. Ethnee White (Sndpt) was 2nd with a total of 512. Emmett Lowman (Sndpt) finished in third with a final of 508. Lowman would best his teammate Alora Rasor (Sndpt) by one center shot. Comer, and Rasor, represented the intermediate-junior class (15-17 yrs old). White and Lowman the junior class (18-20 yrs old).
Other notable achievements were shot by Paige Sartell (KV) who was Match Winner in the prone position, Comer was top in the standing position and Rasor was Match Winner in kneeling. Wren Tye (KV) took third overall in kneeling and Ilena Wenzel (KV) was 4th in standing.
Next was the air rifle match, shooting in the standing position at 33 feet with competition grade air rifles. The KV team would, again this year, take the first three places. Comer would again be Match Winner, followed by Sartell and Andrew Gardner for second and third places.
If you are interested in learning more about, or returning to, the sport of competitive rifle shooting, contact Don Jordan at 208-610-0226.