Martin competes at national air rifle championships
Duncan Martin and his Great Trail Musketeers Junior Rifle Team recently competed at the 2018 National 3P Air Rifle Championships at Camp Perry. Martin will be a junior at River View High School. Contributed | Beacon
WARSAW – Duncan Martin and his Great Trail Musketeers Junior Rifle Team recently competed at the 2018 National 3P Air Rifle Championships at Camp Perry.
“The team has gone before, but this was my first time,” he said. “I’ve been to regionals multiple times though. It felt really good to make it there. Just in the parking lot alone we saw vehicles from 12 other states. There were people there from New Jersey, Texas, North and South Dakota and people from all over the nation.”
According to Martin, who will be a junior at River View High School, an air rifle match consists of 60 shots. Twenty are shot from the standing position, 20 from kneeling and 20 from prone. Each shot is worth 10 points and he had to do two matches at nationals where he shot a personal best of 567 out of a possible 600 points.
“I practiced a lot more this year and worked out so I could hold my rifle more stable,” Martin said.
The Great Trails Musketeers Junior Rifle Team that went to nationals had five people on it and they finished 24th out of 55 teams.
Martin has been with the club for six years and became interested in the sport after taking air rifle and pistol in 4-H.
“Air rifles are powerful and precise,” Martin said. “The bullseye is only the width of a pencil lead. I just love firearms in general and love the mechanical aspect of air rifles.”
The competition season ended at nationals, but will start up again in September with practices one day a week and matches.
Some members of the junior team have used their experiences to help them land college scholarships in shooting sports, but Martin sees it more as a hobby.
“You can be in juniors up to the age of 18, but I’ll keep shooting after that,” he said. “I’d like to work on long range precision and high caliber rifles.”
Martin added that he’s even seen people target shoot from wheelchairs.
“They have an open class and as long as you can hold a gun you can compete,” said Steve Martin.
Steve and Jackie are Duncan’s parents. They both recommended that anyone interested in learning more about air rifle competitions look the Great Trail Musketeers up on Facebook.
Category: High School, Sports
