Thanks to the leadership of the Rice family, and support of many others, thirty-eight shooters ages twelve to seventeen converged upon the National Guard Armory in Fort Wayne this past summer for two weeks of training. The new Bishop Dwenger Rifle Team held a summer camp for interested students. Each shooter was instructed in gun safety and the three position sporter air rifle shooting. Supporters included the Indiana Youth Shooting Sports Foundation (IYSSF), Army National Guard, Allen County 4-H, Bishop Luers Rifle Team, and Bishop Dwenger High School. We hope that they will be able to repeat this great collaborative success next year.

With help from the IYSSF and many other sources, Camp Carry, a scout camp just east of Lafayette, has a beautiful new rifle range. We look forward to hearing of successful safety and marksmanship activities at the new range from some of our scouting family readers.

Hoosier Outdoor Experience was attended by 16,000 people from all over the state. Nearly 3000 of them fired a total of 8075 shotgun shells and over 4000 shooters fired 49,500 pellets. Others learned about fishing, hunting, horseback riding, bird watching and many other outdoor activities. Kirk Freeman ISRPA Director-at-large and 4 members of the Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club (Ann Taylor, Bennie Bilbrey, Aletha Brunner, and Steve Bemish) helped me at the ISRPA booth where new shooters could learn "Where to shoot in Indiana". While we were able to direct potential new shooters to clubs throughout the state, based on the range map on our website, it would be great if we could have at least one volunteer present from your club who could talk specifically about your programs at our booth next year. We will expand the space to hold as many clubs as are willing to show up. Please contact me if interested. Unfortunately not enough of you volunteered to help with the shooting events, so only 12 of the available 16 air gun lanes were put into operation. This is a great opportunity to show the general public that guns are associated with a safe and family-friendly sport, so please mark your calendars to volunteer to help with shotgun, air rifle, or archery in September 2012.

One of my favorite visitors at the Hoosier Outdoor Experience was a newly trained 4-H instructor from Brown County. If we had at least one 4-H instructor in every county as enthusiastic as Sarah Partridge, shooting would become a much more popular sport!

Approximately 100 students appeared for the Purdue University Rifle and Pistol Club call-out this fall and the club has recently established an endowment to help assure that funds will be available to continue training bright young shooters. Purdue Alumni and others, please contact us for information on how you can help. Your contributions may be matched at least 6:1 this year.

I cannot complete the "success" theme without noting what a personal thrill it was for me to watch my Purdue son, Thomas, shoot at the national matches at Camp Perry in July as he became the top bullseye pistol Sharpshooter. Just to prove it was not a "fluke", in September, Thomas recently shot his personal best to become the Indiana State outdoor bullseye pistol champion! The successes of the many young shooters that we feature in this magazine indicates that there is a future for shooting in Indiana.

ISRPA Technology Vice President, Robert Jordan recently persuaded several non-shooting co-workers to join his gun-owning friends in an afternoon of gun safety and marksmanship training. I saw some huge smiles on the faces of people who might otherwise have been led by others to believe that all shooting is "bad", not to mention the smiles on the faces of experienced shooters who simply had a great afternoon shooting with friends. Invite a non-shooter to join you next time. It might be fun!

Please let us know if you will join us for the ISRPA annual meeting and/or awards banquet, November 5, at the Ricks Centre in Greenfield, Indiana (additional details in the July Indiana Shooting Sports News). Park on street or in lots northeast of the Centre. Meeting starts at 12:30 pm. A cash bar will be available at Carnegie's (one block North) beginning at 5:30 pm before the banquet at 6:00 pm. Awards presented in the Rick's center after dinner. Featured speaker, Bryan Ciyou will provide insights into gun laws in Indiana. Amanda Wuestefeld from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources will share with us how we might partner with them on shooter retention and recruitment. The meeting is open to all members (email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you plan to attend). For the banquet, please send $20.00 per person to me at 755 W 300 N, Greenfield, IN 46140 and, include an email address so that I can confirm your attendance. Banquet reservations needed by October 27.

Safe shooting,

Bill Jordan, President, ISRPA