ISRPA Juniors at the National Matches

ISRPA Junior Highpower was well represented by seven juniors at the 2025 Camp Perry National Matches. Indiana Juniors (left to right) Aria Hobbs, Mia King, Killian Grimm, Tayt Shaffer, Kileen Shaffer and Emma Branson. (Not shown, Logan Becker)

This year’s trip for ISRPA Juniors began on Friday, July 25^th with arrival at Camp Perry, check in at in-processing, and a quick trip to have triggers weighed and rifles inspected at the CMP Armorer’s van.

Saturday morning was the start of match activity.  Killian Grimm and Aria Hobbs attended the Army Marksmanship Unit’s Small Arms Firing School, while Tayt Shaffer went to the CMP High Power Clinic.  Kileen Shaffer attended the Advanced High Power Clinic, Mia King took an alternate path and completed her CMP Level 2 Range Office certification.  Logan Becker wasn’t able to arrive until Sunday, but has attended the clinics several times in previous years.  Emma Branson arrived on Saturday afternoon, also skipping the clinics.  It should be noted that Emma had broken her left arm and was fresh off Doctor’s orders.  She had some pain, but it gradually loosened up over the course of a couple of days.  Here’s a shot of the Indiana juniors heading to Viale range for the day.

On Monday the Juniors shot in the coveted Presidents 100 Match.  The cutoff to be in the top 100 was 287 out of 300, and our juniors shot some very respectable scores!  Results were:

• Emma Branson 269-4X
• Logan Becker 263-2X
• Kileen Shaffer 258-2X
• Mia King 228-0X
• Killian Grimm 213-0X
• Aria Hobbs 205-1X
• Tayt Shaffer 195-2X

Tuesday was the National Trophy Individual Match where shooters making the top 10% earn points towards their Distinguished Rifleman badge.  Cutoff for the top 10% was a 475 out of 500.  Results from this match were:

• Emma Branson 463-6X
• Logan Becker 456-7X
• Kileen Shaffer 445-9X
• Mia King 415-3X
• Aria Hobbs 414-4X
• Killian Grimm 405-1X
• Tayt Shaffer 398-3X

Wednesday featured the National Junior Team Match, where 2 juniors shoot as a team, coached by a non-junior.

We ended up with seven Indiana Juniors, so we needed to recruit another shooter to round out our four teams.  We were fortunate enough to find a young lady, Julie Ohlinger from northern Virginia who had Hoosier roots, so we adopted her for our Indiana Sycamore team.

But, lest you think that it was all range time and shooting, some of the juniors found time to go to the beach, pictured with the world’s best “girl chaperone”, Sajea Shaffer!  But, Tayt decided fishing sounded better.

                             

We never got rained on when we were on the range shooting, but we got drowned in more than one late afternoon shower.  Throws a bit of a kink in the best laid plans for feeding the starving children!

Old time high power shooters remember the days when time between relays was spent discussing powder, primers, bullets, gun cleaning tools, and that sort of thing.  Well, here is what goes on when you have a bunch of Junior girls: Braiding Hair between relays.

Most of the juniors packed up and headed home Thursday morning in another historic level rain storm.  It rained so much the CMP cancelled all matches for the day.  But that didn’t end the week’s activities for one junior.  Sunday August 2 was the day of the Vintage Sniper Match. Mia King, an Indiana Junior and Larry Beardsley, an Indiana Grand Senior (plus a decade) had decided to shoot the Vintage Sniper Match; a Junior Girl and a Really Old Guy as a team.  Despite little practice, and shooting a really big 30-06 rifle, they managed a Bronze Medal for their efforts.  Not sure if Larry or Mia came up with moniker “The Cutie and The Old Coot”, but they look good with their Bronze Medals!

It was a lot of work and was really hot most of the week.  However, it was fun, for both the Juniors and the adults who worked with them.  In a week with a group of teenagers, there was not one single issue with conduct, teen attitude, how they interacted with other shooters (adult and juniors) or how they reacted to either shooting well or not as well as they might have liked to.  Indiana can be very proud of our Juniors, not just as shooters – but as outstanding young people!

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