Oh, how things have changed over the years in the world of Junior High Power Team shooting. For years three states dominated the discipline in terms of the number of teams participating at the National Matches. Texas, California, and Illinois have historically sent large numbers of junior teams. This year, Texas again sent nine teams for the Freedom’s Fire National Junior Team Match, but California only sent three, and Illinois none. Indiana increased our participation and sent five teams of the 52 teams registered.
What conclusion should you draw from this? Credit our successes and FREEDOM to ISRPA and our continuing legislative efforts! The California Grizzlies once dominated junior highpower, but have nearly been legislated out of existence. What few junior shooters remain are forced to travel to Nevada to practice. The Illinois Hard Dogs were also legislated out of existence by firearms laws that, for all practical purposes, make it illegal to allow Juniors to handle an AR-type firearm.
When you think about your upcoming membership to ISRPA, remember the failures of other states, and the great successes of our Indiana association. We owe a deep gratitude to Indiana State Rifle & Pistol Association, and Indiana Youth Shooting Sports Foundation, for exceptional support of our juniors.
As a side note – we did some recruiting this year and we gained two shooters from just south of the Ohio river. Kentucky does not have a structured Junior shooting program, but two young men have been crossing the river to shoot at the Southern Indiana Rifle and Pistol Club and at Camp Atterbury, so we filed the necessary papers with the CMP to make Cole and Isaac Chambers honorary Hoosiers for National Match purposes. This extension of our program will be continued in 2027, as we look at ways to expand our junior recruitment to other clubs in Indiana.
Highlights of INDIANA shooters in the National Trophy Matches:
Small Arms Firing School & M16 EIC Match: Jack Bushong of the Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver Club placed 25th of 263 competitors with a 379-7X score earning him four EIC points for the match. Jack just started shooting service rifle competitively, moving over from the air gun and small bore disciplines. These were his first EIC points (points towards Distinguished Rifleman).
President’s Hundred Rifle Match: Jack Bushong continued his excellent shooting in the prestigious Presidents Hundred, where only the top 100 shooters in the entire country make the cut. This includes all of the military teams and the top shooters in the US. Things were going well for Jack, but his first shot at 600-yards – for whatever reason – wandered out into the 6-ring. Jack ended up with a 288-7X and the cut to make the top 100 was 288-9X! As it turned out Jack says he made the President’s 110 this year – not bad out of 869 competitors in this match. Indiana Junior High Power had 10 Juniors shoot in the P100 this year.National Trophy Individual Match: The National Trophy Individual (NTI) match is a 50-round EIC match and again all ten of our Juniors were part of the 792 competitors in the match. The top 10% of the non-distinguished shooters (shooters who have not yet made Distinguished Rifleman) in the match were awarded 10-EIC points. Of the 792 competitors, there were 494 non distinguished, so 46 shooters were going to go away with EIC points. Two of those 46 shooters were Indiana High Power Juniors! Jack Bushong finished 19th of 464 shooters with a 479-16X score and our imported Hoosier, Cole Chambers, shot a 476-4X for 42nd place. Notice that only three points made a difference of 23 places – this is a very stiff competition. Both Cole and Jack now have 14 EIC points (and the “hard legs”) of the required 30 points to go Distinguished.
One major event at the National Matches, is Awards Night, where competitors are recognized for their accomplishments at the National Matches. A cornerstone of the Awards, are presentation of the Distinguished Rifleman badge to those who have gone Distinguished within the past year. There is historically only about 40 shooters that make this achievement during a year. This year, our very own Emma Branson walked the stage and was presented her Distinguished Rifleman badge, number 2732. She is only the 2,732nd civilian person to achieve this honor since the program started in the late 1800’s.
National Junior Team Match – Freedom’s Fire Trophy: As mentioned, we had five teams, all ten Indiana Juniors competing in the Freedom’s Fire Trophy Match. The team scores and standings were:
Indiana Big Kids: 13th of 52 teams; 935-18X
Coach: Phil Beaver
Emma Branson 470-13X
Logan Becker 465 – 5X
Indiana Team Chambers: 23 of 52 teams; 923-19X
Coach: Jacob Chambers
Cole Chambers 460-11X
Isaac Chambers 463- 8X
Indiana Wild Boyz: 33 of 52 teams; 896-11X
Coach: Eric Becker
Jack Bushong 471-9X
Tayt Shaffer 425-2X
Indiana Left-Handed Ladies: 34 of 52 teams; 893-11X
Coach: Geoff Branson
Aria Hobbs 452-9X
Adisyn Shull 441-2X
Indiana Blonde Bros: 49 of 52 teams; 803-5X
Coach: Larry Beardsley
Kileen Shaffer 429-3X
Madyson Klebba 374-2X
Highlights of INDIANA shooters in the CMP Games Matches:
After the National Trophy series of matches comes the CMP “Games” matches. These include Garand, Vintage, Springfield, Roosevelt, Modern Military, and Vintage Sniper matches. These are very well attended, really fun, matches that give shooters the opportunity to shoot older vintage rifles. It also gives us the opportunity as a Junior organization, to introduce the juniors to “real” guns!
Of special note this year, is Miss Emma Branson’s performance in the John C. Garand match, shooting a 288-8X, and achieving High Woman, High Junior, and setting a new National Record for women! Congratulations to Emma, now let’s get some practice on the other Games guns!
And, in closing – none of this could happen without adults to organize, pack, coach, cook, load ammo, and chaperone these kids. Of special note is our “Range Mom” Sajea Shaffer, who goes above and beyond the call of duty, keeping track of the Juniors, taking them swimming and going for ice cream. Thank you to Sajea Shaffer for your support as the Range Mom for this group.
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