Black Friday is in just two days, and that means Cyber Monday is close behind, kicking off the online holiday shopping season. You can support SSSF with all your Amazon purchases just by using a special link, smile.amazon.com, and designating SSSF as the recipient of a donation from Amazon, based on a percentage of your purchase price. It doesn’t cost you a cent!Get started.
You can also find just the right holiday gift for the shooter in your life by shopping at the SSSF online store! Shop there for shooting gear and SCTP and SPP logo items like hats, shirts, gun cases, shooting glasses, and much more. Visit the SSSF Store.
SCTP shooter Myles Walker from Burlington, Wisconsin has won the gold medal for bunker trap in USA Shooting’s Fall Selection Match. The match was held November 6-11 at the Delta Resort and Spa in Tillar, Arkansas.
Myles was one of four athletes awarded a spot on USA Shooting’s National Team as a result of his performance at the SCTP National Championship for international disciplines held in July in Colorado Springs. Hank Garvey and Nic Moscetti, who also earned their National Team spots at the SCTP Nationals, placed 4th and 5th, respectively, at the Fall Selection Match.
Six bunker trap competitors withstood the intensity of 500 targets and four finals matches to emerge as 2015 World Cup selections for the USA Shooting Team as a result of the four-day competition. The Fall Selection Match served as the second phase of selection for the first three upcoming World Cup competitions to begin 2015, including events in Acapulco, Mexico and Al Ain, UAE in March and Laranaca, Cypress in late April where the top three athletes will compete.
Fall Selection Match is also serving as the first of a two-part selection process for the Pan American Games (July), the last World Cup of 2015 in Gabala, Azerbaijan (August) and the 2015 World Clay Target Championships (September).
Myles, a sophomore at Lindenwood University, participates in SCTP as a member of his college team’s shotgun sports team. The win in Tillar places Myles in a great position to earn USA Shooting Team status come Spring Selection in April.
“SCTP has provided me with the opportunity to flourish both as an athlete and an individual,” Myles commented. “The benefit of the experience I have had surpasses any other activity I have been involved with.”
Congratulations to Myles, Hank, and Nic for earning their National Team positions and representing SCTP well!
From the time you pick up a firearm, you become part of a system over which you have complete control. You are the only part of the system that can make a gun safe — or unsafe.
Here are 10 basics of gun handling that you must know, courtesy of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF):
1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.
3. Don’t rely on your gun’s “Safety.”
4. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
5. Use correct ammunition.
6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care!
7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.
8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.
9. Don’t alter or modify your gun, and have guns serviced regularly.
10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.
MidwayUSA Foundation is working with Winchester Ammunition to provide shotgun ammunition direct from the distributor to your youth shooting teams. They need your help in determining the potential quantity to order.
Should they move forward, this program will be offered in 2015 and be limited to the amount agreed upon with Winchester. By answering one quick question, you’ll help MidwayUSA Foundation gather information to make this program a success.
Here’s what the program would offer:
Each order will contain 104 cases (10 boxes/250 rounds @ $59 per case) of Winchester Super Target 12 ga. 1 oz, #8. Total cost, including shipping, would be $6,136. Order MUST be placed by January 1, 2015.
Orders MUST be placed in bulk (pallets only).
Shipments will start in March and run through June and must be delivered directly to a location that is capable of receiving pallets.
MidwayUSA Foundation will provide an order form on its website.
Click here to give your input. By participating in this survey, you are NOT obligated to purchase. If you have already participated in this survey, please disregard.
A new version of SSSF’s online SHOT registration and scoring system is now online, and if you haven’t yet activated your team in the system, you should do so soon.
Start by clicking on the Coaches Login link to reach the registration page. Then look for this:
That’s where you start the registration process. You will only have to do this once. Once you’ve registered, you can simply login with the credentials you set up.
Coaches who have previously had multiple logins for multiple teams will now have just one login, to simplify team management.
On the registration page, you’ll find a list of tutorials on using the SHOT system. If you run into problems, we’re ready to help. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the link to SHOT support.
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation is implementing some changes in how the organization conducts background checks on participating volunteers. Individuals registering with the SSSF as a volunteer (i.e., head coach, assistant coach, or other adult volunteer) must now conduct a secure background check that includes local county checks for a seven-year address history.
In the past, SSSF has conducted checks only with the National Criminal Database (NCD). However, due to the variability of information across states, the NCD may or may not reveal all pertinent criminal history concerning eligibility of a volunteer. Thus, the new county-level background check will be used in addition to the national check.
With the changes in screening comes a price increase. Starting December 12, 2014 volunteers will be required to pay a portion of the cost directly to our background check provider, Intellicorp, when they submit to a check. Volunteer fees paid to SSSF will remain at $30. SSSF volunteer registration is not considered complete until background checks are completed.
The SSSF wants to ensure it upholds the highest standards in youth protection on behalf of its programs and young athletes. The SSSF also must ensure that all of its volunteers are screened with the same level of background check, regardless of their state of residence or past residence history.
This week, Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation made a donation of $246,500 to the MidwayUSA Foundation, Inc. The funds were deposited into the endowment accounts of 75 member teams of the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Pistol Program representing 26 states.
The money was earned by the teams through participation in recent SCTP and SPP regional shoots. Of the total contribution, $216,500 was deposited into SCTP teams’ accounts and $30,000 went to SPP teams’ accounts.
This week’s donation brought SSSF’s total MidwayUSA Foundation contributions for 2014 to $1,751,645. SSSF has funded accounts for 273 teams in 40 states this year.
The purpose of the MidwayUSA Foundation endowment program is to provide sustained financial support for youth shooting teams. Teams with an endowment account are able to draw a grant each year to use for team expenses. SSSF regularly makes endowment funds available for SCTP and SPP events and contributes them to participating teams’ endowment accounts at the MidwayUSA Foundation. Since 2011, SSSF has donated funding to several hundred team endowment accounts across 48 states.
SCTP held its first Halloween-weekend College Regional Tournament at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex, and in spite of a windy and cold first day that challenged shooters, it was no less than a Spooktacular success! A total of 212 athletes representing 14 teams from nine states competed in skeet, trap, wobble trap, sporting clays, and 5-stand, registering 65,800 targets.
Seventy-five athletes competed in the Last Competitor Standing competition on Saturday evening, with two shooters earning SKB IS300 shotguns. Ladies winner was Anna Pfaff of Hillsdale College, and Men’s winner was Bryce James of Lindenwood University.
Lindenwood University brought the largest contingent of athletes with 81, followed by Bethel University with 32. Other competing colleges included Purdue University, Martin Methodist College, Midland University, Southeastern Illinois College, Hillsdale College, University of Kentucky, Fort Hays State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Hampden-Sydney College, University of Illinois, University of Missouri, and University of Missouri – Columbia.
You’ve just finished an afternoon at the range, and you and your squad mates decide to stop off at your favorite hangout for a burger. Wearing your team shirts and caps, you leave your car in the parking lot, guns locked safely in their cases in the trunk. On the back window is a logo for your favorite gun brand, and empty ammo boxes are scattered in the backseat.
When you emerge an hour later to go home, you find that your car’s trunk has been popped opened, and your guns are gone! How could this happen?
Sportsman’s Insurance Agency, Inc. tells us that the vast majority of gun thefts are from vehicles. Shooters leave their vehicles in parking lots with guns and other equipment stored inside, and even with the firearms out of sight, it often isn’t hard for the bad guys to know which vehicles in the parking lot to hit.
Put yourself in the thief’s shoes: one or more persons are walking across the parking lot looking like they just left the shooting range, possibly wearing a shooting shirt, gun company cap, maybe even a vest or shooting glasses. When he takes a look at the vehicle you just left, he sees the bumper sticker, ammo boxes or shooting vest in the seat, and he knows there’s a good chance he’ll find a gun in the trunk.
Consider these pointers after a trip to the range or while traveling to a shoot:
When you get out of the car, do you look like you just left the range? What are you wearing? Does anything about your clothing or accessories say you have been shooting? If so, take it off or cover it up. If necessary, take along another shirt to change into before leaving your vehicle in a parking lot.
Does your vehicle look like a shooter’s vehicle? Are there bumper stickers or decals from gun companies or other equipment brands? If so, remove them.
Is anything visible through your vehicle windows that suggests you’ve been shooting? If so, put it in the trunk, and don’t give a thief any reason to break in.
Whenever possible, don’t leave firearms unattended in your vehicle, even in the trunk. If gun storage is offered at an event you are attending, use it. If you’re near home, take the gun home to your gun safe before going elsewhere.
Be especially mindful when you travel to a major shoot, like the National Championships in Sparta, when any bad guys in the area might be aware that lots of shooters will be around town, patronizing restaurants and other businesses. Unfortunately, every area has a bad element that is tempted by shooters who don’t have a gun safe accessible and may leave firearms in their vehicle.
Make sure your guns and expensive equipment are insured. If all else fails and you are the victim of a theft, at least you will be able to replace the lost items if you are properly insured.
Volunteer coaches are the backbone of the programs of the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, as we couldn’t have teams or events without them. They largely determine what kind of experience our student athletes will have in the shooting sports, and their work with teams often goes far beyond shooting instruction and conducting shoots. One way that SSSF promotes a positive coaching environment for our teams is by providing PCA Double-Goal Coach training for all our coaches.
We know there are many coaches out there who deserve to be recognized for their extraordinary work in developing better athletes and better people. We would like to share a way for athletes and parents to reward these exceptional coaches — the PCA National Double-Goal Coach Award.
Each year PCA selects and publicizes 75 finalists. The 25 winners of this prestigious national award receive $250, a trophy, recognition in PCA’s website, newsletters, and media campaigns, and the chance to accept the honor in California during PCA’s National Youth Sports Awards Dinner and Auction Presented by Deloitte. The award also recognizes the organizations and schools of the award-winning coaches.
You can show your appreciation for a coach who deserves a big “thank you!” Nominate your coach for PCA’s National Double-Goal Coach Award. Click here to learn more and nominate a coach.
