Shooting for the Gold
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 01:32 p.m., May 23, 2008
Updated 01:32 p.m., May 23, 2008
The business world might benefit from the meeting style of the Lyon County 4-H BB gun team: not much talk, but a lot of action.
That style has helped them qualify for the International BB Gun Championship Match in Bowling Green, Ky., next month.
Five of the six team members met Wednesday evening at the home of leader Beverly Hilbish to practice once again for the competition. Hilbish is the 4-H county co-coordinator for shooting sports and is a rifle instructor.
Hilbish and her husband, John, have converted a large outbuilding on their farm to a practice area, complete with a row of appropriately impenetrable material to hold the targets. Practices during the fall and winter are held at the Anderson Building on the Lyon County Fairgrounds, though they can be bumped if the fair board can rent the building for other events; practices there are canceled altogether when the weather begins to warm.
“We used to shoot archery inside at the Anderson building, but we’d get some stray arrows,” Hilbish said with a rueful smile. “We decided archery was an outdoor sport.”
The overall 4-H project includes not only BB guns and archery, but shotguns, .22 pistols, .22 rifles, and muzzleloaders.
“We definitely keep busy with it — that and all the other sports and their other 4-H projects,” Hilbish said.
The projects are open to any Lyon County youngster who is a member of a 4-H club.
Members of the BB Team are Jessica Hilbish, 14; Megan Hilbish, 12; Jamie Schmidt, 14; Danny Anderson, Austin Gordon, 12; and Wyatt Bolen, 10. On Wednesday, Danny was graduating from eighth grade and unable to attend the practice.
The youngsters, aged 10 through 14, take their sport seriously, with safety as the priority. Conversation was held to a soft minimum Wednesday evening as they spread their mats on the concrete floor and set up their ammunition in BB holders.
“Ready 1, Ready 2, Ready 3, Ready 4,” a voice called out after the team settled into prone positions to signal it was time to shoot. The loud pops of the BB guns replaced the muted sounds of the youngsters’ voices as they shot as many “sighting” rounds as needed before beginning the shooting exercise. They are allowed to shoot only one BB at each of the 10 targets.
The National Rifle Association has given grants to the program to help buy uniform equipment for the club to equalize the youngsters’ ability to compete at that age level. The only alterations to the equipment are weighting and trigger adjustments.
More expensive guns, provided primarily by parents, come into play at the older age levels.
“They’ll take the guns apart and make certain we haven’t done anything to the barrel or other parts of the gun,” Hilbish said. “They’re pretty particular making sure the competition is even for the kids.”
At the Bowling Green international competition, the Lyon County team will shoot a little differently than it does in other contests, Hilbish said. Because of the age group involved, coaches can be on the line with the contestants to assist in loading and coaching, but they will shoot one at a time, rather than simultaneously as a complete team.
“This one, they’ll actually take a written test and that will be neat to see,” Hilbish said.
The shooting sports and archery program has been a successful one in Lyon County. Megan Hilbish holds a first-place individual BB shooting title she earned in the state BB contest in April. Zach Young, another youngster in the county’s archery program led by John Hilbish, placed first in the state last fall, and Danny Anderson took second in the state in pistols. T.J. Heins and Jake Ewing have qualified to compete in the national shotgun contest, with Roger Wells as their instructor.
“It’s tough competition in the state, and you have to really work hard to place,” Bev Hilbish said of the local program’s work. “It’s a big shooting sports program. The kids just love it and they have so much discipline.”
Kansas also has a number of youngsters who compete in Olympics shooting, Hilbish said.
Both of the Hilbish daughters have gone to the Olympics shooting camp, and Megan is especially interested in shooting, with a goal of shooting in the Olympics.
In the shooting sports, where skills are more important than strength, girls compete equally with the boys in prone, sitting, and kneeling categories.
When they stand for the fourth aspect of competition, however, the girls hold an advantage because of their natural body shapes. In the standing position, unable to wear the slings that steady their arms in the other positions, females have a place to steady their elbows and brace themselves to get a solid shot.
“The girls can get their hips way out there,” Hilbish said, “and the boys — they try and try.”
The BB team has planned two fundraising events to help defray costs of the trip to Bowling Green.
From 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday Gambino’s Pizza will donate 20 percent of its dine-in, carry-out, and delivery sales.
A garage sale and bake sale are scheduled in the parking lot of Guion Showcase Furniture and Appliances at Sixth Avenue and Prairie Street from noon until 8 p.m.
Donations also will be accepted.
More information about the BB competition is available at ibbgcm.com.