Becoming a Distinguished Shooter with Airguns
Report based on Story by Kyle Jillson in NRAblog.
Air Rifle Shooters — Do you dream of winning the NRA Indoor National Championships or competing in the Olympics some day? All that may be a few years off, but you can work on becoming an NRA Distinguished Shooter in Sporter and Precision Air Rifle right now…
Making Distinguished in Air Rifle shooting is a goal that can be accomplished by a skilled, dedicated shooter in a few seasons. The discipline you learn along the way will help your overall accuracy with just about any gun. Two separate medallions and lapel pins can be earned by each individual who successfully completes the requirements for both 3-Position Precision and Sporter. Shooters who earn both awards will also receive a Double Distinguished pin.
Steps to Become Distinguish Air Rifle Shooter
So how do you become distinguished? First, you need to be an NRA member. Placing in the top-scoring 10% in a designated tournament (e.g. Indoor National Championships, National Junior Air Gun Championships) will earn a step toward an NRA Distinguished Air Gun Award. Each competitor who makes the same numerical score as the last score in the high 10% will be awarded a step toward NRA Distinguished Air Gun Award. Inner tens will not be used as part of the numerical score to break ties.
It takes a minimum of four (4) steps to be presented with an NRA Distinguished Air Gun Award and you can only earn up to two steps each year. At least one step must be earned for competition in the NRA National Air Gun Championship and Training Summit. Additionally, the steps for 3-Position Sporter Air Rifle or in 3-Position Precision Air Rifle cannot be earned simultaneously. If you’re trying to eventually get both, 3-Position Sporter Air Rifle must be completed first before you can complete steps in 3-Position Precision Air Rifle.
To get started on your quest to “Go Distinguished”, Click the following links to Download the Rulebooks for NRA Air Rifle competition: Sporter Air Rifle Rules and Precision Air Rifle Rules.
Three-Position (3P) Air Rifle Shooting is the most popular and fastest-growing form of shooting sports competition for junior shooters. The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) conducts two different 3P Air Rifle events. Precision Air Rifle is modeled after Olympic-style shooting and allows the use of specialized target rifles and equipment. Sporter Air Rifle is designed for new competitors or those who desire to compete with a minimum of equipment and expense.
I personally think calling airgun awards “Distinguished”, especially when they don’t require outshooting 90% of other shooteres in shoulder to shoulder matches diminishes the significance of the CMP Distinguished awards.
I was in error about the shoulder to shoulder shooting – I was apparently thinking of some other junior shooting award.