Fayette County Rifle Club: Welcome
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The Fayette County Rifle Club is committed to providing the youth of Fayette County, GA with a safe, fun, developmental shooting sports program that will teach the life skills necessary for our youth to become productive and respected adults in the community. The club is for boys and girls that are in 5th through 12th grade.
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New Registrations Currently Accepted:
Fayette County Shoting Sports is now offering both a Sporter Air Rifle Program (grades 7 - 12) and BB Gun Program (grades 5-7). The next BB Gun class will begin on May 5, 2013 and the next Sporter Air Rifle class will be scheduled for Fall 2013, dates coming soon! For those interested in just a one day Safety & Introductory clinic, come visit us on July 27, 2013 and learn about our program and the range at the Ole Mill Range Complex in Griffin, GA.
BB Gun Introduction Course starts May 5, 2013
Air Rifle Safety & Introduction to Competitive Shooting- July 27, 2013
Sporter Air Rifle Intro Course- Coming Fall 2013
For more information or details, please contact Laura Lovell at lllovell3@hotmail.com.
Fayette County Rifle Club Member Max Owen Places at State Competition!
Max Owen, a member of the Fayette County 4-H Rifle Club, had no idea that Saturday, May 5th would be such an amazing day. He had qualified in March with his team, Fayette County Red, for the 4-H State Championships and arrived ready to do his best with all of his teammates. This competition is considered to be the largest BB competition in the world and this year, the participation was over 75 teams with approximately 550 athletes. It is an amazing site to see 80 athletes at any one time shooting in a long row under the sun at Rock Eagle, and the team was looking forward to showing just how much they had improved this year.
The competition lasts over the course of a very long day with a test on general safe gun handling and four positions of shooting: prone, standing, sitting and kneeling. Max felt good when he sat down to shoot his first position of prone. Coach Charlie Finchum assisted him on the firing line and was very impressed by Max’s target, which looked to be a very strong 97 or 98 out of 10 possible points. He would have to wait for the target to be officially graded before Max could know for sure how well he had done, but without a doubt, it was his best target ever shot.
As the day wore on and more and more athletes completed their shooting, the team finally received the final score for Max’s prone target – a 99. One point away from being perfect! With 550 plus athletes in the competition, it was impossible to know if anyone else had scored higher than Max, so he and his other team mates had to continue to focus on the rest of the competition and hope for the best.
The team finished up the day with an impressive score of 2249 which was 74 points higher than their score in the 2010/11 State competition. They were hopeful for a good result and anxious to hear their final standings. It was especially hard for Max Owen to wait until the awards ceremony which was held at 10:00 pm on Saturday night. The challenge of scoring targets for over 550 athletes in the course of the day, making it through challenge periods, score reviews and tie breaking is a daunting task for the volunteers that make up the Georgia 4-H S.A.F.E. program.
The awards finally began and Max would soon learn his fate. The team waited with him, hoping for the best and then they called his name – Max Owen - 4th place in the prone position. He was amazed, a bit shocked, and very pleased at his result. To think that he had shot with over 550 athletes and bested almost all of them was something he had not imagined before the day began and yet, here he was, on stage accepting his 4th place finish award.
The rest of his teammates, Kevin Allen, Lara Barton, Chaz Finchum, Cullen Finnerty, Destiny King, Charlie Lovell, and Richard Lovell had much to celebrate as well. Fayette County Red finished 19th in the state! They achieved their goal and are looking forward to being on the stage in the top 10 for the 2012/13 season. “Our first year, our goal was to finish in the top half at the State Competition and we did.” states Coach Laura Lovell. “Our second year saw us achieving our goal of finishing above 30th place. In this, our third year in existence, we were hoping to break into the top 20 teams and these young athletes worked very hard to make that happen. We could not be more proud of them all and the efforts they put forth as a team and we are certainly looking forward to a top 10 finish in the spring of 2012.”
The team is always looking for new athletes that wish to learn about shooting sports, gun safety or to just have fun. They have 6 week safety introduction classes at least three times a year and offer shorter daily classes through the Fayette County Recreational Department.
Fayette County Rifle Team wins 4-H Northwest Area Qualifier!
The Fayette County 4-H Rifle Team qualified this past weekend for the State 4-H Championships which will be held in April at Rock Eagle. The Northwest District qualifier was held at the Ole’ Mill Range Complex in Griffin, GA. To qualify for the State 4-H Championships, each team is required to meet a minimum score of 1550. Fayette County Red was able to easily meet this requirement with their posted score being 1805!
The team consisted of club members Charlie Lovell (372), Chaz Finchum (367), Lara Barton (363), Cullen Finnerty (358), and Destiny King (345). Max Owen (320), Kevin Allen (316) and Richard Lovell (323) also qualified for the State 4-H competition as alternate members of the team or individuals. This qualifying score outpaced the previous year’s score by almost 100 points showing the dedication of these athlete to improve their skills.
During all 4-H competitions, the athletes must take a test on general gun safety which is added to their scores. Doing well on these tests can prove the difference between a good team score and a GREAT team score. The team has worked hard to unsure that each member has received and retained all of the knowledge they need to allow these athletes a lifetime of safe participation in shooting sports.
Performance on these safety tests is crucial to having a winning team and this was proven again on Saturday when Charlie Lovell tied for first place with Sam Payne from Bartow County to become the overall winner of the competition. Sam outshot Charlie in the live fire portion of the competition, but with his perfect score of 100 on the test, Charlie was able to make up ground to cause a tie with an overall score of 472 out of a possible 500 points.
The team has had an amazing spring season with a first place win at the 2012 Dixie Challenge in Anniston, AL as well as a 7th place win at the recent Georgia Shooting Sports Association State Championships against an amazing Georgia field of teams. Most of the teams in the region have athletes approaching the age cut off of 15 and the Fayette County Red team has one 14 year old and the next highest age is 12. Coaches Laura Lovell and Charlie Finchum anticipate a strong team for the 2012-2013 season and are looking forward to the possibility of qualifying for the Daisy Nationals in July of 2013. Coach Lovell states, “This team is very young but they have already accomplished so many things. We have the strength and depth to qualify for the Daisy Nationals in the spring of 2013 and look forward to improving our recent 29th in the Nation standings.”
The team is looking forward to the 4-H State Championships at Rock Eagle on April 14th and is looking forward to representing Fayette County 4-H at this event.
Fayette County 4-H Rifle Team shines at Dixie Challenge!
The Fayette County 4-H Rifle Team competed this past weekend in the Dixie Challenge held at the Civilian Marksmanship Program air rifle range in Anniston, AL. This annual competition is held every January for many different courses of shooting including Precision Air Rifle, Sporter Air Rifle, BB and Air Pistol. Fayette County Red, the Fayette County 4-H Rifle Club’s BB team, did themselves proud with a first place Junior team win as well as a second place overall team win! The team consisted of Chaz Finchum, Charlie Lovell, Richard Lovell, Destiny King and Andre’ Teague. Lara Barton and Kevin Allen also represented Fayette County as individuals.
Charlie Lovell scored 370 out of a possible 400 points leaving him in second place before the finals and test scores were added. After the last shots were fired for the day, Charlie ended up with a 552, which not only was the highest Junior score, but pushed him past all of the competitors to become the 2012 Dixie Challenge Overall Champion. Charlie’s performance lead the team to their outstanding score of 2474 which was only bested by an all Senior category (13-15 year olds) from Alabama.
This young all Junior team (ages 9-12) has shown amazing talent and skills and the future looks very bright! The BB program includes a basic rifle safety course as well as the beginning stages of Junior Olympic training. Almost all of the competitions include a test over basic safety facts to ensure that these youth athletes are receiving the best in both competitive shooting techniques and in gun safety which leads to a lifetime of shooting sports enjoyment. The coaches are trained as part of the USA Shooting Training program to help provide this great experience for our Fayette County Youth!
Every one of the Fayette County Red team members had an outstanding day! Below are some of their great accomplishments:
Kevin Allen (Junior Division) - 14th Place Finish, Personal Best Score, 4th - Test
Lara Barton (Senior Division) - 10th Overall, Personal Best Score, Tied for 2nd - Sitting
Chaz Finchum (Junior Division) - 2nd Place Overall - Junior Division, 4th - Prone, 2nd - Standing, 4th - Sitting, 3rd - Test
Destiny King (Junior Division) - Personal Best Score, 4th - Standing, 5th - Kneeling
Charlie Lovell - Overall Champion (Junior and Senior division combined) - excluded from other awards, Personal Best Score
Richard Lovell (Junior Division) - 13th Place Finish
Andre' Teague (Junior Division) - 9th Place Finish
Fayette County Red Team finishes 29th in National Championship! The team exceeded expectations at Nationals held in Rogers, Arkansas on July 2nd & 3rd. One of, if not the youngest team at the event made their parents and coaches very proud and represented Fayette County and Georgia extremely well. 2011 Daisy BB Gun National Championship Team Results.
Please email Laura Lovell at lllovell3@hotmail.com with any questions or comments.
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