Posted on 04/06/2017 1:58:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The star shooter of North Salem Vikings Army JROTC in Oregon is 16-year-old Taylor Gibson. For three years, she’s been recognized as one of the best air rifle shooters in the country. Now, after an incredible performance at 2017 JROTC National Air Rifle Championship in Anniston, Alabama, Gibson has her gold medal, and set a new Army overall shooting record, according to a release from the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
Gibson shot a 3×20 score of 597-48x, and left with a two-day overall score was 1290.1. According to guns.com, in order to have this score, Gibson could only have missed two or three shots outside of the center 10-inch ring of the 60 total shots fired, 20 shots each from the standing, kneeling, and prone positions.
“I came in and thought, I don’t care what I shoot – I’m just going to do the best that I can. And I did the same thing every shot,” Gibson told the Civilian Marksmanship Program. “That’s what I kept telling myself, especially in the last few shots of kneeling when I was really thinking, ‘Okay, this is when I really need to get serious, because something could happen here.’”
With her last shot, a perfect shot in the kneeling position, Gibson set a new national record in the Army for overall score.
“I didn’t realize how many people were watching until I shot my last shot and everybody started clapping, and I look back and there are coaches standing in a line behind the chairs, just watching me,” Gibson told the Civilian Marksmanship Program. “I didn’t realize that I had gotten attention from other people besides my team. That’s when I knew it was big.”
This was her third trip to the JROTC national championship. In 2015 and 2016, Gibson walked away with silver medals.
Two years ago, during her first visit, when she was still in middle school, Gibson made the Statesman Journal in her hometown of Salem, when she placed second in the national air rifle JROTC shooting competition.
Back then, she said, “A lot of people are like, you don’t seem very excited. Inside my mind is exploding, it seems like. And I’m just thrilled and I love the challenge.”
Now, she’s not just one of the best shooters in JROTC, she’s one of the best shooters in the United States, and the U.S. Army overall record holder.
And Olympics 2020 Gold..... Hope she likes sushi
Nickname “killshot”?
More schools should have air rifle teams. Mine, back in the early 80’s was .22lr but air rifle is good as it does not require as restrictive of a range to shoot on.
The Army sets records for Air Rifle Shooting?
Not to take anything away from Missy being good with a toy gun or anything - but this is BS.
I shot Navy JROTC in high school, but we did .22. Can’t say I was as good a shot as this young lady, but I manag d to letter 3 years running. It absolutely killed the athletic director and principle to hand the letters to me even back in the 80s in rural Indiana.
Impressive.
People aren’t going to like this but women tend to be better natural marksmen than men. I taught both my wife and daughter to shoot and they were able to get very accurate very very quickly. A couple of friends had the same experience. My daughter outshoots me now. It’s embarassing.
Precision air rifles can run well over $1000 each and are usually made in Germany. It's a very disciplined shooting sport; think Olympic shooting if you have ever seen that. My son was on a high school precision rifle team until they were kicked off campus by an anti-gun nut educator - he now competes with a Christian high school.
At high school level girls usually dominate. It has to do with body differences between boys and girls. One must be rock-solid still to do well in the sport.
And it's great sniper training, BTW. One reason it is frequently sponsored by ROTC.
“Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you!”
"All the hits in the 10 ring" is pretty impressive, when you consider the 10 ring is 10mm diameter.
A great post, Marten Tell.
My granddaughter competes in JROTC air rifle competition, you nailed it.
That’s often true.
Thank you. I knew I probably stuck my foot in my mouth when I made my earlier comments.
I’m glad to see the seriousness of how these kids are competing. And that’s a good thing.
“People aren’t going to like this but women tend to be better natural marksmen than men.”
Lower center of gravity and far more patient than men.
These kids are serious athletes, and it really burned me the way that officious school bureaucrat treated the team. You would have thought the kids were rampaging Jihaidis. Wait a minute - that would probably have been OK.
This "basic" one is $1,600.
Anschutz has a nice $3,400. rifle. >p<
My son is in the process of applying for NROTC - Marine Option. Precision rifle has been great preparation.
Back in the ‘70s I knew a fundamentalist evangelist who had 3 GORGEOUS daughters. He was a deer hunter and taught the daughters to hunt. They each filled out their tags every year.
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