December 25, 1975 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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December 25, 1975 |
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FRED NELSON, a senior who's risen to a revel of proficiency attained by
only a handful of shooters in the state, displays his form in the standing
position.
II
By STEVE PA ICH
Like the fabled furry-footed
gnomes of tolkJore, they frequent
a cryptic vault beneath the
ground, and there they don
padded mittens with no fingers
and canvas jackets straight out of
the tunny larm.
They are not growers of
strange mushrooms, these odd
cellar-dwellers. They are Shelton
High School students - and
athletes, too, in a manner of
speaking.
For, although they are not
afforded the recognition given
other Highclimbers, are without
school monetary support and can
win no letters as do other
athletes, theirs may well be the
most rigorous and disciplined
sport of them all.
They are the some 30
members of Sheiton's rifle team,
that steely-nerved band of
~elf-professed gun nuts who plink
away every Wednesday after
school in an unlikely practice
range beneath Angle Gym.
"They used to kinda smile
when they saw us coming," said
Coach Ralph Ervin, "because
we're the only team in the league
that doesn't get school letters.
"But they're not smiling any
more not after last year."
The source of Ervin's pride is
his team's second-place finish in
state competition last year,
competition won by perennial
league-rival Aberdeen.
"Many people consider this
the toughest league in the state,"
Ervin said of his team's
conference, the Northwest
Evergreen Junior Rifle League.
"So we know if we do well in
league we can feel pretty good
about how we're likely to do at
state."
To those unfamiliar with the
riggers of competitive target
shooting, a chance encounter with
one of the sport's aficionados,
fully decked out in his
competition garb, might elicit
a) intense fear, b) impenetrable
confusion, c) uncontrollable
laughter or d) all of the above.
tte wears on one hand a
curious bulky mitten which
resembles the slip-on hotpad some
cooks use to avoid burns (the
re~mblance in many cases being
more than coincidental, the team
lacking the funds to buy a
sufficiency of the real thing).
He's cinched tightly into a
padded outfit looking very much
like a straitjacket but lacking the
arm restraints. Chances are he's
got a pair of headphones on, too,
like a demented audiophile who
has absentmindedly wandered
away from his stereo.
And here's the clincher: He's
toting a thickstocked 22-caliber
rifle with a U.S. Government
serial number stencilled on it,
bigger 'n life.
"Just the vibration of his own
pulse beat is enough to throw a
shooter off," said Ervin,
explaining the thickly padded
glove. "In fact, if he's wearing a
wristwatch, its ticking alone
would be enough to deflect his
shot by a point or two."
"Most people would be really
amazed if they knew how
demanding this sport is," chipped
in senior sharpshooter Fred
Nelson, who with fellow senior
Oliver Chapman represented the
team's best at state last season.
"It really takes a lot out of
you," he continued. "It's essential
that you stay absolutely cool and
calm during a match, because the
slightest rise in your blood
pressure or your pulse rate can
throw you completely off.
"Hey, Oliver... get those
silly headphones off and come
over here, will ya!"
Chapman strolls over, but
leaves in place the headphones
he's started using since noticing a
ringing in his head after the noisy
practice sessions.
"Yeah," he says. "Developing
your endurance is very important,
and this sport takes more~
preparation than most people
realize." Chapman turned out for
Shelton's cross-country team this
fall for just that reason.
"Shooting puts real demands on
your stamina," he repeated. "If I
get less than ten hours sleep
before a match, I really feel it."
The shooters also have to be
very careful about what they put
in their stomachs before a match.
The caffeine in a can of pop, for
instance, can raise the blood
pressure enough to play havoc on
a shooter's accuracy. "The
bubbles can cause problems, too,"
noted Nelson, referring to the
sometimes distracting effervescent
effects of certain beverages.
Standing 50 feet from tiny
targets composed of diminishing
circles, one within the other, each
league-match competitor shoots
ten rounds from each of four
positions: standing, kneeling,
sitting and prone. His best
possible score for each shot is ten
points. Hence a perfect score for
the entire 40-round match is 400.
"If the bullet hole touches the
higher ring you get the higher
score," explained Ervin.
So small are these targets, the
shooter actually is not able to
make out the bull's-eye or the
hole made by his shot without
peering through a viewfinder
between tries.
Nelson, who has been at it
four years now, is able to hit
consistently in the 360s - a score
which puts him in the "expert"
classification. (There are four,
based on points: marksman,
under 340; sharpshooter,
340-360; expert, 360-375; and
master, over 375.)
"The best I've ever shot is a
373 - just last week," said
Nelson. "At this point
improvement comes very slowly,
but 1 can shoot pretty
consistently in the 360s."
Chapman, who last year
placed second in sitting and third
in kneeling at state competition in
the lower sharpshooter
classification, is also a consistent
360s shooter this year, and almost
certainly will be moved up to the
tougher expert division this time
around.
"It's considerably harder to
place, of course, when you're
among the poorer shooters in a
higher bracket," he said. "Last
year I was competing with a lot of
shooters with quite a bit lower
averages."
Coach Ervin points out that
there are very few high school
competitors who have reached the
master level, and that a score in
the high 360s could well win at
state.
"But it usually takes a shooter
about three years just to get into
the 30Os," he said, "and when
you get over that point there are
no big jumps left."
In a sport where factors as
seemingly insignificant as
fluctation in blood pressure can
"HAS THE CONDEMNED any last request?" If not, here's looking at you:
(kneeling) Wade Campbell, Casey Marler, Jim Blanche, (standing) Dan
Underwood, Scott O'Dell, Oliver Chapman, Brett Simpson and John
Wooldridge. Among the some 30 members of Shelton High School's
small-bore rifle team, they may be seen in league competition six consecutive
Mondays starting January 5 at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.
P,:~}e 14 . Steel [ort-Md~or~ County Journal - Thursday, December 25, i975
°
PEERING OUT from an unaccustomed vantage --the target
area -- is sophomore Casey Marler, a member of the jayvee
squad. The wide spread of the bulletholes around him is not
indicative of the competitive accuracy attained; placement by
the better shooters rarely varies more than a fraction of the
bul let's d iameter.
m
spell the difference between
success and failure, concern with
technique understandably is
considerable. Even breathing, for
instance, comes into play.
"The proper procedure,"
explained Ervin, "is to take in a
normal breath, let out half of it,
and then lock your throat. That
gives you about ten seconds in
which to shoot before your blood
pressure starts to rise again for
lack of oxygen.
"But your eyes, meanwhile,
generally stay clear only about
five seconds, so if you don't get
your shot off in the first five
seconds, you have only five more
before you should breathe again.
This puts a real demand on
keeping cool and calm, and that
can be very difficult under the
strain of competition."
The top 16 Climbers compose
the team's competitive lineup-
eight of them varsity and the
others jayvee. The jayvees, whose
three-match season is already
completed, have weekly
challenges in which they may
nudge any of the bottom three on
the varsity. The top two jayvees
are alternates and shoot when a
varsity man can't make a match.
Current varsity spots are held
by Nelson and Chapman, seniors
Dan Underwood, Scott O'Dell
and Brett Simpson, sophomores
Ken Drake and Herb Van Cleave,
and freshman Bobby Meacham.
Alternates are seniors John
Wooldridge and lgnacio Martinez.
lgnacio - dubbed "Nacho"
by his teammates - is an
exchange student from Colombia,
South America, where he is
national archery champion.
Jayvee berths have been
earned by senior Wade Campbell
and sophomores Gene
Underwood, Casey Marler, Matt
Duffy and Jim Blanche.
Lest they be accused of sex
discrimination, Ervin hastens to
add that his team members also
include three girls. "Some years
we have as many as six or seven,"
added the coach, starting his sixth
year at the helm.
The team competes in nine
league matches before sectional
and state competition in March.
In all, including what they use in
practice, the shooters go through
about 20,000 rounds of
ammunition - mostly long-rifle
bullets, "because they're more
accurate ballistically," said the
coach.
In terms of expense, this
m
B
II
SOPHOMORE JIM BLANCHE prepares to squeeze off another one
practice session in the team's underground range. Blanche a
varsity berth this year --just his first in the sport. The winch
the post at left activates the target-retrieval system, eliminating the
the introduction of human protoplasm into the line of fire at any
Below are two viewfinders, used between shots to determine the b~
point of entry.
represents a cash outlay of about
$42 a year by each participant,
excluding his membership and
match fees and his contribution
toward the purchase of
equipment and targets.
About half of the rifles are on
loan from the U.S. Government,
and the Feds are also a source of
ammunition - at about half the
price you'd pay at your local
sporting-goods store. But the kids
still scramble every year to come
up with the money.
Two weeks ago, for example,
they sponsored a movie. They lost
$12. Next on the agenda are
coffee and donut sales during
night classes at the high school.
"We expect to make about
$10 a night," said Chapman
optimistically.
When asked why his sport is'
the only one not recognized by
the awarding of school letters,
Er~cin had this to say: "1 have a
feeling the administration is afraid
it'd have to give us a budget if it
started awarding letters."
Recognition from the high
school and the community isn't
the only thing the sport has done
without over the years. It's also
accident -free.
"I've never been on a range
where there's been an accident of
any kind - or even heard of one
happening," said Ervin. "Every
precaution is taken, and of course
we stress safety at all times."
What's more, said the coach, two
feet of poured concrete separates
the practice range and the room
above, and beyond the
plates and concrete wall
the backstop is nothing
"And at our depth,"
reassures us, "a bullet
to travel 12 miles before it
the surface because
curvature of the earth."
HEADPHONED OLIVER CHAPMAN Pauses
practice rounds. The senior, who donned the headset
he began suffering from a ringing in his ears, corn
state last year and currently shares the team's
spot with Fred Nelson. "Let Fred say he's better if he~
to," consents a noble Chapman. "I'm a nice guy."
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