Jackson County 4-H includes kids in grades three through 12 from Ganado, Edna, and Industrial ISD’s. Jackson County 4-H includes 257 total participants, including 38 registered volunteers, 190 club members, and 29 Clover kids (grades K-2).
Shooting sports is one of the biggest projects in 4-H that is not animal related. Jackson County 4-H shooting sports includes the rifle and archery program.
This year, we had 46 participants in archery and 26 participants in rifle. There are other projects available through 4-H, such as shotgun and pistol, however we don’t have those programs here in Jackson County.
Archery is primarily run in the fall, while rifle is a spring project. Archery competes all over, where rifle primarily compete within our district area.
Archery has several divisions for different types of bows (compound, bare bow, recurve) where rifle uses a specially made .22 caliber long rifle gun. The length and weight of the guns may vary, but they shoot the same ammunition.
There are state-wide competitions for both projects. With archery, anyone can sign up to shoot at the state-wide competition. However, with rifle you have to qualify for the state competition. You can qualify as an individual in the top three at district, or as one of the top three teams.
Also, you have to be considered a senior level shooter, so 10-12 grade. Last year our team qualified for state for the first time in years!
Doing shooting sports has been something I have loved to do and is the only thing that I have done the longest in 4-H which goes to show once you find what you love to do you won’t want to leave it.
Austin Sommerfeld is a junior at Edna High School and is currently serving as a Texas 4-H Shooting Sports Ambassador.
