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Young shooter sets sights on Olympics
Katie Brown, 15, of Fort Scott is shooting for a high goal.
She is aiming her sights on competing in the Olympics in the sport of air rifle shooting.
Brown recently won the gold medal in the three x 20 three position portion at the 2013 National 4-H Shooting Sports competition, June 23-28, at Grand Island, Neb.
In this part of the competition she shoots 20 times in the prone position, 20 in the standing and 20 in the kneeling position, three times.
She shot her personal best score ever, 554 out of 600 points possible. She received a total of five gold medals and one bronze medal at this national competition.
Brown was part of a four-person Kansas Air Rifle team, that also included Caleb Paterson of Bonner Springs, Brianna Shaw of Alda and Aislin Reynolds of Bonner Springs.
The Kansas team swept the three air rifle competitions winning the gold team medal for each.
There were 32 states represented at the competition and included nine disciplines such as air rifle, air pistol, small bore rifle, small bore pistol, shotgun, compound archery, recurve archery, muzzle loading and hunting skills.
A new portable electronic range this year allowed viewers to see the shots via huge electronic monitors facing the audience, which made it easy to follow a shooter as they progressed through their targets. Monitors were also seen by the shooters to track their progress.
For this competition, Brown used a CZ 200T sporter air rifle which shoots pellets compressed by air.
She is a member of the Bourbon County 4-H Sharp Shooters Shooting Sports Club in Fort Scott. Brown has been shooting for nine years in 4-H. She is also a nine-year member of Pawnee 4-H Club, vice-president of the 4-H Council, 4-H Council Representative for Pawnee 4-H, and is an active member of her club. She has been involved in projects such as bucket calf, beef, goats, arts and crafts, photography, foods, style review, in addition to shooting sports.
"I started at 7 years old with a BB gun, I got my first air rifle at 11," Brown said.
She said she is motivated by her parents and coach's support.
"My parents and my coach motivate me. And now that I'm looking at colleges, that encourages me to keep practicing and improving my score," she said.
She hopes to get a scholarship to a college that has a shooting team and eventually to compete in the Olympics in the future.
Brown, who will be a junior at Fort Scott High School, is the daughter of Rocky and Barbara Brown and is coached by Gary Buntain, rifle instructor of the club.
Recently, Brown has learned to be an instructor in her sport.
Earlier this year, she attended the three-day 4-H Shooting Sports Instructor training to become qualified as a Junior Shooting Sports Instructor. Because of this training, Brown can help the other instructors as they conduct meetings and help young shooters learn about marksmanship and gun safety.
The local Bourbon County 4-H Shooting Sports Club has about 30 students sign up. Unlike other 4-H projects, the shooters don't have competitions at the county fair, because of space issues, all are off site, Buntain said.
The goal of the shooting sports club is to promote safe gun handling and competition, Buntain said.
The quest for competition is leading Brown to pursue her dream of competing in the Olympics.
To begin her Olympic competitor dream, she must use a different rifle.
Olympic competitors use precision air rifles and Brown is just beginning to hone her skills for that competition with the purchase of a Anschutz 8002 precision air rife this year.
Competitors who use this rifle must wear heavy canvass clothes to "help keep themselves straight," Brown said.