ROGERS, Arkansas — The 56th Daisy National BB Gun Championship is in Rogers this weekend from July 6 to July 9.
Individuals and teams of kids ages 8 to 15 compete in a 5-meter 4-position match.
“It's nothing like sitting on your back porch with your red right or shooting pop cans. They're shooting a tiny bullseye about the size of a BB. And these kids are hitting it nine out of 10 times” said Lawrence Taylor, public relations director for Daisy Outdoor Sports.
This year 15 states will be represented. Teams come from as far as Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia and Georgia.
“They come from all over the country and they work years to get here. They have to qualify to get here, their team has to score in the top three of their state match,” said Taylor.
A perfect score is 500 with 400 points coming from the shots and 100 from a test.
“So they'll shoot two positions a day, they shoot 10 shots, they have a minute for each shot. And those scores are compiled and then they have to take a safety test gun knowledge and gun safety test,” said Taylor.
Taylor said the sport used to be very boy dominated, but now each year more and more girls are getting interested.
“We've really grown into about a 50/50 split of boys and girls. And it seems that the girls outperform the boys most of the time,” said Taylor.
Last year's Individual National Champion, Zoe Dissing set a record score of 494.
Fifteen-year-old Callie Helton is in her last year of competing and can’t believe she’s made it this far.
“I remember my first time winning a trophy. I won sitting I think, like third place my second year and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever,” said Helton. “It's really cool going from winning sitting to winning the whole thing.”
Instructor for Reno County Shooting Sports Brian Clark says he really enjoys getting to coach the kids.
“Giving the kids the opportunity to explore shooting sports and hopefully someone will stick with it and continue on in their future adult lives and perhaps handing it down to some more youth,” said Clark. “When the kids succeed and they accomplish things, I genuinely enjoy seeing them making their achievements.”
Some of the kids will continue with the sport after they age out of Daisy Nationals.
“We have had people who have shot at the Daisy Nationals and gone on to win gold medals in Olympic shooting,” said Taylor.
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