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And he's not even registered on this site, so I can't find a picuture to highlight!!!
Taylor Kennemer and his dad Tim have been shooting with us for a couple years at the Dalton Range. Taylor has shot the NRA Highpower matches at Joplin a couple times, and I know Tim was there at least once to support him. Earlier this summer Taylor responded to my posting enouraging folks to come to the big matches at Bucksnort, and Friday afternoon he showed up on the range there for practice. What a pleasant surprise. I had totally forgotten about him.
He'd bought a barrel off Arms List and screwed it on a lower all by himself then added GI A2 sights and A1 handguards on his AR-15. It's homebrew all the way! We managed to run a whole practice match, 200 yards standing and sitting, 300 yards rapid prone, and 600 yards slow prone. He shot the whole thing using 68 grain bullets. He was happy and so were we at dinner at the Brick Barbecue (highly recommended as the best place to eat in Marshall).
Saturday I lost track of Taylor...he was at one end of the line and I was at the other. We had 45 shooters so there were lots of distractions. When it came time for the awards presentation, they got to the Junior State Champion and called Taylor's name. Jeepers creepers, I didn't even know he was a junior. Turns out he shot a 720 (out of 800) which is a great score for the first time out on the big course, and he beat about a half dozen other juniors to win the prize.
This was out of the blue, believe me. The dedication of shooters continues to amaze me. It is a hard thing sometimes to take yourself outside your comfort zone and try something new, something in which you might feel embarrassed, something that is a competition that you might "lose." Anybody who can take that step, whether it's coming out to shoot the new M1 with us at Dalton Range, attending the matches at Joplin, or taking the big step to the full course matches gains a huge measure of respect in my eyes. And it's really not that hard; in fact, it's fun.
Taylor did it!
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