Students compete to win Top Shot
Ready, aim, fire! The Liberty Mountain Gun Club hosted its semestral Top Shot Competition at the Liberty Mountain Gun Club. The event was held April 14-16 and is a great opportunity for students to showcase their shooting skills and compete against their peers.
After spending several days preparing for the upcoming competition, setting up the courses of fire, reviewing the rules, cleaning firearms and sprucing up the facility, the competition was ready to begin. Having organized the event for more than three years now, the team has become quite adept at identifying the areas that require extra attention to ensure a seamless and successful competition.
Each participant fired 25 “hit-or-miss” shots each with a bow, rifle, pistol and shotgun. The bows were shot at round paper targets approximately 15 yards away.
Next, competitors fired rifle and pistol shots at round steel targets from 50 and 25 yards, respectively. Lastly, participants shot shotguns at clay targets thrown from a trap machine. This resulted in a total of 100 shots, and the participant with the most number of targets hit won the prize.
“This competition allows students, faculty (and) staff to come up and shoot different types of firearms as well as a bow, all without having to own or have a great deal of experience with any one of those,” Bill Crawford, the director of the LMGC, said. “So even if a person has a great deal of experience with a shotgun, they still have to perform well in the other three to be competitive. This allows a good ‘general’ shooter to be highly competitive.”
The competition is open to all students, regardless of their experience with firearms. However, before they can participate, they must attend a safety briefing and complete a training course. This two-hour General Firearms Safety class ensures the safety for not only the participants but the viewers as well.
The winners of the top shot competition received a set of high-quality eye protection and electronic hearing protection, which are essential safety gear for any shooter. The Liberty University Gun Club provided the highest quality gear to ensure the safety and protection of the shooters. In addition to the safety gear, the winners also received other LMGC branded items.
“For me and the staff at LMGC, it gives us a chance to work with some folks that aren’t ‘regulars’ at the range,” Crawford said. “It’s fun for us to get to share all the range has to offer and to introduce people to shooting sports in a safe and welcoming environment. The staff and I also truly love helping participants have a good experience at the range so that they will hopefully come and visit us more often.”
The top shot competition provides students with an opportunity to showcase their skills, learn new techniques and compete against their peers in a friendly and safe environment. It also promotes responsible firearm ownership and safety among the
student body.
If anyone is interested in testing their shooting skills, learning new techniques or wants to get familiarized with firearms, information can be found at the Liberty Mountain Gun Club at 822 Second Amendment Drive, Lynchburg, Virginia. Information about future events can be found at their website.
Billingsley is a news reporter for the Liberty Champion