Camp Perry Marksmanship Center a state-of-the-art facility for air rifle shooters

An article from Cleveland Plain Dealer outdoor writer D'Arcy Egan recently allowed the newspaper to deviate from its usual modus operandi of negatively stereotyping gun ownership.

From the story:

President Theodore Roosevelt worried that Americans were miserable marksmen. The National Rifle and Pistol Matches were created and, a century later, the Civilian Marksmanship Program that Roosevelt helped to create is showing off its state-of-the-art Camp Perry Marksmanship Center.

The indoor air rifle range has 80 shooting stations with 10-meter
targets designed for Olympic-style shooting events. The stations are user-friendly, with the facility 's calendar filling rapidly with shooting events. The range is open to the public on Tuesday evenings.

Egan notes that since its opening a year ago, the Marksmanship Center has become the jewel of the CMP program.

"Our goal is to encourage young shooters," said CMP Director Gary Anderson, who won gold medals in rifle competition at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics in Tokyo and Mexico City. "They're the future of the shooting sports. We want get the kids to start shooting, and get involved in formal competition.

"We want to create life-long marksmen."

A joint project of the CMP and the Ohio National Guard, the $2.15
million facility is a stone's throw from the expansive outdoor ranges that host the National Rifle and Pistol Matches each summer.

"We have junior pistol and rifle matches in the Marksmanship Center throughout the National Matches, and all year round," said Anderson. The facility has competitions for all the service branches of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), 4-H shooting programs, National Junior Olympics competitions and the Daisy Air Gun Championships. On Jan. 15-17, it will again host the Camp Perry Open Air Gun Championships.

..."During competitions, the people back home can access the electronic targets on the internet to get live scoring during a match," said Anderson.

The story goes on to say the center also has a National Guard Engagement Skills Trainer, a marksmanship simulation tool. Combined with outdoor live fire training, soldiers can learn both marksmanship and tactical skills.

"The Camp Perry Marksmanship Center is considered the finest facility of its type in North America," said Anderson. "We've not only exceeded our expectations our the first year, but we're attracting new shooters. They're finding out that air rifles are fun and inexpensive to shoot."