Back to First Shot Front Cover!   
CMP Home Page TFS Articles Archives CMP Competitions Home Page CMP Forum CMP Sales  Dec-04

Click here to sign up to receive CMP Email Updates

Click here to go to the CMP Forum to read & post questions.


We want your feedback! Please let us know what you think about TFS. Do you have an interesting story or article that you would like to share? If so, please let us know!


Reader Comments:


Great website! I especially like the story about what you did for the 200th Red Horse Flight. I saw some of their previous work while in the Middle East last year.
Paul D., Lt Col, IN ANG, BSC
I think it is great. Keep it up
Don E.
Excellent update!! Look forward the next one. Keep up the great work.
Richard T.
Thanx much for a great newsletter & other info.
Dave J.
With all the poor information sent on the internet this publication is one that I open first. This is information I like to read and enjoy. Keep up the good work. As an added section or article you might want to include something like a short article on the M1 or 1903 or A3. thanks
Paul
I look forward to every issue of "First Shot"  Keep them coming!
Dan E.
Great publication! I always look forward to receiving it. Is like a breath of range time when stuck behind the desk at work.
Clint  M.


I certainly applaud the CMP staff for sending packages to our folks in Iraq. I just sent a goodies and pogy bait package to the 1st Bn 9th Infantry. All of you are to be congratulated for your hard work, patriotism, and concern for our GIs. Well done. (Oh - and the M1903, MK I Springfield arrived only two weeks after I mailed in the order and it is a keeper! Thanks for that too!)
Jim R.


I like it!!  Keep it coming !  Can't be more pleased to see this on the internet.
George


Thank you for making the Newsletter available. Very much appreciated.
Alan M.


Being a Basic-trainer from The Netherlands I was searching the internet for shooting information (especially about training juniors) and I came across your site. With much interest I have read several articles. Especially the ones that give advice on "How to..." are very good, because in The Netherlands very little is known about training juniors aprox. 10 to 16 years of age. For example, I have shown the pattern "how to make a kneeling roll" to my athletes and several are now using them. I hope you will continue this fine series of articles!
With kind regards,
Albert B. T.





Printable Version

New High School JROTC Range Has Electronic Targets

By Martin Edmondson, USA Shooting


Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama has become the first public school in the nation to have electronic air rifle target systems installed in their Army JROTC air rifle range.

Their dream for a new range started a couple of years ago after school and JROTC leaders visited the Tom Lowe Olympic Shooting Complex near Atlanta to see first hand the electronic target systems that were installed there for the 1996 Olympic Games shooting competitions. LTC Dave Sutton, Senior Army Instructor, members of the school administration and JROTC unit staff spent time with Duane Tallman, Maintenance Supervisor for the Olympic shooting facility. They examined the target systems and toured the facility. The possibility of having a planned addition for the JROTC department to their school that would include a shooting range with state of the art target systems was about to become reality.

One of the disadvantages of the conventional electronic target system is that the targets remain at a fixed 1.4 meters height. To shoot three-position air rifle events on fixed targets, it is necessary to fire the prone and kneeling positions from tables. Planning for the new Enterprise range led to the development of motorized target elevators that would allow the targets, not the shooters, to be adjusted to the correct height for each of the three shooting positions. This innovation promised to make the Enterprise range a true premier facility.

Pictures accompanying this article illustrate how the motorized target elevators work. A motor-driven carriage travels up and down an aluminum stand to position the target at the prescribed height for the position chosen. Controls to make these position changes can be operated from the firing line so that no one has to go downrange to make the adjustments. There were also special stands to bring the monitor and controls closer to the shooter in each position. This was done with a constant force spring system that offset the weight of the monitor and controls so that manually lifting and lowering the monitor requires little or no effort. The complete system also includes TV monitors for each target that are mounted in a ready area where they can be viewed by spectators.

October 20, 2004 was the history-making completion day for the 18-point range and the installation of its target systems. Members of the Enterprise Army JROTC Rifle Team fired test shots on each target to assure that every new target was operational. The official “First Shot Ceremony” will be conducted in the near future to honor and mark the beginning of an incredible accomplishment by a public school district.

Martin Edmondson Enterprises was privileged to be a part of this exciting shooting range development by being chosen to provide the International Shooting Sports Federation approved electronic targets made by SPIETH Target Systems in Germany. Tim Conrad, Front Range Design and I developed and manufactured the target elevators and monitor stands that were installed in the new range.

The new range and target systems will make it possible for JROTC cadets to spend more time in actual firing exercises, the cadets will be using electronic targets that make their marksmanship endeavors so much more exciting and enjoyable and the JROTC instructors can spend more time teaching marksmanship and less time on administrative tasks like changing and scoring targets. The Enterprise High School Army JROTC plans to run local, state and regional competitions on their new facility so that junior shooters in the southeast can also have the opportunity to fire on these targets. They also want to host training camps and even national team training. Any schools or clubs interested in participating in events at Enterprise High School should contact LTC Sutton at 334-393-2338 to work out details or just to congratulation him and his staff setting an incredibly high standard for high school air rifle ranges of the future.

Anyone interested in electronic targets or other international style range equipment should contact Martin Edmondson at medmondson@adelphia.net or call 719-351-1135 (mobile).

 

Back to the Top


CMP Competitions/Programs: Camp Perry Training Site Building 3, PO Box 576, Port Clinton, OH 43452
Telephone: (419) 635-2141 Fax: (419) 635-2573
Competitions Email: competitions@odcmp.com   Programs Email:  programs@odcmp.com
CMP Sales: 1401 Commerce Blvd., Anniston, AL 36207
Telephone: (256) 835-8455 Fax: (256) 835-3527
Sales Emailcustserve@odcmp.com
Spam and Virus Filtering Provided byISP Services