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Lonsdale girl hits perfect target in rifle competition |
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
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When she isn’t at Ringgold Elementary School or participating in (often winning) dance competitions or performing with the Young Players at the Royal Theatre — or once in a while just getting to be a little girl — Reagan Hammonds enjoys benchrest shooting with her grandfather.  Reagan Hammonds, a petite 9-year-old, has demonstrated she can outshoot any adult around. Here, she is shown with the custom rifle she used Saturday to shoot a perfect target in the Rimfire Benchrest Match at Rimfire Ridge in Lonsdale. (Photo special to the Courier)
Reagan, 9, typically shows up at a regularly scheduled Rimfire Benchrest Match at Rimfire Ridge in Lonsdale and just sits down and shoots.
Her technique doesn’t fit the standards, but it works for her, said her grandfather, Fred Sears of Lonsdale. She can outshoot any of the adults around her including Sears, a national champion.
The sport of benchrest shooting doesn’t require just skill, but also a bit of luck, and Reagan has demonstrated she has both. Last Saturday she shot a perfect target in the benchrest match.
No one knows how she does it, her grandfather says.
Reagan doesn’t practice. “She doesn’t even shoot logically,” he noted.
Reagan, a petite gymnast/dancer, gets up on her shooting stool, perching on one leg to be high enough to see through the scope of her rifle. She then leans over the gun — literally lying on it — and starts loading .22 shells one at a time, Sears said. She aims, shoots and the result is a perfect bull’s-eye.
Try as the other marksmen may, no one has been able to duplicate her feat, Sears said.
In .22 Rimfire benchrest shooting, there are three classes — sporter, 10.5 pound and unlimited. Reagan shoots in the unlimited class with a setup including a custom rifle sporting a Hall action, Hart barrel and a custom rest, all of which her grandfather set up for her.
Reagan shoots in the unlimited class simply because she prefers the type of rifle it requires, Sears said. Each class requires a different type of rifle, and she likes the one he fashioned for her.
Sears noted that Reagan rarely fires a practice shot on the target, yet in the 30 minutes allowed per unlimited target of 25, this past Saturday, Reagan shot a perfect 250. As usual, there was no practice shot, he added.
Sears said this is a skill that all marksmen aspire to and rarely achieve.
The adults who shoot in the matches at Rimfire Ranch say they’re grateful that Reagan has other interests besides shooting and can’t always take part in the matches. It gives them a chance to excel, because when she’s around, no one can top her.
Reagan is the daughter of Tim and Charlotte Hammonds of Lonsdale. Her mother serves as PTO president at Ringgold, where Reagan is a member of the Destination ImagiNation Team that won first place in its division in the state competition and will be going to Knoxville, Tenn., next week for the global finals.
Reagan plans to leave her gun at home.
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