05/12/2026
So this past week I had the chance to get certified as a Level-2 4H Shooting Sports Instructor for the State of Arizona for our Muzzleloader discipline. The event took place at the NRA Whitting Center in Raton NM and I'm super glad the NRA hosts 4H activities on their range. We had at least a dozen other states send their people to get certified even all the way from New York and one from Hawaii.
I didn't get alot of pictures seeing as we were shooting and getting our hands dirty but thankfully I got a few.
For any adults who are ever interested in being involved in Yuma County 4H, Yuma Shooting Sports is always looking for responsible and disciplined adults who want to teach kids about gun safety and competitive shooting as a certifed Arizona 4H instructor. And especially if you know any kids from ages 8 and up who would be interested in enrolling in a 4H club, we're always looking for new faces.
At Level 1 or Level 2 capacity we always need adult volunteers. Level 1 basically is you teach kids in a specific shooting disicpline and Level 2 is you teach adults who then go on to teach kids in a discipline.
Super fun and you meet lots of new people at these events.
Speaking to our Yuma Shooting Sports people, it's been a long time since we've ever been involved in some kind of Qualifier / State Competition Match. This season we're gonna give it a shot and see if we could make something like that happen for some of our 4H kids. We're very limited in terms of how many kids we could send due to lack of instructors and equipment limitations, but if we can get 1 kid then that's plenty.
Here are some upcoming 4H events later this year for any adults outside of 4H who would want to be certified shooting sports instructors and or for any of our regular 4h kids who might be interested in attending competition events.
July 10-12 2026 Level -1 Instructor Certification Workshop. Tucson / Phoenix area. ( Location tbd)
(Month/day tbd) 2026 Fall Air Rifle All Ages and Senior State Team Qualifier Match. (Location tbd).
October (day tbd) 2026 Multi - Discipline All Ages and Senior Team Qualifier Match.
Location tbd.
SmallBore Rifle & Muzzleloader
December (day tbd) 2026 Level-1 Instructor Certification Workshop. Tucson Three Points.
January (day tbd) 2027 State Air Rifle Championships. Phoenix, Ben Avery Shooting Range.
February (day tbd) 2027 Multi-Discipline All Ages and Senior State Championships. Cowtown Shooting Range, Peoria.
I know we have a few kids out there that I've talked to who are already interested in attending a competition match outside of Yuma and that's being worked on to prepare for that. At this point we're basically learning to walk again when it comes to supplying equipment for a competition event outside of Yuma so the head count of participants is very limited. So baby steps for the time being. As we get closer to September things will be more clear in terms of an exact headcount that we could afford to send. For now, lots of things are still up in the air.
If anyone has any questions feel free to reach out to me on here whether from people in or outside of 4h. There's still lots of prep time between now and the new season.
