TargetTalk

From time to time the question of what to give for awards comes up. When I was a junior shooter back in the '70's it seemed the awards at most matches were these really neat medals from a company called V.H. Blackinton. We started holding some smallbore matches at our club last summer and I did some checking and Blackinton's are still around. I ordered them for our matches last summer and was really happy with them. I just reordered for our matches this summer. I don't think too many people know about them so I thought I would pass the info along. They have a whole catalog just for marksmanship awards. Their number is 800-699-4436.

They do make a nice medal. I don't know if you have had a custom die made for your club, but it is a nice touch - though a bit costly for a 1-shot order (don't recall exactly how much).

If you are looking for something different from the regular trophy, Dinn Bros. (www.dinntrophy.com) has some interesting styles with a clear plexiglas backing that the kids seem to like a lot.

I'll try to paste an image in, if it doesn't work, the number is 4053.


Jay

[img] 4053 - Acrylic Riser Trophy w/Dated Emblem


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Hi

I found their website and I really like the medals they are selling. Right now we're just using the single medal suspended from the neck. It would be very nice to hand out over all medals with the 3-P mount and separate medals with the individual positions on them too.

Mike
Wichita KS

Mike: yes that is what is neat about them. They have bunches of different ribbon bars to pick from. The ones I just ordered I was able to pick bars that said: "3 position", "Spring Tournament", "High Junior", etc all from standard ribbon bars. As Jay said they can really be spruced up by having a custom top bar cast for your club. We have not done that yet. I simply had the club initials engraved on the top bar and that is pretty cheap. Each medal was I think $12.00.

As usual you guys are miles and years ahead of me. A few months back I had a very nice phone conversation with Martin Edmondson at USAShooting. 719-866-4881 or martin.edmondson@usashooting.org.

Anyway, he mailed me a nice brochure on the Passport program for youth development. One can attain certain levels which are nationally recognized and "...has something to offer every young shooter and gives the incentive to improve and 'reach for the gold'"

I assumed I was one of the last people to learn about his program. And when we get our program going I was going to look into getting the pins etc that go with this program. How is this program complimentary to what you guys are doing or are there "issues" which I am unaware of?

Thanks for the input.

Jud: i am not familiar with that program. The concept sounds similar to the NRA's marksmanship program though. The NRA has a program that can be used with rifle, pistol, shotgun, etc. The basic idea though is a feedback system that gives the kids some kind of incentive to develop their skills. I think these things are very important at the early stages to formalize some goals.

Hi

We're using the NRA's Marksmanship qualification award system. We just started and it looks interesting to say the least to see that our top shooter just earned his Pro Marksman (lowest award) where he has to get 120 of 300 twice, but he got 250 of 300 aggregate. He just needs time to get the 20 or so full matches until he earns Distinguished Expert.

I looked at the sheet for the 4-H / USAS / Daisy passport and I didn't get it at all, especially for shotgun. Guess I'm dense or something.

Mike
Wichita KS

We've been using V.H. Blackinton for over 15 years, and I can say without a doubt that they are great to work with. They always bend over backwards for us.