ARKANSAS STATE BB GUN CHAMPIONSHIP

Submitted by Gary Jobe, Match Director

The weather may have been cold outside, but inside the Benton County Fairground Exhibit Building in Bentonville, Ark., the competition was HOT! Held Saturday, Feb. 8, the competition was the 2025 Arkansas State BB Gun Championship. Over 90 young boys and girls, 15 years of age and younger, competed for top honors and awards.

Many people might consider a BB Gun more of a toy, but don’t tell that to these young athletes that shoot at a “bullseye 10-ring” the size of this dot at distances of 5 meters (16 feet 4.85 inches). Each youth fires 10 shots in four Olympic-style positions: prone, standing, sitting and kneeling.  They also take a 50-question firearms safety exam. A perfect score in all events would equal 500 points, but it usually takes a score in the upper 460’s to place in the match. 

Athletes compete as five-person teams and as individuals. First, second and third place awards are presented in four categories: Team Award, Team/Individual Division, Alternate Individual Division and Champion Individual Division. The top three teams advance and represent Arkansas at the Daisy National BB Gun Championship held in Rogers, Ark., in June. The top three overall winners in each of the three Individual Divisions received a “Special Edition” Engraved Daisy Avanti Model 499 BB Rifle.

THE WINNERS:

TEAM COMPETITION
1^ST Place: Central Arkansas Hawkeyes “Blue Team” – Overall Score 2247, 51 Bullseyes.
Colt Jones, John Gibson, Hagen Carter, Kristian Robinson, Bria Butler; Coached by Andy Faulkner
2^nd Place: Central Arkansas Hawkeyes “Red Team” – Overall Score 2145, 35 Bullseyes
Jeremiah Blount, Harper Zeilter, Hayes Scroggin, Carter West, Piper Wells; Coached by Dustin Henson
3^rd Place: Greene County Team #1 –Overall score 2138, 27 Bullseyes.
Maverick Moss, Jace King, Zoey Eubanks, Kale Head, Max Gray; Coached by Daniel King

INDIVIDUAL DIVISION
1^ST Place: Colt Jones, Central Arkansas Hawkeyes “Blue Team” – Score 460, with 15 Bullseyes
2^nd Place: Corley Locke, Madison County “Bullseye Team” – Score 460 with 11 Bullseyes
3^rd Place: Emma Ogden, Madison County “Bullseye Team” – Score 456 with 7 Bullseyes

ALTERNATE INDIVIDUAL DIVISION
1^ST Place: Joseph Haywood, Greene County – Score 449 with 6 Bullseyes
2^nd Place: Lynlee King, Ozark Youth Shooting Team (Bentonville) – Score 424 with 8 Bullseyes
3^rd Place: Lyla Smith, Madison County – Score 365 with 4 Bullseyes

CHAMPIONS INDIVIDUAL DIVISION
1^ST Place: Evan Martin, Central Arkansas Hawkeyes – Score 463 with 9 Bullseyes
2^nd Place: Tayhlor Henson, Central Arkansas Hawkeyes – Score 460 with 13 Bullseyes
3^rd Place: Kaitlyn Edwards, Central Arkansas Hawkeyes – Score 446 with 4 Bullseyes

The Arkansas BB Gun Championship a program of the Arkansas BB/Air Gun Program and is open to any boy or girl under the age of 15 that has an interest in learning how to safely handle a gun and become involved in competitive youth shooting sports. AR BB/AGP is supported by the Arkansas Rifle and Pistol Association, Arkansas Friends of NRA and Arkansas Gun and Cartridge Collectors Club.

For information on this and many other youth shooting programs, please contact [email protected]. For a complete list of competitors, teams and scores, visit https://www.orionscoring.com/.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program is a federally chartered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to firearm safety and marksmanship training and to the promotion of marksmanship competition for citizens of the United States. For more information about the CMP and its programs, log onto www.TheCMP.org.