ROGERS -- About three hours into the 49th annual Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match, Annie Downum can't stop scrolling through her mother's iPad.

"We're 29th now, but it constantly fluctuates," she says.

Annie, 10, of Annie and the Oakleys, Benton County's competitive BB gun shooting team, is one of 357 children participating in the indoor two-day competition that ends today at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers. Fifty-one teams, composed of shooters ages 8-15, are representing shooting clubs from more than 15 states, including Arkansas.

As each shooter completes his relay, the targets are pulled and scanned by judges using specialized software, and the results instantly update on the competition's website.

"It's sort of just, 'refresh, refresh, refresh,'" says one of the adults accompanying the team.

Each team includes seven shooters, two of whom are considered alternates, as well as two to five coaches, said Joe Murfin, a spokesman for Daisy Outdoor products. Once a shooter competes at the nationals, he must "sit out" a year before being allowed to return.

"We're trying to avoid clubs forming a 'ringer team,'" Murfin said.

All competitors are required to use the same model BB gun, a Daisy Avanti Champion Model 499, although minor modifications may be made to a rifle, such as lengthening the stock for longer-limbed shooters. Each gun is inspected before the competition begins, although Murfin said he had never seen the judges reject a gun.

The 499 is a single-shot, muzzle-loaded rifle that fires a .177-caliber BB using a compressed spring mechanism. Each shooter must fire 10 BBs each from four positions -- prone and standing Saturday, sitting and kneeling today -- within 10 minutes. Each of the 10 targets measures about 2.75 inches in diameter, with the "10 ring" measuring one-eighth of an inch. Competitors shoot from a distance of 5 meters, or 16.4 feet.

"Most of them will shoot mostly nines and 10s," Murfin said. "They're that good."

To reach the nationals, teams must place first, second or third in a state competition sanctioned by a 4-H Club, the Boy Scouts of America, the National Rifle Association or other recognized body. The cost of traveling to Rogers for the competition, as well as accommodations during the tournament, are borne by teams themselves, although Daisy awards each team in the competition a $1,000 prepaid Visa card to help defray the costs, Murfin said.

Although the national competition has been held at many locations across the country over the past five decades, it has been held in Rogers every year since 2010. Murfin said Daisy has committed to holding the championship in Rogers until at least 2017.

James Eberwein, a shooting coach for the Flint Hills Junior Shooters in Alma, Kan., said the toughest hurdles for most young shooters to overcome has less to do with the mechanics of putting "metal on target, and more with building self-confidence and building mental fortitude."

"It's a matter of not letting that one bad shot ruin their day," said Eberwein, who has been a shooting coach for nearly 30 years. "They definitely have better eyesight than us old people, so they see when that shot's not in the black."

Unlike many sports, the competitors are not segregated by gender, and there is no required male-female ratio for a shooting team. Eberwein said girls are often better marksmanship students than boys.

"Probably the best team I ever had was the all-girls team because they will listen," Eberwein said. "They don't think they know everything."

At the tournament's halfway point Saturday, after all competitors had completed shooting from the prone and standing positions, all four of the highest scoring shooters were girls.

Eberwein said that during his decades of coaching, he has learned to seek out and address the unique aspects of each student's personality to draw out their best performance.

"You've got to get to know the kids -- their habits and their mental aspects," Eberwein said. "You handle every youth differently. You've got some that come in really bashful and shy and won't say two words.

"I feel like this is one thing where we can get kids to open up and become more outgoing through shooting sports."

Competition resumes today at 8 a.m., and there is no admission charge for spectators. Live results for each team and shooter is available at www.orionresults.com/daisy.

NW News on 07/06/2014