Local teen earns top NRA shooting award

After five years of shooting in Havre's VFW Bear Paw Junior Rifle Club, 17-year old Jaison Adams earned the Distinguished Expert Rifleman Award March 28, the highest award given out by the National Rifle Association.

Adams, said he boosted his attendance at the range to twice a week to attain his Distinguished Rifleman award.

Adams had to earn 14 lower ratings and shoot hundreds of targets and get the highest ratings to achieve the award, club coach Laura Martin said.

Pulling the trigger is the easiest part, but "sometimes it's difficult," Adams said.

"You just gotta train your muscles to hold perfectly still," he said.

Instructor Randy Martin said it is Adams' determination and his reluctance to quit that made him successful.

Adams was acquainted with firearms before he joined the Junior Rifle Club, but he said he joined the club because  he wanted to grow.

"I thought it'd be fun. I'd get more experience with handling firearms and learning the proper techniques for shooting," he said. "I think being down here has helped me improve a lot."

"He has shot in four state and national sectional matches and has place both in the team and individual events," Laura Martin said.

For Adams, who said he wants to be a bush pilot over the Hi-Line region, the achievement is encouraging and gives him confidence to achieve anything in life.

"If you got a goal, go for it," he said.

"The thousands of kids that have gone through this club don't have their pictures on the wall, and it's because it's hard and they quit. This should be a lesson to Jaison that you put your mind to something, and you don't quit, you can achieve anything," Randy Martin said.  

Randy and Laura Martin said they are excited for Adams.

"We think it's probably the coolest thing," Laura Martin said.