Local 17-year-old earns shooting award

Seventeen-year-old Izhanna Erickson of Havre earned the Distinguished Expert Rifleman Award Jan. 10, the highest award given out by the National Rifle Association.

"It is really hard to get. You have to shoot hundreds and hundreds of targets to achieve it," Erickson said Monday in the VFW Bear Paw Junior Rifle Club shooting range under Havre Fire Department. "It takes a high level of determination and concentration, and I'm very happy to have won it."

Erickson started shooting firearms when she was 9, but she didn't join Havre's Bear Paw Junior Rifle Club until she was 15, she said.

Her coach, Laura Martin, said she was able to tell Erickson was a natural right away. At the club, Laura Martin and instructor Randy Martin said, members only shoot .22-caliber rifles. They shoot with peep sights, Randy Martin said.

"You have to line up what you're looking at from the rear sight and the front sight, and what you're seeing is basically a circle, and we ask the kids to do is look down through the rear sights, line up the front sights, and try to see that black dot that they're looking at down there," Laura Martin said. "Then we ask them to relax and make sure they can see that before they fire the gun. That's all that it takes, is a decent sight picture and good position."

Erickson said the achievement gives her confidence in other areas of life.

"It lets me know for all of my other goals, school, or whatever - 'Oh, look, I've already got my distinguished expert, and that was really hard to get. This is isn't going to be so difficult,'" she said. "I can go and do this and I will succeed."

Erickson said the idea of being in the Olympics is appealing, but she thinks she needs more preparation before seriously considering trying out.

Erickson wants to be a horse farrier when she grows up, she said.