Junior Air Rifle Camps in North Carolina

Who these camps are for

Camps are open to athletes aged 10 through 19, and no experience is required. This is a precision sport rather than a strength sport, so a ten-year-old trains on the same equipment as a high-school senior. What separates them is process, not physique — which is why a first-timer and a state-level competitor can train in the same building all week and both leave better than they arrived.

Every camp runs two tracks, and they differ in where an athlete starts and how fast the week moves — not in what gets taught. The developmental track is for athletes who have never fired a scored match, and begins at the beginning: what the range commands mean, how to build a position, how to breathe, and how a shot is actually released. The experienced track is for athletes preparing for state and regional competition, and covers the same ground faster because it can. Both tracks work through position, shot process and the mental side of a match before the week is out. Athletes are placed after a diagnostic on day one — by what they show on the line, not by age and not by what a parent guessed on a form.

Athletes bring their own shooting gear each day — rifle, glove, off-hand stand, scope and stand, kneeling roll, prone mat, and ammunition. Targets, backers, range fees, and safety equipment are covered by the camp fee.

Where the camps are held

Camps run at the Forbush High School range in East Bend, North Carolina (NC), in Yadkin County. East Bend is a small town, so the honest way to describe the drive is by the places around it: roughly 25 minutes from Winston-Salem, about 45 from Greensboro, and about 15 from Yadkinville. Families from across the Piedmont Triad make the trip and back inside a day, and athletes bring a lunch and a water bottle each morning.

What a week looks like

A camp is five days. Day one opens with a diagnostic match, which exists to find out where each athlete actually is before a coach says a word about technique. The middle of the week is position work and shot process alongside the mental game: what a shot plan is, what to do when the first shot of a string is a bad one, and how to stop a match turning on a single mistake. From there the work shifts to match preparation.

Friday is a sanctioned CMP match, run to the same standard as any other, with an awards ceremony that evening. That matters more than it sounds. An athlete who has only ever shot in practice has not yet done the hard part, which is shooting well while it counts. Ending the week inside a real match, with a real result, is what separates a camp from a clinic.

What it costs

$200 per athlete for the full week. That covers instruction, every match including the sanctioned one on Friday, targets, range fees, safety equipment, and a camp shirt. There is no separate match fee — Friday is part of the week, not an add-on. The camp is run at cost and turns no profit; the fee pays for targets and range time, and that is all it is for.

Safety

Nobody is handed a rifle on trust. Every athlete passes a range safety examination and demonstrates safe handling before a rifle is issued to them, and a Chief Range Officer runs the line for the entire week. Range commands are obeyed without exception; it is the one rule at a camp that is not negotiable, for a first-timer and a state competitor alike. Our 2026 camp finished with zero safety incidents, which is the standard rather than an achievement.

What the last camp produced

Sixteen athletes from five schools attended our 2026 camp. Ten of them earned a CMP Achievement Pin at Friday's sanctioned match — a pin that attaches to the athlete's competitor number permanently and follows them for the rest of their shooting career.

The full recap, with the week's results and the photo gallery, is on that camp's own page: see how Forbush Falcons Rifle Camp 2026 went.

Common questions