LAUREL — From the banks of Riverside Park near Laurel, one can see anything from boating to fishing on the Yellowstone River to walking dogs along trails.
But inside a rustic building not far from the riverbank is where the mark of a national champion has been made.
“You cock it, and then it’s loaded and ready to go,” Taylor Slyder told MTN Sports this week before demonstrating her BB gun skills.
Slyder recently won the Daisy National BB Gun Championship in Arkansas and broke a national record for the standing position. Furthermore, she came within an eyelash of setting the aggregate national record scoring 492 points out of 500.
“And I almost did (set the record), but I missed one question on the test, so it didn’t quite happen,” she said.
That’s right, shooters also take a written exam within the competition as part of safety education. The question Taylor missed that would’ve given her the new national aggregate record?
“It was like, what angle your body is at in prone (position), or something like that,” she recalled with a smile, vowing to never forget the answer.
Slyder is one of seven members from Yellowstone and Carbon counties who qualified for the national event. Bridget Thomas, Sophia Schellig, Zoey Kogelmann, Kash Werning, Eliana Johnston and Zane Johnston round out the Yellowstone Young Guns who are coached by Matt Slyder and Jason Thomas.
The Young Guns, who won Montana's state tournament, were one of almost 60 teams vying for a podium finish in Rogers, Arkansas. And they did it by placing third. According to Slyder’s mother Michelle, the bronze marked Montana’s highest team finish in decades, despite a disadvantage.
“We have one competition where we can qualify for nationals. In the south, there are state that have 20 competitions a year where people can qualify their teams,” said president of the Laurel Shooting Education Program Michelle Slyder.
“And it gives them (students) a lot of tools around gun safety that we feel is probably the most beneficial thing that we offer through our program,” she added.
Aside from the 50-question test, the national competition includes four shooting positions: standing, kneeling, sitting and prone.
The Laurel High School student has amassed a wealthy collection of targets, trophies and medals from years of competition. She and teammate Bridgett Thomas, who placed ninth at nationals, both earned continuing education scholarship checks for their high marks.
Now 15 years old, Taylor has aged out of the BB gun competition.
“But after this you can air rifle … there’s a lot of different things,” she said pondering what might be next.
