Brenda Aggark takes aim during the Chesterfield Inlet Junior Canadian Rangers air-rifle-shooting competition this past week. - photo courtesy of Glen Brocklebank

The patrol held its first official air-rifle-shooting competition this past week.

Twenty of the patrol's 30 registered members took part in the event, which ended in dramatic fashion.

A final one-shot competition was needed to declare a Top Shot winner when Rebecca Sammurtok and Johnny Amarok both scored an impressive 65 out of a possible 70 shooting points.

Amarok won the honours in the tiebreaker. He and Sammurtok now have a chance to go to Yellowknife for a competition to decide the best shot in the North.

The Chester Patrol was formed by Ranger Sgt. Kevin Issaluk and Cadet Instructor Cadre officer Glen Brocklebank.

Patrol members range in age from 12 to 18 years.

Brocklebank says members of the Canadian Armed Forces come into the community about three times a year to work with the patrol.

"The military guys do field training exercises with us or take the patrol out on the land to show us Ranger skills," says Brocklebank.

"We also hire regular Canadian Rangers throughout the year to work with us and show us traditional skills."

Brocklebank says the aim of the competition was to teach rifle safety.

He says all the Junior Rangers who took part in the competition had to write a test on firearm safety before they could take their turn on the range.

"We also covered various safety procedures.

"We instructed them to only point their air rifles in a safe direction and to look behind their target to ensure they wouldn't hit something they didn't want to if they missed the target."

Participants had to fire from the prone, sitting and upright positions.

They also took part in a snap-shoot segment, during which they had five seconds to shoot as many Dixie cups off of a board as they could.

"I was impressed by the number of good shots we have.

"They can't wait to shoot again."