BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — J.C. Jarrell loves to shoot. You’ll find him just about every weekend on the range at the White Horse Outdoor Education Center in Buckhannon squeezing off shots at targets right at a thousand yards down range. His love and passion for long range precision shooting has led him to writing his name in the record books.
“To tell you I did anything different than I usually do when I sit down at the bench, I can’t tell you that. Because it’s all about a good setup with your equipment and good barrels and good bullets,” said Jarrell in a recent edition of West Virginia Outdoors.
During the month of August Jarrell set two new world records. On August 10 in the lite gun division he shot five X’s on a thousand yard target in a group which measured 2.8 inches. He shot the record at the White Horse facility. Then, a week later on August 17 in a national shooting event at the Harry Jones Memorial Shooting Range in Marion County Jarrell picked up his heavy gun and fired 10 shots on target, six were X-shots in a group that was 4.4 inches at a thousand yards. Two world records on back to back weekends.
At a thousand yards, it’s hard to know how well you’ve done until its over. Jarrell figured he had shot well, but it wasn’t until he looked at the targets that he realized just how well he had done.
“We’re shooting six millimeter bullets and they’re kind of hard to see at a thousand yards,” he said. “I didn’t have a clue I’d done either one of these.”
Adding to his two accomplishments, Jarrell shot both with stiff winds on the range.
“Yeah, there was some wind and I can’t explain ti. It just happened for me,” he said.
Jarrell moved to Buckhannon form Boone County and was bitten by the long range bug just over a decade ago. He was already an accomplished marksman in the F-Class series. He and Stan Taylor of Douglas Barrels worked together to bring the first national long-range event in West Virginia to the Whitehorse in 2007. From there, Jarrell has been at the bench sending bullets on a long journey down range ever since.
Although proud of the two targets he now has hanging in his home, he knows those feats may not stand for long.
“Records are made to be broken and if I can do it, somebody else can do it better,” he said. “One thing about it, whether they do or not, I’m going to be out there trying.”