At 16, Fowlerville shooting champ is a top gun

By FRANK KONKEL
Livingston County Daily Press & Argus (Howell)
12:20 PM CDT, August 1, 2011
MARION TOWNSHIP, Mich.

Jason Jonckheere is a surgeon with his shotgun.

Only 16, the Fowlerville resident broke 198 out of 200 targets with his trusty Beretta 12-gauge shotgun at the Michigan Trap Association's state shoot in early July, earning himself a junior state championship.

Set to enter his junior year at Howell High School, Jonckheere spends most every day shooting, either with the Monroe Pride shooting team, at the Howell Gun Club in Livingston County's Marion Township, where he built his shooting skills, or on his own, which he prefers.

"Shooting is something that doesn't require a team to do; it's something I can push myself to do," Jonckheere said. "It's something I have to make myself work to do, and that's what makes me enjoy it. That way, when I do succeed, I know it's my work that's gotten me there and nobody else's. I like that."

Jonckheere's work has taken him to a lofty position as one of Michigan's best young trap shooters.

In winning the title, Jonckheere hit 99 percent of the clay targets. By almost any standard, even those of professional marksmen, Jonckheere is a heck of a shot.

In trap shooting, 5.25-inch-wide targets are launched from a machine a minimum distance of 48 feet away from a shooter. By Jonckheere's estimation, he fires his shotgun when the airborne target reaches a distance of about 120 feet from him.

That means each time Jonckheere readies, aims and fires, he's attempting to hit a moving circular clay target just over 5 inches wide at a distance of 120 feet with a bunch of pellets that spread out "3 to 4 feet" in width at that distance, Jonckheere said.

"It's a sport that people think you don't have to be that precise, but you really have to be spot on if you want good scores," Jonckheere said. "I try to calm myself, clear my mind and focus on what I'm doing. If I miss, I try to calm myself because when you're mad, you make mistakes."

Jonckheere's approach to minimizing mistakes is simple: Treat every 15-minute round of shooting like a life-or-death situation, then relax when it's over.

"It only takes 15 minutes to get through a round," Jonckheere sad. "All I need to do is focus for that long."

Chances are, if Jonckheere's not shooting, he's reloading shells, a cost-effective method for someone who blows through 100 shells or more per day.

It does take some time, though; Jonckheere spends three hours reloading a day's worth of shells.

On bad-weather days or when he's bored, Jonckheere will hole up in the basement with his Dryfire electronic practice system, which helps him hone his aim.

Jonckheere doesn't play high school sports and he doesn't participate in extracurricular activities, but give him his gun and some shells, or some time to fish out on Bishop Lake or to hunt in a local woods, and he's happy.

Jonckheere holds professional marksman Leo Harrison III, who made a living shooting guns and teaching marksmanship, as a role model.

Jonckheere is not sure if he'll go to college after high school or what he plans to study, but he does know one thing: He wants to see where shooting takes him.

He plans to continue competing in regional, state and national shooting tournaments, and said his results could go a long way toward what he does in the future.

"It would be really cool if I could make a living off (shooting)," Jonckheere said. "Pretty much all my time is devoted to this."

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Information from: Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, http://www.livingstondaily.com/

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