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SHOOTING STARS COMPETITORS LOAD UP FOR SPEED SHOOTING EVENT.


Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

Cathy Levanza takes a breath, lets it out, and is ready to draw her gun. She's practicing for this year's Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships near Piru.

Levanza, 23, won the women's open category in 1998 and hopes to repeat this year. She's been shooting since she was 9. Levanza's father and two sisters also shoot.

``It's the challenge,'' Levanza said. ``Shooting teaches me how to be disciplined.''

Six months before the event, Levanza practices dry firing and works out at a gym. Two months before, she shoots almost every day.

``Everything has to work right. I have to be prepared mentally and physically,'' Levanza said.

She's using an open category gun, a .38 Super STI STI systolic time intervals.  with a C-more scope sight.

The 2002 Steel Challenge organizers expect hundreds of contestants from the U.S. and overseas to test their speed and accuracy with handguns and, for the first time, shotguns.

They will be competing for more than $230,000 in cash and prizes. Categories include: rimfire, centerfire, shotguns, revolvers and single action. Junior, pre-teen and women's events are also scheduled.

Donna Ballard, who works at the Oak Tree Gun Club in Newhall, said that although women can gain confidence from shooting, it can be hard to get women to participate. She's been a certified See certification.  N.R.A. firearms This is an extensive list of small arms — pistol, machine gun, grenade launcher, anti-tank rifle — that includes variants.

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 instructor for five years and teaches new shooters.

Ballard likes teaching women because they ``listen better'' than men.

``This isn't a man's sport, it's everyone's sport - men, women, kids,'' says Ballard.

Participants and spectators have fun at the Steel Challenge according to according to
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2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 organizers Mike Dalton and Mike Fichman. One doesn't need special knowledge about shooting to appreciate the events. It's pretty obvious that the object is to hit the steel targets, which clang when struck, and to do it as fast as possible.

Compared to steel targets, ``Shooting paper is like watching wallpaper dry,'' says Dalton.

Times to a hundredth of a second are displayed at each range, so there's immediate feedback and no controversy about a French judge missing a blown triple axel Axel: see Absalon. . The Outdoor Life Network will be covering the events this year, Dalton said.

Held at the Steel Challenge Range near Piru, competition begins next Thursday and runs through Sunday when there will be a team-vs.-team shootoff. The shotgun and rimfire events will be Thursday only.

Two events will cater to spectators with guns and ammo provided. At the Para Challenge, shooters will try to knock down five plates. The fastest single time will win a Para LDA (Local Delivery Agent) Software in a mail server that delivers mail to a local recipient. See messaging system.  9mm. Two more Para LDA's will be awarded by a drawing for contestants.

The Zone sponsored by Browning is for .22 pistols. Five targets will be scored for accuracy. Top score and two lucky contestants each day will win a Browning Buck Mark The Browning Buck Mark is a semi-automatic pistol for .22 LR cartridges, made by the Browning Arms Company. It began production in 1985 and is still actively produced. The same action from the pistol is used in Buck Mark rifles.  .22 semi-automatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol is a type of handgun that can be fired in semi-automatic mode, firing one cartridge for each pull of the trigger. This type of firearm uses a single chamber and a single barrel, which remain in a fixed linear orientation relative to each other while being .

Started in 1981, the Steel Challenge has drawn as many as 3,000 spectators say organizers. Admission is free for spectators, many of whom come to visit displays by manufacturers, including Browning, Smith & Wesson Smith & Wesson

U.S. gun manufacturer. The company has its roots in an 1852 partnership between Horace Smith (1808–93) and Daniel B. Wesson (1825–1906), who designed and marketed a lever-action, repeating magazine handgun that held a self-contained cartridge.
, Hornady, Glock, Heckler heck·le  
tr.v. heck·led, heck·ling, heck·les
1. To try to embarrass and annoy (someone speaking or performing in public) by questions, gibes, or objections; badger.

2. To comb (flax or hemp) with a hatchel.
 & Koch, and Para-Ordnance.

There is a ``Law Enforcement'' category for the many peace officers who compete, including past and current FBI agents, DEA DEA - Data Encryption Algorithm  agents, police, border patrol, and sheriff's deputies.

At practice, Cathy Levanza is ready, and when the buzzer sounds, she draws her gun and bangs away at the five metal targets, which give out a satisfying clang. Now she just has to shave shave (shav)
1. to cut at or parallel to the surface of the skin.

2. to remove the beard or other body hair by such a process.

3. to cut thin slices from or to cut into thin slices.
 a few more hundredths of a second off her times.

IF YOU GO

--Thursday, Friday, Saturday, August 15-17, competition from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18 Team vs. Team shootoff starts at 9:30 a.m. and ends by noon. Steel Challenge Web site www.steelchallenge.com or call Mike Fichman at (818) 897 5965 or (661) 269 0635. During the event call (805) 521 1411.

--Directions: From I-5 take Highway 126 west to the 'Lake Piru Recreational Area' sign. Proceed approximately 1.5 miles to the church, turn right, go one block to the 'T' intersection, and turn right again. Follow the road about 2 miles to the signs for the Steel Challenge. Follow the road for about 3 miles to the Steel Challenge Range on the left. Use caution, watch for cattle, and do not speed.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Cathy Levanza, above and below, practices for this year's Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships near Piru.

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)
COPYRIGHT 2002 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2002, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:Sports
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Aug 8, 2002
Words:752
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