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Pasco teen a shooting star

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2009

DADE CITY - Set a golf ball on top of a fence 50 yards away and Travis Rubio can blast a bullet through the center of it with a muzzleloader-style rifle.

If you don't know what that is, think of a Civil War-era gun loaded one ball-shaped bullet at a time with powder and a rod. It is, in the parlance of today's youth, almost as "old school" as guns get. It does not, for example, have a scope.

A senior at Pasco High School, Travis, 17, will compete June 24-28 in the National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational in Grand Island, Neb.

Two years ago, he placed 10th in the nation in another 4-H rifle competition.

"Texas usually wins every year," Travis said of the national contests. "When I got 10th, it was the best I ever did. "They said it was the highest Florida had ever placed."

He was taught to shoot by father, Jose Rubio, and said he has been firing guns practically since he could walk.

During the nationals, he will shoot at a variety of small metal targets shaped like rams, hogs and bears, as well as a bull's-eye, from as close as 25 yards to as far as 100 yards away.

Geoff Fox

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