There is much to be learnt of life from smallbore shooting, believes Jennifer McIntosh, one of Scotland's brightest medal hopes at the Commonwealth Youth Games starting in Pune, India, next week.

While those marksmen (and markswomen) who enjoy stalking the countryside in pursuit of scarpering prey are these days a beleaguered, non-conformist bunch, their cousins in the nation's shooting galleries and target ranges are - if McIntosh is anything to go by - a remarkably well-adjusted constituency.

The 17-year-old holder of both the junior and seniorScottish records in the 10-metre air-rifle discipline is thekind of girl to give shooting agood name.

McIntosh's achievements in shooting so far are perhaps all the more laudable for the fact that she insists her schoolwork comes first. The sixth-year pupil at Dollar Academy even insists that firing off rounds at stationary targets has helped her cope with exams.

"It's the level of concentration," she says. "In shooting, I have to force myself to concentrate and stay calm. I actually find it really relaxing. Once I'm in the zone and in my rhythm, nothing can distract me or faze me. That helps me when it comes to dealing with pressure, like in exams."

From such levels of focusing comes an equal degree of satisfaction. "It's such a good feeling to look down the scope, see the screen and your shot has gone in the 10 ring," she enthuses.

"You think yes, come on!' "

It would be no mistake to suggest that McIntosh did not discover shooting by accident. Collectively, the McIntosh family has its eye in: mum Shirley was a multiple Commonwealth Games medallist in1994 and 1998, while dad Donald, who is now GB assistant coach and Scotland's target shooting performance director, competed in 2002.

One of Jennifer's earliest memories is of her mum returning from Canada in 1994. "I was only about three and we met her at the airport," she recalls. "There were photographers waiting for the medallists and, when I saw my mum, she gave me a hug and put the medals around my neck and Iran about the airport with them on." The memory, she adds, is "quite sad." In the teenage sense of the word, of course.

Nowadays, mum takes "as little to do with shooting as possible". Dad, meanwhile, is allowed to give advice, "but Sinclair Bruce (Scottish under-25s coach) is No.1; what he says goes."

After picking up her first rifle aged 10, McIntosh did not start shooting competitively until she was 14. Luckily, she has been able to combine competing at the highest level with a fairly normal school and social life. She set her Scottish records earlier this year at an event in Sweden, but then put shooting to one side in order to sit her Highers.

Over the summer, in the lead-up to Pune, it has once again become her main focus and, last week, in a Commonwealth warm-up event in Gibraltar, she took gold in her main event, the 10m air rifle, and silver in the 3x20m smallbore event, which involves taking equal numbers of shots standing, kneeling and prone, as opposed to simply standing in the other discipline.

Although she refused to talk this week about her hopes of repeating those feats in her Commonwealth match on Monday, McIntosh already has grander ambitions in the sport. "After finishing school this year I'm planning on taking a gap year because I want to go to the main Commonwealth Games, in India in 2010."

She had been considering pursuing an acting career but has decided the Thespian life might jar somewhat with the demands of high-level sport. Instead, she hopes to go to art school after India, preferably in Aberdeen or Edinburgh where the best shooting ranges in Scotland are located.

Further ahead, the London Olympics in 2012 will beckon, as will the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. "In 2014, it'll be 20 years since my mum won gold in Canada. That could be a pretty special year."

Presumably, Shirley will get a shot at the medals.