[CGofMP]

Greetings folks,

Well this last weekend I am proud to say that my wife and I took our 10 year old boy up to the range for his birthday. He has been badly wanting to learn to shoot 'real' rifles. We allowed his 12 year old sister to tag along and shoot her first 'real bullets' as well...
:)

They both did better than I expected. The both shot CMP M44 Mossberg rifles. (What a great deal we got on those.) Anyhow, she is by far the better shot. Her groups (at only 25 yards) could easily be covered with an old-style silver dollar.... his were bigger and less consistent.

We kept it SAFE first, but also fun, letting them plink baloons at first. We also had a bunch of silly targets but they both wanted to "shoot groups like you and mom".. okay kid! So we gave them some bullseye style targets and let them go to town.

While we were up there we bumped into a dad and his 9 year old daughter who were using a scoped Ruger to poke holes in paper at 50 yards. He mentioned the NRA Marksmanship Qualification courses of fire (http://www.nrahq.org/education/training/marksmanship/index.asp) and suggested we consider it.

I have never been involved in formal rifle competition. I did do a bit of competing in more practical competitions (combat handgun and shotgun) in the police training I took (did nicely thank you!) but I know NOTHING about competative shooting of small bore rifle, the rules and such.

We like the idea of the program a lot because its self-administered and tested and we can do it at our own pace and have myself and my wife proctor (oversee) the testing. Very cool.

My question basically is how SHOULD we get started? They seem to have a course they reccomend you go through first but there are no web contacts listed for such a class and it appears it isnt 'needed' to be in the program.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has put their kids through this program and has any advice, suggestions, warnings, or whatnot.

Is it worth our time and trouble? Is it a good program? What results did you get? How did you get started? How did you deal with the kids when they hit a plateau (as all of us do)?, How far in advance did you order patches and rockers? And anything else you might wish to share your knowledge on this about.

The program is also cool in that it also allows adults to participate and win badges so maybe we will all go through it just to help keep everyone's interest in it high and have some friendly family competition.

Anyway, the kids loved their first time shooting. After we were done on the rifle range I wanted them to see what a 'real kick' was like so we took them down to the trap range and I let them fire a 20 guage shotgun a couple times. My daughter was not at all impressed with the kick and did it only once.. My son on the other hand....

**BANG**
"owwww... WOAH!... that hurt!"
......"can I do it again?"

He lasted through 5 shots 2 of them magnums before he decided he had enough. ;)

Anyway they both loved the whole scene and want to do more... I'm just seeing if formalizing it like this is a good idea.

Charles

[JohnKSa]

It's kind of a neat program.

There's something for everyone. Some of the qualification courses are quite difficult, others are pretty easy.

The idea is that you get the participants shooting a lot and reward them in a tangible way. The awards are quite nice, and if you get all the way to the top, a Distinguished Expert medal is very impressive looking.

The first level, the Basic, is awarded at the completion of one of the courses you mentioned.

Ok, about the classes

The courses mentioned are Basic Firearm Safety courses offered by NRA certified instructors. If you contact the NRA, they will give you contact information for instructors in your area.

The classes are very thorough. They are offered in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun and perhaps some others.

A full course is probably a 2 day affair (8-10 hours total) with a lot of classroom training and a good bit of range work.

At the end, the student has a good working knowledge of firearm safety, an overview of sports and competitive activities, cleaning information, different firearm types, shooting positions and techniques, sight adjustments, dealing with basic malfunctions and more.

It is not designed to teach marksmanship, it lays the foundation and allows the student to progress from there.

There are also First Steps classes available which are about half as long as a Basic Class. They focus on a particular firearm and therefore can be a bit shorter. The instructor has the option of having the student qualify for a Basic Rocker. In other words, completion of the First Steps classes doesn't guarantee the student will have earned a Basic Rocker.

[curmudgeon]

Hi,
You can check your local range for a Jr's program that might have this program already established. I don't know where you are, but in the San Francisco Bay area, Richmond Rod and Gun Club, Chabot Gun Club and the Metcalf range all have Jr's programs.