16 year old elicits a no B.S Answer.

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Amadeus

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My friends nephew attended the gunshow with us this past weekend. He's barely 16 and is an armchair sniper. He loves all things " scoped and tactical". He turns his nose up at iron sights and gets excited at the prospect of taking a target at 1000 yards.

He makes his own ghillie suits for use on the airsoft field. He can ID a gun from 20 paces. He is swift to declare that the .22 is for p*ssies while an HK (which he affectionately refers to as the USP) or a SIG 226 are really the handguns worth having based largely on what he's read. Not that they're bad choices. Anyway -- he's young.

After the show we were sitting around the table downing tacos and fries and talking guns. We wander onto the topic of handgun calibers and the kid asks me, "What is the deadliest bullet you could use?"

With barely a second hesitation I answered his question with an answer that surprised even me ---- "The one I hit you with."

Despite all the reading and debating and thought given to 147 grain or 115 grain or Speer or Federal, I was surprised that when it came down to it - without thinking -- my best, most gut, answer was the most practical.

He didn't get it at first but after some moments it began to sink in. I think gave him something to think about.
 
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Good answer :)

Sounds like you need to bring the boy around here ... he's in danger of becoming a Tactical Poser (which is slightly less annoying then a Mall Ninja or a Gunshop Commando ... but being a TP could be a step toward one of those worse gunnie stereotypes).

Plenty of good, solid info floating around here for him to soak up.
 
Kind of like the question that some soldier in every Airborne school class asks:

"Sergeant Airborne, if my main chute fails to deploy, how long to I have to activate the reserve?"

"The rest of your life, Airborne. The rest of your life."
 
When my dad taught us gun safety in Boy Scouts (and at home) he always started with the same question: Which is more deadly a .22 or a .30-'06?
 
I think gave him something to think about.
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And he will. He'll remember that simple reply for a long time.

When I was about his age I was pestering my Dad for some material thing he didn't think was necessary. He told me he never had one when he was my age.

I thought I had the perfect comeback:
"But Dad, don't you want me to have the things you never did?"

His simple reply will stick with me forever.
"Never had VD when I was a kid, don't want you to have that." :scrutiny:
 
It's going to be hilarious when his guidance consular asks "what do you want to be when you grow up ?" A SNIPER :what:


Wouldn't the deadliest bullet be dependent on distance, like this is deadly at point blank and this is deadliest at 20 feet ?
 
He turns his nose on the 22? :( That's O.K. in my book. :confused: Just let him practice by either dry firing or spending beau coup bucks on Federal Match ammo. Snobbery comes with a price and I'll betcha anything his allowance won't last one range session. :eek: Me, I can bang away with a brick of 22 LR, have a lot of fun and then shift to my customized HS Precision left handed Rem 700 or any other sniper rifle in my collection.

BTW, that's an excellent riposte you gave him. It's the shooter (man) and not the gun that makes a difference. I wouldn't want to go one shot w/my Rem 700 against a battle hardened Confederate sharpshooter who is equipped with a Whitworth (unless I got to bait him with bacon & beans cooking in the kettle).:p
 
Damn. I wasnt that bad, but close. I hate "waking up" sometimes. Everyone extolls the virtues of "book knowledge" and then laughs at you because you have no "feild knowledge," even though no one told you that they werent the same thing. Sort of like my uncle when I told him that when I go hunting, I aint shooting anything less than a 12pt. :scrutiny:

Just goes to show where the country is going. If emphasis were placed on getting "real world" experience as well as book knowledge, things would be so much better.:(
 
I had a Counter-Strike kid, or something like this in a class once.

In fact, kid's dad wanted him to take this course just so kid could see what actually firing a real handgun was like.

Kid was all about the .50 Desert Eagle, because that was the gun featured in the video game.

He fired the .22 no problem, but was a little taken aback by the recoil of even the 9mm.

The .45 auto was almost a religious experience for him, off hand came off the gun, gun hand went way high (only one round at a time at first).

But, after more teaching and practice, he could actually hit stuff with the .45.

Get the kid to a range with an instructor and have him shoot real guns.

It'll show him a whole new world.

hillbilly
 
Get the kid to a range with an instructor and have him shoot real guns.
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His Dad's a cop so I am banking on that keeping him humble. He's been to the range a couple of times with his Dad.

And I am an instructor so I'm going to get him to the range and begin his first lesson with the words --- forget everything you think you know.
 
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Good answer.
I wouldn't normally point out usage errors, but in this case it could elicit some unfortunate comments.
"elicit" - produce
"illicit" - illegal or immoral
 
I'm a self professed TP. but I started on an iron sighted 22 (a pre-64 single shot at that). and now I can hit, generally speaking, what I aim at. I'm only 19 but I can't stand when a kid wants a gun "because he saw it in the video game". my dad taught me to shoot safely, I'm glad this kid has someone to teach him. I can't afford to shoot all day with any rifle short of the 22 that I learned with. so open sights are what gets used. practice technique, practice, practice, practice. without it no one would ever get good. I think if this kid somehow ended up with a ruger 10/22 he might change his mind about the wimpy 22s. nothing quite like a hi-cap, heavy barrel, folding stock, scoped 22.

ps. get him to start posting on here and boards such as snipershide, he'll learn allot. I enjoy learning from the best.
 
He turns his nose up at iron sights
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He is swift to declare that the .22 is for p*ssies
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1. Does he put scopes on handguns too? Come to think of it snipers most of the time don't shoot at targets 1000 yards away...

2. Maybe you should mention to him that the .22 pistol is the perfele weapon of hitmen and people who do "wetwork". Beside more people die each year from the .22 rimfire then anything else.

Bill Meadows
 
I'm OT I guess, but in a similar vein with regards to skydiving:

New jumper: "How long do you have until you HAVE to pull the cord?"
Instructor: "The rest of your life."

Pretty much the same with a gunfight I guess.
 
Combat Wombat: Da AWP Pwns in CS lol! Da de4gle be da pwn4ge!

Reminds me of a very similar thing my hapkido instructor said:

We were talking after class about knife fights, and I said something like, "How long do I have to get my knife out if someone else goes for it?"

"The rest of your life"

Stuck with me...
 
He might still be too young to own his own firearms, but he is indeed old enough to learn. Perhaps this is the time to get this nonsense out of his head, and we've all seen it.

I went out to the range in Waterloo one afternoon with a bunch of guys, and a young kid, just to shoot beer cans and bowling pins. It was just supposed to be a nice, Sunday afternoon of plinking.

One guy had a SIG, and another gentleman had the same model. The dumb kid borrowed both, and tipping both 'gang bang style,' proceeded to fire 30 rounds at a bowling pin, and missed. With both slides still locked back, I walked up next to him with a Ruger 22/45, fired one shot, and knocked the pin over. As is the case with my friends, there were laughs and cat-calls.

But the kid came up privately to me a few minutes later, and asked how I did it. I questioned him on his sincerity to learn, and then taught him breathing and modified Weaver with the same Ruger. He was not a greeat shot, but by the end of the session, he could chase beer cans.

He was never the smart-alec kid to me or my wife from then on, and once shoveled my driveway without being asked.

Your teenager might benefit in a similar fashion.
 
One guy had a SIG, and another gentleman had the same model. The dumb kid borrowed both, and tipping both 'gang bang style,' proceeded to fire 30 rounds at a bowling pin, and missed. With both slides still locked back, I walked up next to him with a Ruger 22/45, fired one shot, and knocked the pin over. As is the case with my friends, there were laughs and cat-calls.
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I've had gotten into arguments with friends who thinks how fast and how many shots fired matter, only hits count.

Bill Meadows
 
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