This weekend, I went camping with my family. We invited another family, who are close friends, to come with. Since the other family has never been shooting before, I offered to teach them. They agreed.
The people I taught consisted of 4 of their teenage children and the father. They had no firearms experience of any kind, so I was interested to see how things would work out. I explained the 4 rules to them on the way to the range, so that at least they would know that much when we got there.
The firearms that I chose to teach them on were two 9mm handguns first (CZ P-01 & Taurus PT92) and then a Romanian AK. I know, I'm breaking the trend of people introducing others to firearms with .22 handguns but I don't own any so I didn't have a choice.
I started by having each of them load up one cartridge into the magazine, reinforcing all safety rules as they shot. They all inevitably broke a few, mainly because they turned around after the shot with a look of astonishment, swinging the empty handgun around as they did so. Since only one round was loaded and shot, nobody was really "unsafe", but guns are always loaded, right? We then continued to two rounds each and then a contest which consisted of shooting 5 shots into a target at about 20 yards. This made it fun since each of them got to keep their target and compare scores. They all did really well and obeyed the safety rules after their initial unintentional infractions.
Then, we moved onto the AK. The teenage boys that were in the group really enjoyed this one. The girls, no so much. The recoil wasn't bad but the gun was just scary looking, which made it hard for the girls to get the will to shoot it. Everyone took their turn and took a few shots, though.
As a finale, my dad had set up 10 or so coke cans on the berm for us to shoot at. I let them pick one and take as many shots as it took until they hit it, their choice of firearm. The guys ended up shooting the AK and the girls, the PT92.
All in all, everyone had a great time. It wasn't an intense session, just a brief intro to firearms. I think that if I invited them to come over and shoot again, that they would come. Hopefully the father will want to learn more and purchase a few firearms for himself to shoot with his family. At least now everyone is familiar with what a firearm can and cannot do and knows how to safely handle one if need be.
So this goes out to all of you guys. Teach others how to shoot! I know that many of you do, but ammo is cheap and our rights to bear arms is not. We need to spread the word.
BTW, I brought about 300 rounds of 9mm and 200 of 7.62. We only ended up shooting about 100 9mm and 40 7.62 rounds in over an hour and a half, most of the time spent teaching them how to safely use the firearms; a very cheap investment to get others interested in shooting.
(I'd post pics but I don't want to post pictures online of people without getting their approval first)
The people I taught consisted of 4 of their teenage children and the father. They had no firearms experience of any kind, so I was interested to see how things would work out. I explained the 4 rules to them on the way to the range, so that at least they would know that much when we got there.
The firearms that I chose to teach them on were two 9mm handguns first (CZ P-01 & Taurus PT92) and then a Romanian AK. I know, I'm breaking the trend of people introducing others to firearms with .22 handguns but I don't own any so I didn't have a choice.
I started by having each of them load up one cartridge into the magazine, reinforcing all safety rules as they shot. They all inevitably broke a few, mainly because they turned around after the shot with a look of astonishment, swinging the empty handgun around as they did so. Since only one round was loaded and shot, nobody was really "unsafe", but guns are always loaded, right? We then continued to two rounds each and then a contest which consisted of shooting 5 shots into a target at about 20 yards. This made it fun since each of them got to keep their target and compare scores. They all did really well and obeyed the safety rules after their initial unintentional infractions.
Then, we moved onto the AK. The teenage boys that were in the group really enjoyed this one. The girls, no so much. The recoil wasn't bad but the gun was just scary looking, which made it hard for the girls to get the will to shoot it. Everyone took their turn and took a few shots, though.
As a finale, my dad had set up 10 or so coke cans on the berm for us to shoot at. I let them pick one and take as many shots as it took until they hit it, their choice of firearm. The guys ended up shooting the AK and the girls, the PT92.
All in all, everyone had a great time. It wasn't an intense session, just a brief intro to firearms. I think that if I invited them to come over and shoot again, that they would come. Hopefully the father will want to learn more and purchase a few firearms for himself to shoot with his family. At least now everyone is familiar with what a firearm can and cannot do and knows how to safely handle one if need be.
So this goes out to all of you guys. Teach others how to shoot! I know that many of you do, but ammo is cheap and our rights to bear arms is not. We need to spread the word.
BTW, I brought about 300 rounds of 9mm and 200 of 7.62. We only ended up shooting about 100 9mm and 40 7.62 rounds in over an hour and a half, most of the time spent teaching them how to safely use the firearms; a very cheap investment to get others interested in shooting.
(I'd post pics but I don't want to post pictures online of people without getting their approval first)
