G-Pa's & G-Ma's - Did you get your grandkids into shooting?

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Hokkmike

Hokkmike

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My son-in-law is a great guy. Hard worker, always rises his family good night including the 2 dogs, love football & racing.... Has respect for the Lord with I think is a good start.

Not a shooter though - never has as far as I know. Not in the family culture he was raised in.

I figure when each grandkid is about 10 years old I will ask him if he would mind if I took them shooting. My plan - .22, single shot rifle. His wife, my daughter, has never fired a gun either out of her own choice. I don't think either one is anti gun but they are both, of course, cautious with their kids.

So am I.

Any advice?
 
My 3 kids all own handguns. 2 have carry permits.
1 "that I know of" of my grandkids owns a long gun. 1 other of my grandkids has finished carry permit class but has not gotten it yet and does not yet own a gun.
My oldest Great Grandkids is 7 years old. I've talked to her about learning to shoot. I have permission from her parents to teach her. But, I do not feel she is ready.
My other Great Grandkids are younger and not ready.
 
My kids are both active in hunting and the shooting sports. I still take the grandkids shooting and hunting.
 
Not yet with the grandkids; still too young. But all 5 of the kids have gone shooting, at least a couple of times and all but one of them have their own guns; two of the girls are pretty good shooters too!
 
My oldest son is 16. He is working on Distinguished Expert in NRA Junior Smallbore and starting to take a strong interest in pistol too. I suspect any future Grandkids will be shooters too.
 
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Waiting on my two grand daughters to get big enough to shoot my .22 Remington. I got it when I was 8 or so. The older grand daughter is nearly big enough, 9 years old, soon. The younger one is tiny, might be a while yet, only 7. Both parents have permits, taught the older one to shoot a pellet rifle in the backyard, she's pretty good. I also have a Ruger single shot for some pistol work, I'm ready!
 
my oldest granddaughter now 16 has been shooting competitions for 10 years. middle granddaughter is the best rifle shot I know, but hates competitions.. the youngest is asking to go shooting so time to break out the pink savage rascal.
 
I have worked my way through kids, grandkids, and am now working on great grandkids. Only one, my youngest grandson hasn't taken to shooting like a duck to water. Having Asperger's syndrome he is very sensitive to loud noises and he can't take it even with good ear protection.
 
Not yet, but it's a goal. My oldest grand daughter is seven and lives 1,500 miles away. Plan to close that distance post retirement. All my kids enjoy shooting though most aren't really gun people. I expect I'll not get any resistance to teaching the young ones safety and skills.
 
Nope, daughter-in-law is a red-headed helicopter mom making sure the kids grow up to be just as ignorant as she is. Deemed the matching set of Red-Rider bb-guns were “inappropriate and dangerous “.

I gave them to neighbor kids.
 
Hokkmike said:
My son-in-law is a great guy. Hard worker, always rises his family good night including the 2 dogs, love football & racing.... Has respect for the Lord with I think is a good start.

Not a shooter though - never has as far as I know. Not in the family culture he was raised in.

I figure when each grandkid is about 10 years old I will ask him if he would mind if I took them shooting. My plan - .22, single shot rifle. His wife, my daughter, has never fired a gun either out of her own choice. I don't think either one is anti gun but they are both, of course, cautious with their kids.

So am I.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
I don't have any grand kids but my advice would be not to wait. Delflate the issue by taking every opportunity to take the SIL shooting or get involved in some way. Create a stronger bond there and let him SEE it is a safe activity. Get to know each other and make it something you both enjoy together. Then you can't miss with the grand kids.
 
doubleh said:
I have worked my way through kids, grandkids, and am now working on great grandkids. Only one, my youngest grandson hasn't taken to shooting like a duck to water. Having Asperger's syndrome he is very sensitive to loud noises and he can't take it even with good ear protection.
Click to expand...
Look into the new high end electronic muffs.
They work!
 
We taught 8 of our 9 grandkids to shoot at five years of age, using BB guns off the front porch, the youngest was too little and now shows no interest. We first used cardboard boxes, then ping pong balls, and then paintballs as targets. (Nearest house to the north is over a mile, with a stand of cottonwoods in between.) ONE AT A TIME! You're going to be looking down muzzles the first day or two. By the time they were about 12, we could trust them to take a Chipmunk out back and shoot into the berm. We could check on them through the window, but their gun handling was stellar.

Now the oldest are 21, so when one had leave from the Navy a couple summers ago, I let them shoot my M1 a bunch of times. It was a hit! My wife says I'm going to have to sell it before I die, because they all (including my son and two SILs), want it. I thought a better idea was to buy about 5-6 more so they all can have one! :)
 
I'm trying to. The oldest Granddaughter has no interest. The oldest Grandson took to it like a Duck to water. Its too soon to tell about the youngest Granddaughter and the two youngest Grandsons are showing some interest.
 
Take the SiL as well. Get dad interested and you are set.

As to my grandkids, I hope the makings are still rattling around inside him and his girlfriend.
 
I have a range of grandkids from 5-24 years. Most all have learned to shoot starting with a BB gun. The older kids have so much going on that they don’t get to shoot as often as we want. The younger kids still hang out with grandpa and we have a ball shooting my SW Model 10 as well as a Ruger 10/22.
The Red Ryder is still in the rotation as well.
 
Armored farmer said:
Look into the new high end electronic muffs.
They work!
Click to expand...

I have some pretty good ones already. The kid (he is 27 years old and I still call him a kid?) isn't interested. Aspies can be difficult to get to change their mind once they have it made up and his is made up on shooting. He is a pretty normal person except for noises, crowds, and being dead set in his opinion when he forms one.
 
my 16 year old grandson is under his mothers thumb.........no fishing, no shooting, no guns and cannot go outside hardly at all. She is a true wacko
 
Being only 22, don't have any kids. Grandad always owned guns, mosins, SKS's and all. But he's a prick of a gatekeeper. As such, I was never old enough for him to teach me.

Maybe my great grandfather would've, but he passed when I was 5. Have an uncle who would've loved to teach me how to shoot and hunt, but he's a heavy drinker, and I didn't feel safe around him anyhow.

I had nobody to teach me, so I taught myself. Until 2019, when I met B, but the Lord took him as well. B taught me everything he knew.

In a way, the fine folk here on THR have been akin to that grandad taking his grandchild to shoot. I've learnt a ton from y'all.
 
I haven't been around my granddaughters enough to teach them. However, my daughters like to shoot and the one with children has taught them. They don't get to shoot real guns much where they live, but make it a point to use their pellet guns on a regular bases. I will take them to the farm the next time that they come to visit. There we can shoot everything from rimfires to butt kickers.
 
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