Have you ever made a youngin's day with the help of firearms?

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john917v

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About a year ago, I was at my preferred public outdoor range, shooting. I had my .22LR, among a couple other long arms. I noticed a father with his 2 kids with him, a boy and a girl, about 6-8 years old. He was shooting centerfire rifles, and his kids and wife were there watching. I could tell his kids were getting pretty impatient, and bored. So, I offered that his kids were more than welcome to shoot my .22, so long as he supervised them, and made sure they were safe. He thought about it, and seemed to like the idea, telling me they had never shot a firearm. He asked them, and they both let out a hollering YES! So, they shot several rounds each, and I could tell they were having a blast. Hey, two new shooters isn't bad, huh? I'm 23 and it was a good feeling, so I can imagine how uncles, fathers, and grandfathers must feel. Anyone else have any stories with the new generation?
 
My dad and I took my littlest brother (in high school) shooting trap with 3 of his friends on his birthday. It was a blast.
 
Early Christmas.

The son of one of my hunting buddies was talking about all of the squirrels that he was killing when I noticed that his younger brother looked dejected. :( When I asked him if he had shot any he told me that he didn't have a gun.
When I got home I dug thru my stash and found a Wally World Special. It was a stainless Ruger 10/22 with the ugly birch stock. I had picked up the rifle at a yard sale for $30 and had planned on making a Challenger gun out of it. Then I found a synthetic stock in one of my other piles and pieced a nice rifle together. Even had a cheap Tasco to complete it. You should have seen that kids eyes light up when I gave him that gun. A $500 bill couldn't have made him any happier. Of course I had to come up with a brick of ammo, too. :D
 
there was a small group of boyscouts taking a shooting class at the range about 6 months back & i just happed to bring my 10,75x68mm mas36 sporting rifle with me that day. after they were done with the class i offered them each two rounds & they all jumped on it. cost me about $60 in ammo but it was worth it.
 
I am an elder uncle by marriage in an extended (?) Navajo family. A few years back I gave a scoped 223 to a nephew, and my wife gave turquoise jewlery to a niece for her Kinallah ceremony. At the time I thought the neice was just a touch envious of her older brother. In the meantime I came up with the 20guage single her sterfather grew up with. Trash condition, it took a 3 day soak to open action. I cut the barrell to 20" and recrowned. Cut the stockback past cracks, found walnut so I refinished completely, nice grain, added limbsaver. Then cammo painted barrell, action and braided a latigo sling. She was by her with grandfather, she's 15 now, and I gave her the gun (seemed like the thing to do) Her eyes lit up and I brought out buckhammers, 6 chill, #2 buck and 4 chill. She already had her junior hunter course completed. She left here with her grandfather and spent the next day in practice, two days later she had her first rabbit for dinner, one she shot, cleaned and cooked. When she left here her feet didn't seem to touch the ground. My wife says I have more fun restoreing and giving away than shooting and hunting. Best thing is I have just finished a handi 20 guage in the same fashion. Her younger sister seems to be intrested.

blindhari
 
We need to do all we can to get the younger generation into shooting. I was lucky to grow up in my time as guns & hunting were the norm. I love to see young kids into
shooting, It will change their life for the good ; ) PS I don't go to public ranges, I'm lucky
to have a huntig club range to use.
Y/D
 
I didn't get the chance initiate this, but I witnessed it and it was terrible fun to behold. We had the first gathering of concealed carry types in Kansas 4 years ago, shortly after the legislation allowing CC passed. One of the state senators who had help draft the original bill was there along with his 9 year old (at the time) daughter.

The range owner where we held the get-together owned an Armalite AR-50 single shot .50 BMG bolt gun and he had it out there at 10 bucks a pop for anyone that wanted to shoot it. The Senator's daughter said she wanted to try it, so the owner set it up and had them set up a target on the rifle range (85 yards was the max distance to the berm).

After he told her how to tightly shoulder it against the recoil (no worse than a 20 gauge shotgun), she sighted on the target and squeezed the first one off. I wish I had a video camera on her face when the target literally blew up in a fireball and big cloud of smoke! They had rigged it with a pound of Tannerite behind the bullseye and she drilled it!

That young lady was in seventh heaven. We all took up a collection to pay the range owner to let her shoot it all she wanted. I do believe she put at least 15 rounds down range and if her shoulder was the least bit sore, you sure couldn't tell it from the way she was acting.

Worth every penny we paid for that one!
 
We were set up on a Dog Town in South Dakota this last June when the landowner and his nephew dropped by to see how we were doing. The nephew was from Illinois and had never shot a rifle before. So we parked his butt on the bench and let him have at em. We let him shoot four different guns from .222 up to 25-06. That kid had a ball and his uncle was talking about getting him a .223 bolt rifle to leave at the ranch for him to use whenever he came to visit.
 
A few months back, my youngest and I were set up at our local range for an afternoon of shooting. About an hour after we got started, another dad and his son showed up with a brand new deer rifle. Since we had already been there a while and were plannin' on stickin' around for a while more, I told them we'd take a break while they sighted in the boy's new gun. Since they had only brought a paper plate for a target, I gave them one of our targets and let them use my bench and rest.(this is a small town sportsman club range....kinda bare essentials). The dad had brought only one box of shells and by the time he got the gun on paper for his son, there was only four shells left. The disappointment on the kid's face at spending the afternoon at the range and only getting to shoot his new gun 4 times was highlighted by his look of awe at the many boxes of reloaded ammo and the half a dozen handguns we had sittin' next to the bench. As the dad was packin' up, I told him I had some factory ammo for the Buckmark, the 686 and the 629, and if his son wanted to and if it was okay with him, they were welcome to shoot them. They spent the rest of the afternoon with us and I don't know who had more fun....the kid, his dad or us.
 
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Have you ever made a youngin's day with the help of firearms?
Click to expand...
Yes, a few times.

Just last Sunday four young boys (and a few "older boys") ran a bunch of ammo through my M2 Carbine.

There were a lot of WOW's and a whole lot of :D
 
Well, sort of...I did some time as a mailman.
One day I pased a house with a really dejected 5 year old sitting there with a jammed up capgun.

He offered it to me and I sez, "Lets see what we can do about this."

I sat down and cleared the jam and he was back in business.
I'll never forget his big grin and the thumbs up from his mom looking out the door.
 
I like to think so.

I was one of the first Kansas Hunter Safety Instructors when the program started here.

A whole lot of happy kids when they passed the course with flying colors!!

rc
 
Yep took my daughter and son to the range for some skeet. She's never shot skeet but little brother has. She did so-so till she got on station 8 and cleaned house! She was very proud and so was I. Although I was prouder when she asked "when can we do it again, I like skeet!"
 
I hope so. If there are kids around when I'm shooting a Garand, I usually let them have fun with a clip if they would like (as long as parents consent etc etc). They are usually amazed that it really "pings" like that. Without fail, they walk away with a smile on their face. (And some "older kids" aka regular guys seem to look a bit jealous they didn't get the same invite the kids did.)

One of my wife's coworker's sons thought it was pretty cool that I shoot pellet rifles in my basement, so he will come over one day soon to learn about gun safety and what fun plinking in the basement can be. Hopefully he will get the bug too.
 
I started taking my kids (3) to the range when they each were 4 years old. They were shooting BB guns then. Before each 7 they were shooting .22's and by the time they 10 they shooting shotguns and by 12 they were shooting centerfire rifles.

I so worked with 4-H Shooting Sports for 20 years and I also taught Hunter Ed for 25 years.

I've Never passed up a chance to teach a kid to shoot. And neither should anyone else.
 
love the look on someones face when you hand them a 30 round mag and just say burn em fast as you can
 
Hello friends and neighbors // Glad to hear so many great stories.

Nothing puts a smile on my face like placing a smile on someone elses and shooting is included.

Especially the young ones, wether it is letting them try one of my hand guns at the range or supplying shotguns and ammo for a day of skeet, I'm in.

Heck I just spent an extra $80.00 to get a two seater tree stand so we can bring out one more youngin for a youth deer hunt. I'm sure it will be worth every penny and at 6' 4" 250 lbs I can use the extra room anyway.

I have not given away any firearms, I bow to those that have, but I have sold them at a loss to help a friend fill a need. I will also loan them out if I know the parent is safe and responsible.

Helping our young folks safely enter the shooting world is never wasted time and definately "Strengthens the Arm of Liberty".
 
Some very good stories here. Wish I could claim one but both my nieces grew up ~200 mi. north of me and one has been living/working in Utah for a couple of years and just move to California (BIG mistake!). :eek: That one was never interested in guns though (sighs), and the other is a busy single parent.:(

Ya tah hay blindhari.
 
The first time I went to the shooting range, I got too excited and was a little loud. The guy next to me decided to shoot his 22 all over my target. So I guess someone did lend me their 22 when I was young. :neener:
 
This will help them want to start shooting real young;

IMG_1436.gif

http://www.henryrepeating.com/h005_minibolt.cfm

Model: Henry Mini-Bolt
H005 - black stock
H005S - orange stock
Action Type: Bolt Action
Caliber: .22 LR, .22 Short
Capacity: 1 round
Barrel Length: 16 1/4''
Length: 30 1/4'' Overall
Weight: 3 1/4 lbs.
Trig Pull: 4 lbs.
Stock: One piece fiberglass synthetic
Sights: Williams Fire Sights
Finish: Stainless steel receiver & barrel

MSR Price: $249.95* Usually @$199 most places.
 
I offered to take my neighbors boy scout group to the range and help them earn their merit badge for shooting. Most of the boys had never shot before so we made a pretty long day of it. The boys and even a few moms and dads got into shooting as well. They fired 25-30 rounds each of 20ga at some clays. Then we shot archery, pellet rifles, .22 rifles, and finally black powder. We spent 6 hours at a closed range just for us. 5 or the 11 boys signed up for hunter safety on the spot. During the August class these boys were telling everyone that would listen how that guy that teaches archery took them on a day of shooting.
 
Kids + GUNS...

= lots of smiles. I am a learning reloader(and self described brass hoarder). Went to range to test some new handloads and just shoot on a beautiful day. I brought 7 guns with me, but before I even unloaded anything I was amazed at the site in front of me. The entire range was empty, both pistol and rifle side, and the ground was COVERED in bright shiny brass. I took a 3 gallon bucket and filled it to the top with brass.
Then I started carrying my stuff to the rifle side. Two dads showed up, one with a daughter and one with a son. The boy had an old bolt action .22 and open sights. The daughter had a Ruger .223 semi. I was next to them and a guy with a .50 BMG was at the end. We joked around about the .50 covering us if any APCs showed up.
The daughter was a little intimidated by the ranch rifle, so I asked her father if she wanted to shoot my little semi .22 I have lots of ammo. He said no, he didnt want to shoot up my ammo. I asked if he reloaded and he said no he just throws the brass in the dumpster...... REALLY?? I would trade him all the .22 rounds she could shoot for his once fired brass. He said he felt like he was taking advantage of me. She could empty the 10 round mag at 50 yrds into the black every time with open sights. The other shooter, the boy, saw me take my AR out of the case and asked if that was an M16? I said it was like an M16 but was semi-auto and shot the same round. I showed him the gun, ammo, mags. He was very wide eyed. I asked his dad if it was alright if I let him shoot it. He was a little unsure but I showed him I would only load 1 round in the mag and load it for him. The boy shot it and placed the bullet exactly in the 10 ring. I showed him the shot in my spotting scope. He was smiling from ear to ear. I asked dad if he could shoot it more and his dad said I dont want my son shooting up all your ammo. I said it is reloads and I am testing how well they feed and cycle the action, and dont care if it is me pulling the trigger or his son. I loaded 20 and said shoot all you want, be safe. He finished them with steady, accurate shots and handed me the empty rifle, barrel down and finger off of the trigger, safety on. He asked his dad if he could have one of those for his birthday(next month)!!
When I left the girl handed me a a box of .223 brass and gave me a very hearty handshake. She said she was very thankful she could shoot the .22.
The dad said thank you too and we exchanged phone numbers because he wants to learn about re-loading.
I was smiling all day... and it was more about the kids shooting than all that brass.
Tim
 
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