charleym3
Member
On Sunday, I took my son to his first IDPA match. He's closer to 11 than 10. He finally got enough strength to cycle the slide on my Glock 17 ESP gun and decided that he wanted to join in.
He had me run the timer for him on the first 4 stages. The squad SO ran him through the last two stages.
He had a few malfunctions due to riding his left thumb on the slide. He actually outperformed some of the much more seasoned shooters on each stage. On stage required hitting an 8 inch plate at 10 yards and a second 10 inch plate at 12. He got the first one on the first try. It took 3 shots for the second, but he had watched some others empty a magazine at the 12 yard plate.
He dropped some points and had one FTN, but he had fun. He wants to do it again. Can you see me smiling from where you are?
One interesting thing. After the match, while we were waiting for scores, he was playing his gameboy with another kid at the range. I walked by to check in with him and he looked up at me with a sudden look of surprise and said, "Dad, I'm armed". I said, "Yes. There's a lot of that at shooting matches. You can put your gear away if you want." He thought for a moment and said "Later." and went back to playing his gameboy. I think he became part of the gun culture at that moment.
Something odd and interesting happend that day. His Mom / My Wife, who thinks that using humanoid targets is a very bad thing to do came too. She planned on tollerating the militant survivalists that she was sure would be running all over the place in camo fatigues and face paint. She was actually surprised by the people that she met. You could never hope to have a better bunch of friends. Friendly, professional, compassionate, you all know the type. I think that if she can get her arthritus under control, she may decide to try it too. We'll see.
He had me run the timer for him on the first 4 stages. The squad SO ran him through the last two stages.
He had a few malfunctions due to riding his left thumb on the slide. He actually outperformed some of the much more seasoned shooters on each stage. On stage required hitting an 8 inch plate at 10 yards and a second 10 inch plate at 12. He got the first one on the first try. It took 3 shots for the second, but he had watched some others empty a magazine at the 12 yard plate.
He dropped some points and had one FTN, but he had fun. He wants to do it again. Can you see me smiling from where you are?
One interesting thing. After the match, while we were waiting for scores, he was playing his gameboy with another kid at the range. I walked by to check in with him and he looked up at me with a sudden look of surprise and said, "Dad, I'm armed". I said, "Yes. There's a lot of that at shooting matches. You can put your gear away if you want." He thought for a moment and said "Later." and went back to playing his gameboy. I think he became part of the gun culture at that moment.
Something odd and interesting happend that day. His Mom / My Wife, who thinks that using humanoid targets is a very bad thing to do came too. She planned on tollerating the militant survivalists that she was sure would be running all over the place in camo fatigues and face paint. She was actually surprised by the people that she met. You could never hope to have a better bunch of friends. Friendly, professional, compassionate, you all know the type. I think that if she can get her arthritus under control, she may decide to try it too. We'll see.
