I will be teaching a cousin Firearms safety soon. . .

[Gun Geezer]

In the 4H shotgun shooting program, we teach MATS to kids for safety. It is an easy anocronym to remember and it works:

M: Stands for muzzle. Keep it pointed in a safe direction at all times.
A: Stands for action. Keep it open at all times (works for shotguns) so everyone on the range can know it is unloaded and won't fire.
T: Stands for trigger. Keep you bugger pick off the bang switch until you are ready to shoot.
S: Stands for Safety. Keep it ON. It is a mechanical device that can fail, thus remember M, A, and T.

Like I said, it works real well for younger kids. They remember MATS

 

[Blackcat602]

I think new shooters should, if at all possible, start with long guns. I like starting people on shotguns and .22's. The .22 is good for trigger control, low recoil, and aiming/hitting. Shotguns are fun (bird/target loads), easy to hit with, and pretty easy battery of arms. Both are fairly inexpensive to feed. Shooters I have known, that start with big blast and recoil have a hard time overcoming those initial reactions. Far to many people think it's funny to hand a novice a cannon and watch their reaction. I have spent months with people (weekend shooting only) trying to fix flinches, timid/bad trigger pulls, and poor stance because someone wanted a laugh or "thought they could handle it." Good luck.

 

[Cryogaijin]

Good point on the flinch issue. I have no idea what my cousin's recoil tolerance is, though he's a bit on the pudgy side, so he does have some mass to help absorb it.

 

[Trent]

Start new shooters with small calibers (22LR is perfect). Work them in to the bigger stuff. They can't learn everything they need to when they are afraid of the mule that's about to kick them when they pull the trigger.

Good excuse to buy a "mouse fart" gun. They're useful for training kids (only reason I even own 22's is for teaching rifles...).

I teach NRA basic rifle courses; boil that first lesson down in to a mini-course.

Teach safety rules
Teach loading / unloading safely
Teach what squibs, hangfires, and stoppages are, and what to do about them.
Practice loading/unloading safely (with dummy ammo if you have it, otherwise do it at the range with the muzzle pointed downrange)
Teach safety rules again
Explain sight alignment, sight picture, hold control, trigger control, and followthrough
Teach benchrest, fire the first shots from a supported position
Explain the 5 fundamentals again
Teach standing position, prone, kneeling, and sitting positions
Don't worry about groups, just focus on safe operation and those 5 fundamentals!

 

[rsnell]

He should take a firearms course recongnized by the state where he lives. Upon successful completion of the course, he will receive a certificate. Most states require a firearms safety certicate to purchase a hunting license. If your are not a qualified instructor, he will not get a certifiate.

Most of the basic instruction can be done without going to a range. It would be a good idea to obtain a copy of his state's manual used to teach firearms safety. With this manual you will be able to teach what the state requires. Limit the shooting to a 22 rifle. If you are going to introduce him to shotgun shooting, start on the skeet range at low house 7.

 

[Cryogaijin]

He should take a firearms course recongnized by the state where he lives.

He should, yes. But until he has his own income that isn't going to happen. Me taking him out now makes it so he isn't getting bad info from friends, or worse, getting into guns with friends without a clue.

 

[Deep Fried]

I'm curious as to, how excited he is, and how big is he? You mentioned his mother wanting to get back into shooting after a long time. So is this range trip something he brought up or her?

When I was 16 I weighed 200lbs and although .22s are fun, they got boring fast and I toughed it out shooting .308. Once you've seen he is safe handling it may or may not be right to introduce the 06 and 12 gauge, depending on his attitude.

My 1 cent.

 

[Resist Evil]

I agree with everyone here who suggests starting small caliber and with limited firearm choices.

Of the guns you have available, which one does he want to shoot? I believe a kid his age has in his mind one or more firearms he is drawn to most especially, from his exposure to TV, movies, or video games. Ask him. Do you have it or something similar? You can use that firearm as a reward for him to shoot as you near the end of your session for his paying attention and obedience to safety.

The other approach would be to let him shoot his grail as the first firearm in the shooting portion of your session to clear his system of it, so he can focus on everything else you want to teach him while at the line.

 

[Cryogaijin]

Probably either my Saiga 12 or Saiga .308. The 12 is out of the question as it has a Slidefire on it at the moment. I'm kinda leery about bringing either Saiga out, as I honestly don't really want it getting back to my parents that I have "evil black guns." They're Anti, but don't complain as long as they only think I have a hunting rifle and marksman .22

 

[Frank Ettin]

I'm with a group of instructors putting on a monthly NRA Basic Handgun class. Probably 80% to 90% of our students had never touched a real gun before. Our class enrollment run 20% to 40% female. We have students of all ages from early 20s to us more seasoned types. We've had entire families attend together. Most of our student show varying levels of anxiety at handling real guns.

We try to address this by bringing them through the course material in a step-by-step, measured and supportive way.

In addition to the core lectures, we do a lot of "hands-on" work with the students. The students handle a variety of revolvers and semi-autos under direct supervision, one-on-one, of an instructor. They use dummy rounds to load and unload the guns, dry fire and generally learn how things work and feel, and they get continual safety reinforcement.

These initial hands-on exercises help students get familiar with handling gun and lay a foundation for safe gun handling habits. The students begin to realize that although guns can be dangerous they can learn how to handle them safely and that safety is in their hands.

Then in preparation for live fire, and after the "marksmanship" lecture, we work one-on-one with students on grip and stance using "blue" inert training guns.

Before going to live fire with .22s, the students shoot airsoft (the quality type) in the classroom so they can get a feel for sight alignment and trigger control (and reset) without the noise and intimidation factor (for beginners) of firing real ammunition.

After the students fire their 25 rounds of .22 (working one-on-one with an instructor), we put out a variety of guns from 9mm to .44 Magnum so the students can get the experience of firing the larger calibers. Shooting the centerfire guns is at each student's option. Most fire them all, but some choose not to.

When someone has gone through our program, it's not uncommon for her/him to be shooting 1.5 to 2.0 inch groups at seven yards with the heavy calibers. A few months ago, a petite young woman who had never fired any type of gun before out shot everyone, including her husband, with the .44 Magnum -- putting three rounds into about an inch at 7 yards.