Teach a Frenchman to shoot?

[pete f]

We had a nice french kid stay with my son all last summer. Nice kid, son called him "Fes" all summer long. "Fes" turned out to like going to baseball games, waterskiing and sailing. Had never shot a gun before, I sent an email to his dad asking if he would object and he said go for it. One thing i did was tell him that tapping him on the head meant FREEZE. His father spoke and read english very well and I sent that to his father for him to relay back to his son that when we went out shooting, If i tapped him on the head it meant freeze. Worked very well, I would stand behind him and to the side and would let him get set to go, thumbs up was a go and tap his head meant stop. IN a couple of afternoons in the sand pit he got to shoot close to twenty different guns, from clays to AR to .22's and finally a .44 mag. Videoed a lot of it and sent a copy of the tape back home with him. He really picked up the ideas very fast that he was supposed to keep it fun but playing was not allowed. When he got home, of all the things he had done, his favorite was shooting the .44 mag. Every shot was BANG HEEEEhhahahahhahaha just a squeal of joy and then laughter, he just thought it was the best.

If you take your new friend, bring a Video, MAKE sure you make a firm rule that one thing means FREEZE. That will pervent a lot of mistakes. Not just safety mistakes, but shooting with his "ears" up, or not having the stock up tight to his shoulder. keep it fun. do not try to scare him or think it will be funny to drop a 3 1/2 inch super slug in the 2 3/4 bird shot.

 

[Limeyfellow]

Try looking for gun safety rules done by a Canadian range or the Canadian governments. These should be in both English and French.

 

[wingnutx]

Try looking for gun safety rules done by a Canadian range or the Canadian governments. These should be in both English and French.

Now that is a great idea.

 

[Nick_90]

These are the four rules in French:

TOUTES LES ARMES SONT TOUJOURS CONSIDEREES COMME CHARGEES

NE JAMAIS POINTER LE CANON DE SON ARME SUR QUELQUE CHOSE QUE L'ON NE VEUT PAS DETRUIRE

LAISSER L'INDEX EN DEHORS DE LA DETENTE TANT QUE LE GUIDON N'EST PAS SUR LA CIBLE

ETRE SUR DE SA CIBLE

Copy them on a small piece of cardboard and give it to him to learn by heart... That's how I dit with my girlfriend and it worked out fine...

 

[CannonFodder]

I'll be doing this very same thing in a few months. One of my best friends from my stint in France is coming over, and she's never even seen a gun in her life. I suggested that she go shooting with me just so she could experience the 2nd Amendment for the first time in her life.

She was all for it.

Luckily, she teaches English for a living, so explaining the 4 holy rules is going to be easy.

When I was teaching in France, my students did ask me a lot "do you own a gun." Sadly, that was before I was a gun owner. A few of their families owned rifles, but that's about it.

It's too bad. Well, at very least, we can try to introduce them to the sport one person at a time.

 

[BerettaNut92]

I think some European guns (Benelli? Beretta?) may have safety rules printed with pictures in multiple languages. I'll dig through mine and see what I can see.

Have fun!!

 

[BerettaNut92]

Hold up a second.

Do you know any French college girls? In California?

 

[iShootStraight]

We had a nice french kid stay with my son all last summer. Nice kid, son called him "Fes" all summer long. "Fes" turned out to like going to baseball games, waterskiing and sailing. Had never shot a gun before, I sent an email to his dad asking if he would object and he said go for it. One thing i did was tell him that tapping him on the head meant FREEZE. His father spoke and read english very well and I sent that to his father for him to relay back to his son that when we went out shooting, If i tapped him on the head it meant freeze. Worked very well, I would stand behind him and to the side and would let him get set to go, thumbs up was a go and tap his head meant stop. IN a couple of afternoons in the sand pit he got to shoot close to twenty different guns, from clays to AR to .22's and finally a .44 mag. Videoed a lot of it and sent a copy of the tape back home with him. He really picked up the ideas very fast that he was supposed to keep it fun but playing was not allowed. When he got home, of all the things he had done, his favorite was shooting the .44 mag. Every shot was BANG HEEEEhhahahahhahaha just a squeal of joy and then laughter, he just thought it was the best.

If you take your new friend, bring a Video, MAKE sure you make a firm rule that one thing means FREEZE. That will pervent a lot of mistakes. Not just safety mistakes, but shooting with his "ears" up, or not having the stock up tight to his shoulder. keep it fun.

Well done!!
I'm sure he'll remember that the rest of his life.

 

[gm]

my stepfather is from france,he was speechless when I showed him my small collection.he shot better than I did that day and also gave me a historical lesson on the nazi occupation of his country during ww2,as we took out an old 1911.

to think I thought he didnt know much,goes to show anyone can surprise you with their knowledge.