Teaching, and the Four Rules

[Kleanbore]

We often speak about the importance of trainers' aptitude for teaching.

Read this and see if you can use any of it. Or just enjoy it.

Fifty years ago this summer, I put some rifles in the trunk and went back into the house to fill a canteen. When I came back out, the eleven year old boy who lived across the street was in the passenger seat. He had interpreted something I had said to his mother as an invitation to take him shooting.

Okey dokey.

On the way out, I handed him a ball point pen with advertising on it and asked him to read both sides. The conversation went like this:

• At how many people have you pointed that pen?
• No, not just people right next to us--include the truckers coming the other way, and the folks at the gas station.
• If that were a gun, you would have endangered every one of them.
• Have you ever seen a watermelon that has been dropped and broken? That's what your head....

I was obviously making an impression, and I got some unexpected help.. As I turned off into the Busch Wildlife Preserve to go to the range, an ambulance was pulling out. They were finishing dog training, and a youngster had blown off one of his toes with a shotgun blank while resting the muzzle on his shoe.

I said "let's see if there are any bone fragments in the gravel". He was shaking.

At the range, I sat down next to Danny and handed him one .22 LR cartridge at a time to load into my old Remington 12C. I didn't get any shooting in that day--or the next time.

Years later, I called to talk to my now adult friend. He was out with his son with a new air rifle.

His wife said "You wouldn't believe what he made Jacob go through. He sat him down with a ball point pen....and then they went outside with a watermelon...".

Dan called the other day. He had just bought his grandson a Red Ryder BB gun.

I had one when I was eight years old.

 

[AlexanderA]

Good story. If only all gun owners, when just starting out, had such a stress on safety. Alas, the vast majority don't.

 

[jmorris]

My Father used an old 5 gallon gas can that had a hole rusted into the bottom so it was useless for gas. Filled it up with pond water and shot it with my Grandmothers 8mm Mauser. Point taken.

Hydraulics in shooting has interested me ever since. I still marvel at the unique destruction.

 

[Spats McGee]

I haven't taken any real "youngsters" to the range, but I have taken a couple of our daughter's boyfriends out. I don't try to scare them, but I do stress the reality of the situation. As in, "We're going to go shoot. Understand this: If you really mess up, really bad things could happen." And if they can't tell me the rules, they don't get to shoot. (I haven't actually had that happen yet, because Little Miss McGee drills them on the Four Rules. And let's face it: These boys have a pretty girl insisting that they learn the rules. I was a teenage boy once upon a time, and I would have memorized The Iliad for a pretty girl!)

 

[Kleanbore]

Dan tells me that that was the best safety lesson he has ever had on any subject.

I have been swept by the muzzles of guns in the hands of people who can recite the four rules without a hick-up.

 

[BreechFace]

Thanks @Kleanbore, it's always good to have this impressed on those of us in the midst of raising youngster shooters. A watermelon with a hole cored in the top, filling the extra space with water makes for an exciting illustration of the destruction a high powered rifle can exhibit on fluid filled objects. The kids don't need to know that a 22LR can't achieve that amount of destruction, just remember in their minds what that watermelon looks like after said illustration.

 

[HowardC]

Or, if you're so located, go prairie dog shooting with any center fire 22, etc. Even cottontail hunting gets the "dead" idea across. Also good time for first anatomy lesson. A cottontail isn't any different than a deer or elk., just smaller and not quite as bloody. Although, I s'pose for some kids/people, that might be a little extreme for the first go-round. And, it does take 3-4 rabbits for a good pan of hasenpfeffer.....
-West out

 

[GJeffB]

A little late to the party.
Depending on the age, I pull out a coin, any coin, and invite the trainee to damage it in any way, with any tool. Quarters work well. The yonker and I proceed to plug it with anything from .22 lr up. After taking the youngster's best effort with virtually anything, then seeing the damage from "just" (insert any cartridge), there's the realization of how much, how strong, how far a firearm cartridge can be there's usually a nodding stare.
Having said all that ... whatever object lesson is valuable as long as the message gets across, and the rules of safety are taught, and just as important, enforced. We, the learned, have the responsibility to transfer the knowledge for the enjoyment and SAFETY of all that express the interest. jmho

-jb

 

[Art30/30]

I have been working with my sons since they were very small. We started little single shot 22s. It is sooooo satisfying seeing them develop into these great shooters.