Took a group of kids out shooting yesterday.....

[DustyGmt]

Took 6 kids out shooting yesterday on my uncles property, ages ranging from 12-17. I personally didn't do much shooting, very lil, only in a demonstration capacity, but after going and shooting 4 rounds of trap at my club, I drove about 30 miles north out to my uncles property where his girlfriend and her kids + a couple of the kids friends were present and wanted to learn a lil about shooting.

My uncle asked me to get up there and help facilitate safety and instruction since there was going to be a group of newbies. Don't get me wrong, if they become serious about shooting or carrying, etc they should definitely seek out a professional, but in terms of getting familiar with guns along with some basic gun handling/safety practices, they could do worse than me and my uncle.

Like I said, I didn't do much shooting but I got just as much enjoyment out of seeing the kids shoot and see them have a good time and give each other props for hitting the center of the target, etc... my uncle has a pretty nice setup, about a dozen steel swingers in a range of sizes and if any of you are familiar with the "odins eye" targets, that was the most popular target to shoot at. The center of the eye is a 6" steel circle that swings backwards and always swings back to the same spot each time.

We started them with .22lr rifles (10/22) and .22lr pistols (Kel Tec PMR30, ruger Mk, SR22, Glock 44, etc) and they were all tickled to get to shoot an array of guns. When my uncle and I decided to briefly interrupt the .22lr shooting with my Glock 9's and his Kimber .45 we saw the eyes get big, call of duty references were made and I could tell the boys were eager to get their paws on the "big guns" and try them. . They actually shot them impressively well, the odins eye target was about 45' away and they were pretty consistently ringing the 6" center plate. I got a chuckle out of how well the 15yo very small framed girl shot the .45 and wasn't seeming to be at all phased by the .45acp recoil.

They all had a great time, myself included and I did go through my own share of ammo but it was worth it and they all seemed to appreciate it and said thank you more than a few times.

I reflect on this and am hopeful that the next generation may not be completely doomed, especially knowing there are many, many others on this forum who are generous with their time and guns/ammo and do the same thing. Things don't look so good for the future of gun owners in this country but if we all can spare a few boxes of ammo and a lil bit of our time showing these kids, it could very well pay off.... I say jump at the opportunity to take a kid shooting or hunting, it's probably our best hope for preserving our thing.

 

[tark]

Amen.

 

[mokin]

Good job. I helped out with at the trap club today with 4H. It was good to see not only so many young shooters, but good shooters. Lots of adults there for support as well. I stopped at the range on my way back for some handgun practice and as I was finishing up a couple of vehicles pulled in with a bunch of kids. It was fun to see them excited to shoot. The youth are our future.

 

[rabid wombat]

Thank you!

 

[hso]

Good for you. Growing the community one new shooter at a time (or 3 or 6).

 

[Bugster]

A few years ago we had a pastoral family at our church who have a daughter, their oldest, who was completely convinced the liberal talking heads were right about guns. I had taken the pastor and his FIL and BIL to the range previously with great results. So on this occasion we took the pastor, his kids, FIL and BIL. We too started them off with the 22 LR's and worked up to a 38 Special and my 357 Magnum. We also had a couple of my rifles with us. At one point a friend arrived with his brother and a S&W 500 Magnum with an 8 inch barrel. The daughter and oldest son shot my 357 but they all balked at the S&W 500. By the time we left the pastors daughter had changed her mind about legally owned guns, including my SKS. Success!

 

[EddieG54]

Although ammo is expensive and hard to find I consider any ammo used teaching young folks how to handle firearms an investment in our future. Money well spent. Thank you.

 

[entropy]

The investment in our country's future, and the future of Shooting Sports, is well worth time and ammo invested. Good job, Dusty GMT!

 

[doubleh]

Good for you. Keep up the good work. The sport needs all the safe new shooters it can get.

 

[FROGO207]

Taking a new shooter or group of them is a cornerstone in the 2A fight. Any time we can show someone that as a group firearms owners are just normal people that take personal responsibility seriously and have fun keeping our skills sharp is a good thing. It can add to our ranks and convince fence sitters we are not the crazies that mainstream media make us out to be, but rather the rational ones.
It can also normalize gun owners as a non threat.

 

[dave951]

Great, keep at it!

I’ve been instructing in muzzleloading all summer with the Scouts and will keep it up as long as possible. There is a severe shortage in certified muzzleloading instructors and we’re working to ease that.

 

[Legionnaire]

@DustyGmt, well done. I was a certified hunter safety instructor when I lived in NY state and always enjoyed the segment where we got the kids hands on with .22 rifles and 20 gauge shotguns. None of the other guys enjoyed that session but I did. Always fun to help the youngsters handle firearms safely. Those that listened to instruction invariably did well, and the smiles after hitting the targets were priceless. Good on ya.

 

[DustyGmt]

Taking a new shooter or group of them is a cornerstone in the 2A fight. Any time we can show someone that as a group firearms owners are just normal people that take personal responsibility seriously and have fun keeping our skills sharp is a good thing. It can add to our ranks and convince fence sitters we are not the crazies that mainstream media make us out to be, but rather the rational ones.
It can also normalize gun owners as a non threat.

Agreed. I could tell the mother (my uncles woman) was unfamiliar with guns and may have had some reservations about her kids taking it up, my uncle worked that out somehow .

But she participated and seemed to enjoy herself right along with the kids. I did notice though, when I was going through my range bag and had some loose .223's rolling around she saw them and asked which gun they went to. I told her it was a .223 and they were for my AR15. She kind of made eyes, like just the utterance of "AR15" triggers a reaction in people who've only heard it used in certain contexts.

That's why it's important to educate and expose people to it I think. When we made our way back up to my uncles house he took his AR out of the safe for a minute to ask my input on something and the kids got a glimpse of an AR first hand and they were definitely intrigued.

 

[FROGO207]

I have used my Mini 14 first to get some used to the round. Then pull out the AR and take some rounds out of the MAG and put them into the AR MAG then insert it and let them fire the AR. Then explain they are the exact same thing. One time a guy was "but but the big clip" so I fished out a 30 round Mini 14 MAG and put it in the Mini and said "see, same thing" then he got it LOL.

 

[dave951]

I know many shooters today look down on black powder and muzzleloading as that crazy old uncle kept locked in the attic, but it's a fundamental part of shooting history and really fun if introduced the right way. A group of us North South Skirmish Association members decided to work on the short supply of instructors. I've done several posts on this on muzzleloading boards and others. Problem is, it doesn't get the traffic all the pew pew guys get playing with their ARs. So here it is guys, muzzleloading instruction being done with kids at a Scout camp.


Prior to hitting the firing line, there's a safety brief and a short history lesson on the gun being shot. In this case, it's an 1863 Remington aka "Zouave" in 58cal and yes, we'll be shooting minies and yes, these guns are fairly accurate, like 3moa.



We work on shooting fundamentals with the kids. With this shooter, we have most of the fundamentals being done correctly, he was bad to lift his head during the shot. Notice his head is a bit up off the stock.



Age was no problem. We came equipped so even small kids could shoot. Here the shooter is an 11yo girl, the daughter of a Scout leader. She wanted to shoot and I'll never tell a kid no. She's shooting a 50cal White Mountain carbine and was a crack shot. She wanted to shoot muskets so we moved her over to the bench with a musket. She asked if she could cut the wire holding her brother's target. Why of course! Four shots later, four targets on the ground. This little girl could shoot and she had the visual acuity to actually see the wires on the targets at this distance.


We have one more session coming up this week at the local camp. This summer has been a bit abbreviated due to the plague but regardless, kids need to get time at the range.

 

[DustyGmt]

I know many shooters today look down on black powder and muzzleloading as that crazy old uncle kept locked in the attic, but it's a fundamental part of shooting history and really fun if introduced the right way. A group of us North South Skirmish Association members decided to work on the short supply of instructors. I've done several posts on this on muzzleloading boards and others. Problem is, it doesn't get the traffic all the pew pew guys get playing with their ARs. So here it is guys, muzzleloading instruction being done with kids at a Scout camp.


Prior to hitting the firing line, there's a safety brief and a short history lesson on the gun being shot. In this case, it's an 1863 Remington aka "Zouave" in 58cal and yes, we'll be shooting minies and yes, these guns are fairly accurate, like 3moa.
View attachment 1014242


We work on shooting fundamentals with the kids. With this shooter, we have most of the fundamentals being done correctly, he was bad to lift his head during the shot. Notice his head is a bit up off the stock.
View attachment 1014243


Age was no problem. We came equipped so even small kids could shoot. Here the shooter is an 11yo girl, the daughter of a Scout leader. She wanted to shoot and I'll never tell a kid no. She's shooting a 50cal White Mountain carbine and was a crack shot. She wanted to shoot muskets so we moved her over to the bench with a musket. She asked if she could cut the wire holding her brother's target. Why of course! Four shots later, four targets on the ground. This little girl could shoot and she had the visual acuity to actually see the wires on the targets at this distance.
View attachment 1014244

We have one more session coming up this week at the local camp. This summer has been a bit abbreviated due to the plague but regardless, kids need to get time at the range.

Excellent. I wish I'd kept the few BP pistols I had, the one ML I have is busted and no parts seem to be available for it. I've missed a couple good deals due to hesitation and my interest, like others, is definitely concentrated on CF firearms but I would like to dip a toe back into that realm.

I shot muzzleloaders a couple times as a kid and loved the big boom and accompanying cloud and smell. I recall the couple times I shot I was young, it was kind of overcast, cold and dead fall air, a lil fog along with the gunsmoke, made me think I had traveled back in time to the 19th century, like it was olden times or something. Made an impression, could be part way responsible for my growing up and being a "gun guy".

Great to see young kids involved in this particular aspect of shooting. I imagine it teaches them alot more about accuracy and trigger discipline, recoil management vs. BANG, bang, bang, bang........

Great to see.

 

[dave951]

How's this for smoke? N-SSA Nationals firing line in Winchester VA. We shoot as 8 man teams and this firing line will hold 73 teams at once. Note this is just position 18.



And one more thing we do to make smoke, we also compete in live artillery fire. Ain't no blanks here, that's a 3in Ordnance Rifle firing real ammunition. My team competes with a 6lb rifled howitzer.

 

[stillquietvoice]

Took 6 kids out shooting yesterday on my uncles property, ages ranging from 12-17. I personally didn't do much shooting, very lil, only in a demonstration capacity, but after going and shooting 4 rounds of trap at my club, I drove about 30 miles north out to my uncles property where his girlfriend and her kids + a couple of the kids friends were present and wanted to learn a lil about shooting.

My uncle asked me to get up there and help facilitate safety and instruction since there was going to be a group of newbies. Don't get me wrong, if they become serious about shooting or carrying, etc they should definitely seek out a professional, but in terms of getting familiar with guns along with some basic gun handling/safety practices, they could do worse than me and my uncle.

Like I said, I didn't do much shooting but I got just as much enjoyment out of seeing the kids shoot and see them have a good time and give each other props for hitting the center of the target, etc... my uncle has a pretty nice setup, about a dozen steel swingers in a range of sizes and if any of you are familiar with the "odins eye" targets, that was the most popular target to shoot at. The center of the eye is a 6" steel circle that swings backwards and always swings back to the same spot each time.

We started them with .22lr rifles (10/22) and .22lr pistols (Kel Tec PMR30, ruger Mk, SR22, Glock 44, etc) and they were all tickled to get to shoot an array of guns. When my uncle and I decided to briefly interrupt the .22lr shooting with my Glock 9's and his Kimber .45 we saw the eyes get big, call of duty references were made and I could tell the boys were eager to get their paws on the "big guns" and try them. . They actually shot them impressively well, the odins eye target was about 45' away and they were pretty consistently ringing the 6" center plate. I got a chuckle out of how well the 15yo very small framed girl shot the .45 and wasn't seeming to be at all phased by the .45acp recoil.

They all had a great time, myself included and I did go through my own share of ammo but it was worth it and they all seemed to appreciate it and said thank you more than a few times.

I reflect on this and am hopeful that the next generation may not be completely doomed, especially knowing there are many, many others on this forum who are generous with their time and guns/ammo and do the same thing. Things don't look so good for the future of gun owners in this country but if we all can spare a few boxes of ammo and a lil bit of our time showing these kids, it could very well pay off.... I say jump at the opportunity to take a kid shooting or hunting, it's probably our best hope for preserving our thing.

Good on you for furthering our sport. I have to get my grandchildren out again.

How's this for smoke? N-SSA Nationals firing line in Winchester VA. We shoot as 8 man teams and this firing line will hold 73 teams at once. Note this is just position 18.
View attachment 1014255


And one more thing we do to make smoke, we also compete in live artillery fire. Ain't no blanks here, that's a 3in Ordnance Rifle firing real ammunition. My team competes with a 6lb rifled howitzer.
View attachment 1014256

Looks like fun.

Nothing like the cloud over a battle field from hundreds, thousands of muskets firing. Had lots of practice teaching other cw reenactors safe handling, loading, and shooting muzzle loaders. Though not a certified instructor, was 9th battalion safety officer.

 

[Spats McGee]

Good for you, @DustyGmt! We as a community need to do more in terms of this kind of outreach.

 

[JTHunter]

Age was no problem. We came equipped so even small kids could shoot. Here the shooter is an 11yo girl, the daughter of a Scout leader. She wanted to shoot and I'll never tell a kid no. She's shooting a 50cal White Mountain carbine and was a crack shot. She wanted to shoot muskets so we moved her over to the bench with a musket. She asked if she could cut the wire holding her brother's target. Why of course! Four shots later, four targets on the ground. This little girl could shoot and she had the visual acuity to actually see the wires on the targets at this distance.
View attachment 1014244

Good for her ! More female shooters = more shooters & more females interested !

 

[DMW1116]

I was able to coach a younger guy at the range a couple weeks ago and got him almost completely inside the bullseye of a Dirty Bird 8” target with his Savage bolt action 22. I wanted to try it, as a bolt 22 is on my list, so I offered to trade a shot of his for a shot of my A4 clone. He was surprised the recoil was so light, and now I want a Savage MkII. I also showed him how the A4 uses bullets the same diameter as his 22, just going faster. He was surprised they were so close. He nearly hit the bullseye with an iron sighted rifle on his try. Were it not for the sight height of that rifle, he probably would have.