Which Guns to Take to the Range with Brand New Shooters

[Sunray]

Like straightshooterjake says, five FNG's, by yourself, will be a handful. Suggest you get at least one other experienced shooter who has some teaching experience to go with you too. The other guy needs teaching experience so very likely when, not if, one of them thinks he's 'A natural shot' he won't get PO'd. Absolutely necessary with handguns. Mostly about the length of 'em. One guy has a jam or whatever and turns towards you with a loaded firearm. Happens on military ranges too. Knew a guy who had a loaded, jammed Sterling SMG pointed at him.
It's an excrement load of different calibres too. Eight calibres is a bunch of logistics. Get expensive too.
You may want to think about a second day vs everything at once. Say a rimfire day followed by a cf day. Or rimfire only in the morning with a cf afternoon.
"...Store brand full soda cans..." Pop cans may not be allowed on a club or private commercial range. Lotta fun, but not as much as 48 oz. tomato juice cans. snicker

 

[shafter]

Looks like a fun collection to me! If it isn't fun they won't come back. Start with some clear safety rules and start with the 22's and work up. Let them fire the heavy stuff if they want to after they've been exposed to enough to know that not all guns kick like a mule and if they get a bruise it won't turn them off guns altogether.

 

[Hardtarget]

May I chime in? Get some help from a good, safe, seasoned shooter. You'll be glad to have extra eyes and safety thinking. I'm not saying your friends will be hard to deal with, just it is EASY for things to get "sloppy and lax".

Remember, you all want to go home smiling...not standing in the ER crying.

Have a great time. Burn some ammo and make some fun memories!

Mark

Looks like Sunray and I were on the same page! Good company.

 

[sequins]

100% of shooters who haven't got much experience think they're ready for a larger caliber. About 99% of them will not like more than .22lr for extended shooting. I think you should bring one or two to impress, but let them shoot a light caliber for the bulk of their time. 9mm for hand guns and .223 for rifles will get you a good response.

 

[HetchHetchy]

Like straightshooterjake says, five FNG's, by yourself, will be a handful. Suggest you get at least one other experienced shooter who has some teaching experience to go with you too. The other guy needs teaching experience so very likely when, not if, one of them thinks he's 'A natural shot' he won't get PO'd. Absolutely necessary with handguns. Mostly about the length of 'em. One guy has a jam or whatever and turns towards you with a loaded firearm. Happens on military ranges too. Knew a guy who had a loaded, jammed Sterling SMG pointed at him.
It's an excrement load of different calibres too. Eight calibres is a bunch of logistics. Get expensive too.
You may want to think about a second day vs everything at once. Say a rimfire day followed by a cf day. Or rimfire only in the morning with a cf afternoon.
"...Store brand full soda cans..." Pop cans may not be allowed on a club or private commercial range. Lotta fun, but not as much as 48 oz. tomato juice cans. snicker

I'm not worried. As I noted, some have shot before and all are over 25 years of age. I've taken church groups out before with a dozen newbies and was easily able to monitor everything. The key is not allowing problems to even make it to the range.

 

[Walkalong]

You can handle one shooter at a time. No others can have guns in their hands while you are working with the one who has. If more than that have guns in their hands monitoring is a good choice of words, because that is all you are doing.

I can't count the number of times I have gently put up my arm to stop a newbie from rotating a loaded gun away from the target. One person per.

 

[Tinpig]

Good for you!

One or two calibers of handgun and one or two of rifle should be enough, and much more manageable.

As far as rifles, I'd agree with the single shot .22, the 10/22, and the AR15, but I'd substitute an M1 Carbine for the Garand, and hold off on the others.

Pistols, I'd stick with .22, .32 ACP, .32-20, and save the larger calibers for the next trip.

Myself, I would never want to take 5 new shooters to the range at once. They'll either get bored or start putting their hands or their bodies where they shouldn't be.

Tinpig

 

[Panzerschwein]

Ruger 10/22 and Ruger Mk II pistol.

 

[wojownik]

^^^^ as above. .22lr (Ruger 10/22, and I have a neat Chinese 22lr mini-Mauser (Kar 98K) rifle that is a lot of fun for beginners). .38 special in a light wadcutter target load in a S&W full sized pistol. 9mm in a semiauto pistol.