Young White Kids Becoming Sharp Shooters With Guns!

[pipedreams]

Good to see someone working with children.

Young White Kids Becoming Sharp Shooters With Guns! Is This OK?

The news caster try's to turn these parents into bad people no surprise here.

"Its called being responsible parents".

 

[janice6]

My boy scout days at camp in Northern Minnesota included a marksmanship class during the week.  the class taught target shooting with a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition.  The Scout group supplied the rifles and the ammunition was (IIRC) 25 cents a box. 

Nobody tried to make you a trained killer, and no one tried to make you an expert hunter.  They simply tried to train you in proper gun handling safety and marksmanship.  They felt that if you picked up a gun you should be competent and safe in its care and use.  It was a good time to be alive.

Edited March 31, 2019 by janice6

[pipedreams]

I had the same experience at Boy Scout camp.  I though the video was interesting to watch the kids and how they responded.

Edited March 31, 2019 by pipedreams

[Duluth]

This was my first gun (not the actual gun). My dad bought it for me when I was 7. Sheridan Silver Streak pellet gun. He pounded safety into us at a young age. I'm amazed that some of my friends who consider themselves to be gun people, lack muzzle discipline etc. It was so ingrained in me  at an early age that when if I field strip a gun after clearing it and the barrel isn't even in the gun it's pointed in a safe direction. 

By the way, I still have that gun. I can't tell you how many thousands of pellets I've shot through it but I've always kept it oiled and it still works after 44 years. 

 

[minervadoe]

Got to love the propaganda on t.v. these days.  I grew up shooting and taught my son all of the safety rules before he ever went to the range at the age of eight.  Good kid.  I feel safer knowing that he can competently unload and make safe any firearm that he may encounter in life.  He can swim too.  It all seems pretty fundamental to me. 

[Duluth]

8 minutes ago, minervadoe said:

Got to love the propaganda on t.v. these days.  I grew up shooting and taught my son all of the safety rules before he ever went to the range at the age of eight.  Good kid.  I feel safer knowing that he can competently unload and make safe any firearm that he may encounter in life.  He can swim too.  It all seems pretty fundamental to me. 

Great point. Swimming is another thing all kids should learn to do. We signed our daughter up for synchronized swimming classes at a young age.  

[janice6]

I'm sure there are some, but I never met anyone, probably for 10 years on, in Minnesota that couldn't swim.

I learned to swim in the Granite Quarries, everybody went to them in the Summer.  They were everywhere in the East Central part of the state.  Of course lakes are everywhere also, but the Quarries were cleaner.

Edited April 1, 2019 by janice6

[Moshe]

Well, the kids like to go out and shoot.  I found someone I know with some land.  I got six berchwood expandable bases coming.  I have some treated 1x2's at six feet tall.  It should stretch enough to accommodate a card board backing, and my targets should fit.  Heavily wooded backstop on 25 acres.  It would be easy to set it out to 25 yards.  I have new shooters (adults), that I need to get on the same safety page.  Once I get everyone on the same page as far as safety and marksmanship, it will be nice to be able to individually (again for safety reason) have shooters do combat shooting, a beater car is out there, so learning cover vs. concealment.  Then we can have downed and disabled drills.  Essentially shooting supine, upside down, and the ever popular between your legs.  I suspect my wife will be bored until that point.  The kids are already on the safety/marksmanship page so is my wife who just eats holes in holes and becomes bored.  I know how she feels, I had straight 8 sight on the Berretta 92F I used to own.  One of those, I shouldn't have solid things.  But, with straight 8's I was just lobbing 9mm's through an eaten out hole in the target, and I have to admit.  That was boring.  

[Wyzz Kydd]

Here’s my nine year old shooting 10 pistol and 10 rifle in competition.

 

 

Here’s my 13 year old shooting 10 pistol, 10 rifle and 4 shotgun in competition.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Wyzz Kydd
file didn't upload correctly

[Wyzz Kydd]

That first file didn't upload correctly, I'll try again.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Wyzz Kydd

[Moshe]

Cool.  I started my kids out about that age with the Cricket.  I was ruthless making them explain every part and function of the rifle to me.  Explaining up range and down range, and what cease fire meant, and on and on.  Now, they have very good range etiquette. 

[Wyzz Kydd]

33 minutes ago, Moshe said:

Cool.  I started my kids out about that age with the Cricket.  I was ruthless making them explain every part and function of the rifle to me.  Explaining up range and down range, and what cease fire meant, and on and on.  Now, they have very good range etiquette. 

He doesn't know how the guns function yet, but he does understand safety and range rules.  Luckily the 13 year old has been shooting for almost 7 years now so I can have him monitor the 9 year old while he's loading and unloading.  I always run the timer for him to ensure I'm right there to keep a close eye on his shooting and prevent any unsafe actions.  So far so good.  Other than trying to cock his left pistol with his left hand before he has a good grip on it with his right hand he hasn't done anything wrong and I put a stop to that before it could become a habit.

The younger one is shooting a .22 rifle and .38 pistols.  The older one is shooting .38 pistols and rifle as well as a 12 gauge shotgun.  He can already beat about half the adult shooters who come to matches.  Another year or two and he might even be able to beat me.  He can run a 10-10-4+ stage in about 24 seconds whereas I run one in 16-18 seconds.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Wyzz Kydd
added info

[windowasher]

I started both my girls shooting at 8 years of age at the Tallahassee Rifle and Pistol Club's Youth Shoot Program.  On the Second Saturday every month, we open the range to any youth age 8 to 17 for our NRA training program.  We teach gun safety and handling and encourage participants to earn progressive badges from Marksman to Expert levels and they gain proficiency handling our Club owned and provided, single shot, .22LR rifles.  This event is free of charge and staffed by NRA certified Range Officers and Instructors.  Daughter #1, as an adult, competes  in GSSF events and Steel Challenge.  Daughter #2 took up Trap and From age 12 to 16 She won age class National Championships at the USA Shooting Olympic Trap Championships held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and in 2017,  she won the Women's Bronze Medal at the Olympic Trap National Championships.  I say start them young. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by windowasher

[Moshe]

13 hours ago, Wyzz Kydd said:

He doesn't know how the guns function yet, but he does understand safety and range rules.  Luckily the 13 year old has been shooting for almost 7 years now so I can have him monitor the 9 year old while he's loading and unloading.  I always run the timer for him to ensure I'm right there to keep a close eye on his shooting and prevent any unsafe actions.  So far so good.  Other than trying to cock his left pistol with his left hand before he has a good grip on it with his right hand he hasn't done anything wrong and I put a stop to that before it could become a habit.

The younger one is shooting a .22 rifle and .38 pistols.  The older one is shooting .38 pistols and rifle as well as a 12 gauge shotgun.  He can already beat about half the adult shooters who come to matches.  Another year or two and he might even be able to beat me.  He can run a 10-10-4+ stage in about 24 seconds whereas I run one in 16-18 seconds.

When the family goes to a public range, I end up being the go-to guy to monitor one at a time.  They typically hire some guy to move targets and pick up brass.  Range safety is everyone's responsibility, but I make darn sure each kid is on task.  After the course of fire is established and ran like a top in unison, safely, then I can start the individual combat shoot.  I would never ever have a shooter behind the firing line, or in front, that is just not safe.  It is going to take some time, I have to teach some adults who have never shot a firearm seriously.  So, there is going to be some one on one.  It is one thing to never touch a weapon and go to a CHL course, I have seen that disaster before.  Some of them want to learn for CHL purposes.  By the time I am done with them, if they can follow instructions, they will be good shooters, make the CHL 15 yard line look silly, and be able to handle themselves as better shooters than what the CHL mill produces.  It is kind of like a Mitzva for me to pass on knowledge that way.  Making a fully developed CHL holder out in the world.  I was afraid of Walmart for a while after taking a CHL course and seeing the future holders.  One guy could shoot, the rest were all over the place, jamming, getting slide bit, etc.