IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER THAN TAKING YOUR KID SHOOTING?

[bgcatty]

I had the opportunity to take my son and his college buddy shooting this afternoon at a local indoor range. My son's friend had never shot a firearm before and was excited to have the chance to try shooting. After going over the four rules and particularly handling a handgun properly, I started my son's friend off with a Ruger 22/45 with one round in the magazine. We did this ten times so the young man could get a feel for it. Well after a few tries, the kid was actually getting shots close to a bull at 15 feet. Wh​ile I was giving instructions to his buddy, my son was shooting away with my CZ 75B and doing very well at 25 feet. Then we started back and forth introducing the "new kid" to other handguns. With some careful instruction I let the new kid shoot some "bunny fart" .38 special loads out of my 686 with only one in the cylinder at a time. Amazingly the "new kid" was really concentrating, followed the rules and did quite well. My son was having a field day helping his buddy "get the hang" of it. In fact they were both doing very well and, most importantly, both were carefully listening to me and following the four safety rules. Now my son wants to bring his buddy back again to shoot some more.

 

[bloodandgutsmurphy]

Taking people to the range is joyful for me, I enjoy teaching the art of target shooting to others. I have taught a few people how to shoot, girls surprisingly perform a lot better than men. The people who want another range trip are mostly men, I wish more of my female friends developed a greater interest in it.
About five years ago I was at a gun shop in Gary. A female German newspaper reporter came into the shop. She claimed that she was doing a story for her paper about the gun culture in the United States. She snapped some pictures of the shop, especially the HK's and Sigs.
After the employees and I were done conversing with her I offered to take her to a gun range and teach her how to shoot. We drove to Deb's in Hammond. We conversed with the employees there and she took more pictures. We rented a Ruger Mark II and after a few rounds we had some issues with it. I took it back upstairs and traded it for a Beretta Neos with a red dot sight. I went over the fundamentals with her and she ran it. Her accuracy was pretty good for a beginner. After our range trip we parted ways.
A few months or years later, I can't remember for sure, the employees and I saw the she article published in her paper. To our surprise the theme was seemed antigun, IIRC she advocated for German weapon manufacturers to stop bringing their guns into the US because some of them have been used in crime.
Here is the article she wrote
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/gun-violence-chicago-germany-delivers#slideshow-2

 

[Mgderf]

Several years ago I was talked into volunteering at my local indoor range to the the NSSF's (National Shooting Sports Foundation) "First-Shots" program.
It was a free class, designed to give new shooters just a taste.

It was roughly a one hour (maybe longer depending on participation) classroom instruction on safe firearm handling, the different types of firearms (semi's, auto's, bolts, levers...) and a little information on how to apply for a license to carry.
After the class it was into the range for live-fire training. This consisted of an amazing 20 whole rounds per shooter!
I jest, but it was enough to give them instruction.
We used Ruger Mark III's.
Each shooter would load one round in the magazine, load the magazine into the pistol, take aim and fire, rinse and repeat for ten rounds.
After the ten rounds were loaded and fire individually, the shooters loaded their remaining ten rounds (full mag) and shoot at their leisure.
This is all done with 3 instructors watching 5 shooters in a controlled environment.

I know for fact I helped teach more than 700 new shooters before the program ended at the range.
It did eat into my weekends, but I badly miss those classes.
I had at LEAST as much fun teaching new shooters as they did learning.

 

[wtburnette]

The only thing better than teaching new shooters is a day at the range with my son. Always a good time

 

[PolishBulldog]

I had the chance to teach my nephew how to shoot. He's lusting after my PPK/S22 and my Victory and wants to shoot those whenever he can. After much convincing, I was able to talk his parents into letting me get him a Marlin and I'll never forget the smile on his face. Another gun nut in the making!

 

[schafe]

In response to the op, ....perhaps taking your granddaughter to the range?
Last time was a fun time. She had her familiar Kricket single shot and was doing great.
Then she asked to shoot my 10-22 dressed up like an M1 carbine. She proceeded to put up an even more impressive 10 shot group.
After checking and photographing the target, she grinned and said "papaw, can we trade?"

Priceless.

 

[Gaffer]

And.. taking the grandson shooting for his first time with his new gun. I had the privilege to do this last fall. I had been shooting BB guns with him for awhile and he learned "BB" gun shooting skills in Trail Life. My daughter and SIL are both cool with guns but didn't feel they could offer the level of training that I could so I "had" to do it :>).

We discussed safety until I felt like he really got it. Below is a photo I took while out for the first time. He really enjoyed it and we have been several times since. In about a year or so his younger brother will be getting his first rifle and I will be able to teach another grandson.

What a joy!