By Glen Wunderlich
Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)
While city slickers continue their cry to do something about guns, I must confess I agree with them. I was up for the task, when our 8 year-old, twin, great granddaughters made the trek from the Detroit area to our Shiawassee County home. The opportunity presented itself, as we found ourselves in the garage that routinely doubles as a shooting house for a 100-yard shooting range.
Learning to respect firearms and what they can do is a good first step and gun the NRA’s safety rules never get old in this regard. Teaching a youngster to shoot a firearm properly requires a solid understanding of firearms safety and youngsters themselves.
The challenge was to keep things simple and safe for these first-time shooters. Eye protection, hearing protection and a firearm that doesn’t kick at all were introduced. All shots would be taken from solid sandbag rests and I would operate the action of the Savage .17 HMR rifle topped with a good, clear scope. It would be the youngsters’ responsibility to position, aim and fire the gun by themselves with direct supervision at a target exactly 75 yards downrange. As an extra measure of safety, single loads only were used.
I know how competitive these kids are – especially between themselves, so when I offered $10 to the youngster that could produce the best shot on target, things got exciting real fast.
We flipped a coin to see who would go first at the bench. The first shot was no shot at all; the unloaded firearm would be dry-fired, so that they could learn what it took for a good trigger squeeze. Gun control starts here.
Since this firearm is used for pest control, it was sighted in already and known to be highly accurate. The second trigger pull would be with a live round, but it wouldn’t count in the contest – no matter how good or bad the shot would be. The final shot would be for the money and the closest to the center would win the jackpot.
There is no way a child can shoulder a gun engineered for adults, so the object was to learn the optic and the trigger, while the gun “held itself” solidly on the rest. Eye relief is always problematic, because many first-time shooters must learn to position themselves at a proper distance from the ocular lens to get a full view downrange. This is where teachers demonstrate the technique.
Surprisingly, Ava’s first shot was less than two inches from center with the practice shot and about one inch from perfect with the money shot. Adalynn had her chance at the prize and came in a close second place.
Ava’s First-Ever Shots and Her Winner
After the payout, we popped a couple of reactive targets – water-filled cans at 50 yards and not a single miss! Even though a total of only four shots for each young lady had been taken, it was enough for the challenge of introduction.
The girls had so much fun, they were already setting up another competition later in the year, when their older brother, Landon, could be present.
