Posted: 2/16/2005 5:20:13 PM EDT
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Well I took my 8 year old out this weekend for her first shoot!!! I am just bursting with pride. You parents know what I mean!!!!! I learned to shoot, damn, probably when I learned to walk. Countless BB guns were used to destruction before dad let me start shooting real weapons. The first gun I shot was my dad's service .45, albeit he was holding my hands, but it was still something that I'll never forget. Well I didn't start her out on the FAL, but I did pull out the Remington Scoremaster bolt 22 that I got at 13, which my dad got from his dad, and we hit Finger Lakes. I brought my IDPA spinners and set them at 17 yards. After a range tutorial and gun safety and operation talk she got to shooting.  Being a lefty, there was a little difficulty with bolt operation, but she got the hang of it right away!!! It took about 5 shots and she was hitting the largest of the spinners!!!! I pretty much let her do all the work so she would understand the weapon and how everything worked. We even had a little ballistic conversation to my surprise!!! She wanted to know all about the bullets, and how they worked!!!!Sniff...sniff....   While we were shooting a family took the next bench over and were shooting an AR, a pistol, and had a boy who was a couple of years older than Mad, who as well, had a bolt 22. Nice little stainless job with all the sights in those plex high viz posts. I told him that he was more than welcome to shoot the spinners, because they ony had "INSANE HUSSEIN" silhouettes they were shooting at 50yards with (thats no fun fer a kid!!!). Again, imagine the pride in me when Maddie was hitting the steel two, three, even 4 times in a row....but the poor little boy never hit once!!!! I felt a 'little' bad, but I wasn't about to give gun tips to a father's son!!! I'de be pretty pissed if some yodle came over and tried to 'help' my daughter shoot!!  When we started I had freshly painted the targets bright red, and Mad tried her hardest to remove all the paint she could!!!!  I know, I know, shes got a way to catch up to double8's little girl, but for her first time at the range, or from behind a gun for that matter, I could NEVER be prouder!!!!  As it started to get a little dark and a bit colder, I asked if she wanted to go, her necked snapped to me so fast you could hear the wind crack, where she replied "NO!!!! I want to shoot more!!!!" How could I resist...so we remained. As the rain started to spittle down, and we were packing up in the near dark, I was already planning the next trip...... |
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Metalman .... give her some eye protection next time. I cannot wait to get my Green Valley membership. My wife does not allow me to take my kids to the public range. She is too concerned about unsafe shooters at the public range. But private range is OK with her. |
