Teaching kids to shoot accurately.

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  • Mongo59

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    Jul 30, 2018
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    I have a grandson that is a natural marksman. He can hit what he can see since we had to hold the rifle for him.

    I am a Marine, his father is Army and we both love firearms. His other grandfather is also a gun nut but more into turkey shoots and speed shooting. This kid has it made as far as firearms go.

    Now that he is tall enough (he was a 22week premie with a birth weight of 1 lb 14 oz) to shoulder a rifle it is time to teach basics and hope he hasn't developed too many bad habits.

    Since I am the ramrod to this, we will be using the Marine Corps way, butt loads of sight alignment and sight picture.

    JJM, a member here, was good enough to sell me his Winchester 69A bolt action .22 that will chamber the short, long and long rifle rounds. It was cleaned and the rear Lyman sight was fine tuned and it will easily feed the ammo I intend to use.

    Most of us wish for our youngsters to have the best equipment and hope for the best result thereby being it's own reward. We have done that. Now it is time for him to have to work for it!

    We will be using the Aguilla Colibri 20gr subsonic ammo. For those of you who have not shot it, it is the primer only .22 without gunpowder. It can be very accurate at the 25 yard range with the only sound you hear from using the longer barreled .22's are the firing pin "click" and then the projectile cutting paper. It is designed to chamber like a .22lr, but I find it can be troublesome in some of the .22lr only rifles.

    It accomplishes two necessary tasks, 1) the lack of hearing protection not only affords comfort but also ease of communication with the shooter and 2) the lack of speed and energy will create a ballistic "arc" in as little as the 25 yard range.

    This is where the sight alignment and sight picture come into play. The slightest canting of the rifle will give you terrible lateral results. If necessary you could make a bold vertical line through the "bullseye" and insist the round must hit the vertical line as a "10".

    I chose to use the Lyman peep sight because it will easily show the effects of both breathing and heart beat on the sight picture all while giving a better field of view.

    Sure, I have weapons that will go through targets at 100 yards like a laser that he could use, but that allows you to carry your bad habits with you as you progress up the levels of shooting.

    After mastering these arcing slow moving projectiles even a standard velocity .22 will seem like cheating. (Not to mention grandpa is having a blast being the beta test group for this lesson.)

    Don't get me wrong, this kid is already a shooter, but who doesn't have room for improvement?
     

    Cameramonkey

    www.thechosen.tv
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    Good job. Dont forget NPOA and breathing. When I instruct kids they all want to "force" the shot by holding their breath and muscling the rifle on target. Man that is a hard habit to break. I admit after both Appleseed and RR, I still sometimes have to fight the urge because I grew up doing the same.
     

    patience0830

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    Good job. Dont forget NPOA and breathing. When I instruct kids they all want to "force" the shot by holding their breath and muscling the rifle on target. Man that is a hard habit to break. I admit after both Appleseed and RR, I still sometimes have to fight the urge because I grew up doing the same.

    I qualified as an Appleseed rifleman doing all those bad things. Imagine how good I'd be if I didn't have any bad habits.:rockwoot:
     

    churchmouse

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    Good job. Dont forget NPOA and breathing. When I instruct kids they all want to "force" the shot by holding their breath and muscling the rifle on target. Man that is a hard habit to break. I admit after both Appleseed and RR, I still sometimes have to fight the urge because I grew up doing the same.

    I still do that at times.
     

    Ggreen

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    Sep 19, 2016
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    I've yet to see colibri shoot accurate at 5 feet lol.

    I suggest a Revere's Riders course. Fun for the whole family. And suppressors.
     

    Sniper 79

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    Oct 7, 2012
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    Many a critters have fallen to the super colibri in my back yard. Deadly within 30yrds.

    Good job on teaching the youngsters.
     

    leftyM4

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    Oct 9, 2019
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    I find money is a good motivator. Tell them if the outshoot you you'll give them $10 and watch how fast they improve. Noting like some competiton with a prize to motivate.
     

    Mongo59

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    I spent part of Sunday afternoon with him. Got him set in a good firing position and started squeezing them off when the rain rolled in.

    I waited to see what he would do, he just stayed in the firing position and didn't move.

    When I told him to get up and come under cover he had mosquito bites all over his face.

    He is in 6th grade and didn't flinch with the elements or the insects. I think we have a shooter!

    This week is fall break for him so we spent all day Wed shooting at 25y with the Colibri, He never missed dead center by more than 2.5 inches and one 5 round mag he put 3 in the 10 ring.

    Needless to say he has earned himself a Winchester 69A for his efforts...
     

    SmileDocHill

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    Mar 26, 2009
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    I spent part of Sunday afternoon with him. Got him set in a good firing position and started squeezing them off when the rain rolled in.

    I waited to see what he would do, he just stayed in the firing position and didn't move.

    When I told him to get up and come under cover he had mosquito bites all over his face.

    He is in 6th grade and didn't flinch with the elements or the insects. I think we have a shooter!

    This week is fall break for him so we spent all day Wed shooting at 25y with the Colibri, He never missed dead center by more than 2.5 inches and one 5 round mag he put 3 in the 10 ring.

    Needless to say he has earned himself a Winchester 69A for his efforts...

    This post makes my heart happy.
     

    ol' poke

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    Jan 14, 2010
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    I find money is a good motivator. Tell them if the outshoot you you'll give them $10 and watch how fast they improve. Noting like some competiton with a prize to motivate.

    I went that route. But now, after 4H Shooting Sports and my club's Junior Program, I was going broke! Maybe we have to reverse the process?

    Good on ya for teachin' the youngins'!
     

    leftyM4

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    Oct 9, 2019
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    I do what I can, especially when it comes to gun safety. I taught all my kids, nephews and their friends as well as cousins kids the importance of gun safety while taking them out shooting. One of the things I tell them is if they are around others who are not being safe to tell them to put the guns away or or leave. Some years later my nephew was at a friends house. These were 2 boys one 18 and the other 19 who had and moved out and living on their own. They came from homes where there were no guns and learned about guns from first shooter games and movies like Pulp fiction. One of them came out with a shotgun that he just purchased and doing things that I had told my nephew not to do so my nephew told them to put it away or he would leave so they did. A few days later one of the boys shot the other in head thinking he had jacked all the shells out and that it was empty.
     
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