A Father, A Son and a .22 Revolver
All met tonight at a local shooting range. I kept my range membership a secret from the Kid who has been dying to learn how to shoot for years.
He was so excited when he realized what was happening.
He chose the target, an oversized one with a redneck carrying a sawed-off shotgun. At first we sent it out 5 yards, then he moved it out to 10 and I sent it to 15.
He handled the revolver carefully, but with confidence. His first couple of shots I steadied his arms as he felt what the recoil was like. He also pinched himself while squeezing the trigger of the revolver – I would have preferred a semi-automatic but no .22s were clean. I would reload it for him and hand it back then stand behind him while he fired.
He sighted much better than me. I would tell him to target the head – and he would hit the head and neck. I told him to target his heart and pop! pop! pop! I watched holes appear in the target’s chest. At the end of it all I counted 15 misses – most of which were mine as I attempted to shoot the redneck’s hat off and pulled a bit high.
On the way home he admitted he was a little scared, but he didn’t show it. He held the gun with confidence, followed my instructions and amazingly, was a pretty good shot for a first time shooter.
UPDATE: Jan 12, 2008
We shot again today. This time we fired a Remington semi-automatic rifle with scope and banana clip, and a Beretta U22 Neo single action semi-automatic pistol. The rifle would jam each time we reloaded, but the scope enabled us to ping within about 2” of our target at 50 yards. With a better clip I would have loved to take it outside on an open range to see how accurate I could be at 100 yards or more. The Beretta was sweet, very smooth trigger and hardly any recoil. It was too easy to unload the clip into a nice 6” group.
Again the Kid was a natural. While the rifle was a bit heavy for him, he held the pistol firmly and fired well.
Chad:
Congrats dude! That’s a great father/son thing to do. And don’t forget to take the mrs’s… she can at least relax in the lounge.
13 January 2008, 11:46 amRevolvers are great handguns to start with. I started shooting some cowboy action revolvers which are the most fun! A lot more comfortable than they look.
The only downside to Targetmaster is that you can’t fire a rifle while laying down. You’ll have to go to the public range for that, but no rentals.
If you shoot a lot of 22 you’ll learn accuracy, and then for fun shoot one box of something else like 38 or 9mm at the end for some fun!
Once he’s a bit bigger, you should get together with like 2 other people and rent a 44magnum and a single box of ammo. After 5-6 shots you’ll be exhausted because its so powerful a round, which is why one box lasts 4-5 people!
Jaynee:
I love shooting mg with my 17yo daughter. we have been shooting together for about 4 years. My husband, our daughter and I shoot alot as a family outing. We really enjoy it!
30 January 2008, 11:00 pm