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One of the most exciting moments in a young shooter’s development is getting ready for that first big-game hunt. This is the point at which a child graduates from air rifles and rimfires to high-power centerfire cartridges. It’s a big step—one that can be daunting for the teacher and shooter alike. A misstep here can create bad shooting habits, or worse, make for an unpleasant experience that sours the boy or girl on the whole business.
However, this need not be the case. With the right approach you can harness your child’s natural enthusiasm for shooting, and before long your biggest concern will be figuring out how to pay for all that ammunition your youngster is sending downrange.
Safety First
Ingraining the basic firearms-safety rules is a must when preparing any new shooter, and something you likely did with your child before even thinking about having him or her shoot a big-game rifle. But it is always a good idea to review the rules before any shooting session. The child should know by heart to treat every firearm as though it was loaded, to keep the action open and unloaded and finger off the trigger until everyone is ready to shoot, to be sure of the target and what’s beyond, and always to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
Proper protective gear is another obvious, yet vital, component. Quality ear and eye protection is a must. Adequate ear protection also makes it less likely that a child will develop a flinch, which can happen due to the startling noise of the report. If you have your child shoot without a round in the chamber, you can quickly see whether he or she is flinching. If that’s the case, you should stop shooting for the day and the next time at the range have him double up on ear protection with ear plugs covered by muffs.
Proper Targets
If you want to bore your child to tears, by all means have him or her punch holes in a standard bull’s-eye or “sighter”-style target. A preferable choice is a target that does something when shot, such as fall down, spin or, better yet, blow up. Balloons are the targets my kids love most. They are cheap and fun, though they do require a bit of cleanup afterward. Flake-off targets shaped like game animals are also good for teaching shot placement, and they leave a nice bright mark when shot.
Starter Cartridges
In most parts of the country, regulations call for a minimum bullet diameter of 6mm (.243 inches) for big game, which makes the .243 Win. a logical pick for a child’s first gun. But it is far from the only one. Other mild shooters include the .257 Roberts, .260 Rem., 7x57 Mauser and 7mm-08 Rem.
You can make any of these cartridges gentler still by handloading with reduced loads, which is exactly what I did with my daughter’s .257 Roberts (see sidebar). Downloaded factory ammo is also available in common chamberings, such as .30/06, .308 and .30/30. Remington’s .30/30 Managed Recoil load, which launches a 125-grain bullet at 1,313 fps, is as tame as a kitten.
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Comments (5)
This reminds me last year We waa bringing my son out to get some practice in with his new scoped out pump action pellet gun that I set to hit at 20 yards. I let him hold it on the drive out so he could get used of pointing it in safe direction of course. We where on a country dirt round when his mom says look at the deer in the field there was a doe about 2o to 25 yards of the road I thought I would slow down for my son can get a good look at her then as im slowing down I hear che che! Oh no dont shot that gun!!! plink out goes the BB he let the shot go as the car was still moving coming to a stop me and his mom could see the BB because it was silver and very sunny day. Any way we watch as the BB took a weird lob right toward the doe "oh man it going to hit her" the BB lucked out and hit right where the heart and lung shot would be the poor doe droped for a couple of secs
I couldnt get mad at him that was the crasiest thing I saw in a long time but I know that to make sure there is no BB's in the gun when your in training!!!!!I dont if the doe thought she was died or what anyway she got up and walked it off.
I found this to a well considered approach to training a young guy or gal to become proficient with a center fire deer rifle. I would like to focus upon the maturity that I believe is a prerequisite of handling such firearms. You can talk safety until you are blue in the face to someone who isn't ready to drive the car or shoot the gun and not accomplish a damn thing. Of course, safety aspects of handling a high powered rifle are paramount; but when an inexperienced hunter has no knowledge of the devastating consequences of a 100 or 117 gr high velocity .257 bullet hitting bone the message may not be recieved. Pardon that grisly image, but a parent needs to temper his eagerness to have his child take this step. There is one fundamental question to be answered.. is your child mature enough to assume such responsibility? It is not about what you want for the kid, it is not about the great little rifle to rig up or the perfect cartridge you have in mind... it is about the kid being ready. All of us with grown children can recall an instance where we pushed our kid when we should have waited. We learn from such mistakes and become better parents. This is not an instance when you can afford to be wrong. It is a grown up decision. When the answer is a clear "yes" you will both be winners. You just may gain a hunting partner that you will have for the rest of your life. Can't get much better than that!!!!
Having commented on the requisite maturity of the young boy or girl about to acquire a deer rifle let's discuss the maturity required to shoot the deer. The youngster is going out to kill a large game animal. The farm kid is equipped for that moment when he approaches that first deer on the ground. The city kid who has shot a sparrow or a gopher may not find the experience quite what he had dreamed it to be. I can not imagine having a kid kill that first deer without having a good background in hunting. Hunting ducks, geese, turkeys and pheasants seems like a good starting point. Not everybody is going to find themselves cut out for hunting, that can be said about plenty of other sports. You can ruin any hope of enjoying a sport when you drop them into the 'big league' without having played in the 'little league'. It is called 'big game' for a reason folks. It surprises me that so little attention is given to this topic. There are not enough young hunters joining the ranks these days, so it is important to get it right.
Ever notice how your neighbor, who is a non hunter, asks if you "caught anything'? Even your typical hunting article prefers to say shoot the deer, not 'kill' the deer. Why you ask, because it is a sensitive and often volatile topic in this politically correct world. The sport of hunting is under siege and if the average hunter wishes to ignore that fact he is only contributing to the problem. In most parts of the country your kid's school buddies don't think it is real cool to be a hunter. That makes it doubly important to raise an ethical young breed of hunter who has a clear understanding of the sport, the role it plays in managing our wildlife and an appreciation of its rich heritage. If he can't justify it in his own head, he sure as hell can't justify it to his friends. We all know how the anti-hunting community wants to portray hunters. Their campaign of misinformation and sentimental posturing is working for the most part. You would have to have your head in the sand to believe otherwise. Educate yourself, educate your kid and start educating your neighbor by presenting yourself as a reasonable and ethical individual who just happens to love the sport of hunting.l
I learned the basics using a BB gun, then an iron-sighted and later scoped .22 lever rifle before moving on to an iron-sighted Win M94 .32WS. Making it easy at first with a scope/red-dot sure makes a lot of sense.
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)
I found this to a well considered approach to training a young guy or gal to become proficient with a center fire deer rifle. I would like to focus upon the maturity that I believe is a prerequisite of handling such firearms. You can talk safety until you are blue in the face to someone who isn't ready to drive the car or shoot the gun and not accomplish a damn thing. Of course, safety aspects of handling a high powered rifle are paramount; but when an inexperienced hunter has no knowledge of the devastating consequences of a 100 or 117 gr high velocity .257 bullet hitting bone the message may not be recieved. Pardon that grisly image, but a parent needs to temper his eagerness to have his child take this step. There is one fundamental question to be answered.. is your child mature enough to assume such responsibility? It is not about what you want for the kid, it is not about the great little rifle to rig up or the perfect cartridge you have in mind... it is about the kid being ready. All of us with grown children can recall an instance where we pushed our kid when we should have waited. We learn from such mistakes and become better parents. This is not an instance when you can afford to be wrong. It is a grown up decision. When the answer is a clear "yes" you will both be winners. You just may gain a hunting partner that you will have for the rest of your life. Can't get much better than that!!!!
Having commented on the requisite maturity of the young boy or girl about to acquire a deer rifle let's discuss the maturity required to shoot the deer. The youngster is going out to kill a large game animal. The farm kid is equipped for that moment when he approaches that first deer on the ground. The city kid who has shot a sparrow or a gopher may not find the experience quite what he had dreamed it to be. I can not imagine having a kid kill that first deer without having a good background in hunting. Hunting ducks, geese, turkeys and pheasants seems like a good starting point. Not everybody is going to find themselves cut out for hunting, that can be said about plenty of other sports. You can ruin any hope of enjoying a sport when you drop them into the 'big league' without having played in the 'little league'. It is called 'big game' for a reason folks. It surprises me that so little attention is given to this topic. There are not enough young hunters joining the ranks these days, so it is important to get it right.
Ever notice how your neighbor, who is a non hunter, asks if you "caught anything'? Even your typical hunting article prefers to say shoot the deer, not 'kill' the deer. Why you ask, because it is a sensitive and often volatile topic in this politically correct world. The sport of hunting is under siege and if the average hunter wishes to ignore that fact he is only contributing to the problem. In most parts of the country your kid's school buddies don't think it is real cool to be a hunter. That makes it doubly important to raise an ethical young breed of hunter who has a clear understanding of the sport, the role it plays in managing our wildlife and an appreciation of its rich heritage. If he can't justify it in his own head, he sure as hell can't justify it to his friends. We all know how the anti-hunting community wants to portray hunters. Their campaign of misinformation and sentimental posturing is working for the most part. You would have to have your head in the sand to believe otherwise. Educate yourself, educate your kid and start educating your neighbor by presenting yourself as a reasonable and ethical individual who just happens to love the sport of hunting.l
This reminds me last year We waa bringing my son out to get some practice in with his new scoped out pump action pellet gun that I set to hit at 20 yards. I let him hold it on the drive out so he could get used of pointing it in safe direction of course. We where on a country dirt round when his mom says look at the deer in the field there was a doe about 2o to 25 yards of the road I thought I would slow down for my son can get a good look at her then as im slowing down I hear che che! Oh no dont shot that gun!!! plink out goes the BB he let the shot go as the car was still moving coming to a stop me and his mom could see the BB because it was silver and very sunny day. Any way we watch as the BB took a weird lob right toward the doe "oh man it going to hit her" the BB lucked out and hit right where the heart and lung shot would be the poor doe droped for a couple of secs
I couldnt get mad at him that was the crasiest thing I saw in a long time but I know that to make sure there is no BB's in the gun when your in training!!!!!I dont if the doe thought she was died or what anyway she got up and walked it off.
I learned the basics using a BB gun, then an iron-sighted and later scoped .22 lever rifle before moving on to an iron-sighted Win M94 .32WS. Making it easy at first with a scope/red-dot sure makes a lot of sense.
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)