My grandfather was on the US Navy shooting team. When I was around 10 he took me to the woods to a recently logged clearing with a bunch of beer cans, and kept adding more as he emptyed them. He handed me a Browning 22 auto loading rifle, told me to never point it at anything I didn't want to kill and the barrel was safest straight up and straight down. He told me to pull the gun into my shoulder, think it of an extension of myself, focus on the front sight take a deep breath and let it out slowly, when all the air was out take the slack out of the trigger and squeeze slowly until it broke. I was hooked. I always start new shooters the same way with reactive targets. You got to have fun and build love for the sport before you can worry about grouping.
Young kids' minds are a racetrack. Everything moves fast. Therefore, reactive targets will keep their attention far longer than a static paper target.
Soda cans, a solid rubber ball, a spinner target setup all provide visual conformation of a hit. Kids have short attention spans and instantaneous gratification will keep them satisfied.
Soda cans, a solid rubber ball, a spinner target setup all provide visual conformation of a hit. Kids have short attention spans and instantaneous gratification will keep them satisfied.
The good thing about paper is,,,
You can see where the bullets hit,,,
Thereby giving you a visual of your shot group.
But for a kid it's boring.
The good thing about cans is,,,
Instant visual feedback on your hits,,,
Thereby eliminating the boredom factor of paper.
But when you miss,,,
You have no idea where the round went.
But here's a novel idea,,,
Why not put a sheet of white poster board behind the cans.
That way if the kid hits, great,,,
Good feedback and fun for all concerned.
But if the kid is not hitting the cans,,,
The holes in the paper will tell where the misses are going.
Best of both worlds.
A buddy of mine doesn't own any firearms,,,
But he asked me if I would take his kid out for some plinking.
I agreed and we set the kid up on a 25 yard bench,,,
To avoid the boredom we had him shooting at coke cans,,,
I had him shooting a previously scoped Mossberg 702 Plinkster with factory irons.
Two ten round mags later and he hadn't hit even one can,,,
And there was nothing I could do to help him out,,,
Because we didn't know where the bullets went.
I did have some cardboard in the trunk of my car,,,
So we put that behind the cans and tried again.
Imagine our surprise when we discovered,,,
The kid was putting all of the rounds in a quarter sized group,,,
Centered about 2 inches to the left and about 4 inches above the cans.
That's when it dawned on me,,,
I scoped that rifle without ever using the iron sights,,,
They were off from the factory but a few quick adjustments fixed that.
Then the boy proceeded to hit ten out of ten cans at 25 yards,,,
So we moved him out to 50 yards and he averaged eight or nine out of ten.
The moral of this story is,,,
If you can't tell where your rounds are hitting,,,
You're just turning money into noise for no practical benefit.
Aarond
.
You can see where the bullets hit,,,
Thereby giving you a visual of your shot group.
But for a kid it's boring.
The good thing about cans is,,,
Instant visual feedback on your hits,,,
Thereby eliminating the boredom factor of paper.
But when you miss,,,
You have no idea where the round went.
But here's a novel idea,,,
Why not put a sheet of white poster board behind the cans.
That way if the kid hits, great,,,
Good feedback and fun for all concerned.
But if the kid is not hitting the cans,,,
The holes in the paper will tell where the misses are going.
Best of both worlds.
A buddy of mine doesn't own any firearms,,,
But he asked me if I would take his kid out for some plinking.
I agreed and we set the kid up on a 25 yard bench,,,
To avoid the boredom we had him shooting at coke cans,,,
I had him shooting a previously scoped Mossberg 702 Plinkster with factory irons.
Two ten round mags later and he hadn't hit even one can,,,
And there was nothing I could do to help him out,,,
Because we didn't know where the bullets went.
I did have some cardboard in the trunk of my car,,,
So we put that behind the cans and tried again.
Imagine our surprise when we discovered,,,
The kid was putting all of the rounds in a quarter sized group,,,
Centered about 2 inches to the left and about 4 inches above the cans.
That's when it dawned on me,,,
I scoped that rifle without ever using the iron sights,,,
They were off from the factory but a few quick adjustments fixed that.
Then the boy proceeded to hit ten out of ten cans at 25 yards,,,
So we moved him out to 50 yards and he averaged eight or nine out of ten.
The moral of this story is,,,
If you can't tell where your rounds are hitting,,,
You're just turning money into noise for no practical benefit.
Aarond
.
When my daughters were young I would go pick up a case of cheap soda at walmart and the girls loved the explision of pop spraying when they made a hit.
Hey, I'm an old man and love that explosion as well,,,
But it really comes down to one question,,,
Are you trying to teach them to hit,,,
Or just turn money into noise.
Myself,,,
I want them to learn to shoot accurately.
Hitting the target should be what shooting a gun is all about.
Aarond
.
Just returned from the small creek behind our house with my 8 year old grandson. We were shooting BB guns at empty Rx bottles floating. Making it lots of fun. Seeing your miss splash. We can move up from there
Something floating in the water is really good like you said you can instantly see hits. Just warn them about ricochets off water. Not good. I used to shoot a lot at the dump. Lots of reactive targets.
I use balloons with kids, keeps them interested when they get a reaction by being on target.
I used the swinging steel plates and then used paper so they could work on grouping
