Some children develop mentally at different rates. I have been evaluating the proper time to take them shooting as was their father. At the ages of 7 and 9 yrs old I took grandson Christian and granddaughter Aurora to my clubs shooting range but first we stopped to pick up ear muffs for noise protection, large targets that show bullet hits readily by turning yellow at the hit, and I gave each a pair of shooting glasses for eye protection. Shooting a .22 LR at a bench rest is a straight forward proposition with a rifle scope and cross-hairs.

We shot at 25 yards and they both were able to shoot bullseye’s so I move the target to 50 yards and they were able to hit the bullseye area very well. No kick!

Christian handled the shooting amazingly well for 7 years old. His attention to shooting was at 100%. Both had great fun and we followed the range rules for safety. Each of them shot 10 rounds of .22 LR ammo. They wanted Papa (me) to shoot too.

The groups were terrific and they want to come back again soon! Can’t complain about that. All in all I was very proud of them. Aurora turns 10 in October and she says she wants to learn to hunt. So we talk about the family hunting rules aside of pests and varmints. If you shoot and kill it, then you must clean it and eat it!”

They liked this better than watching TV! I have more grand-kids to take to the range so we will see more shooting from them. At the proper time Aurora will graduate to .243 Winchester after age 10. Christian will stay with .22 for a couple of years and must maintain interest. That is not hard…

I have a pump BB gun to shoot tin cans in the back yard and teach them how to shoot with iron sights, a key element in their training to shoot.

Have fun with your grand-kids too! Later! ©