Mentoring a tyro

[Foxyboy43]

I have been taking a very keen lad out for a shot over the Summer with the .22lr, .17hmr and I even let him shoot the sainted treble two (relax - all legal in NI) but today he is coming to the range to try the 6.5x55SE and the .308 which will becinteresting for me and I imagine very interesting for him because he has not encountered recoil to any real extent before.
I imagine his reaction will go one of two ways - either an expression, facial or verbal which (hopefully politely) clearly says “never again!” or as I am hoping, a huge grin and looking for more - and more! Sooo a bit of a nervous/exciting day for me, never mind him, as he has been dead keen and an excellent pupil - to the extent that he is now very confident at out to 100 yards but might struggle initially at longer distances - especially when recoil comes knocking.
Where the big difference between range and quarry shooting will become obvious is the time he takes to release the shot which is fine at targets and should of course improve with experience - he has not yet shot at live quarry but being the son of a sheep farmer and despite my efforts (11 foxes so far) having lost a few lambs this season he is dead keen to even the score with the fox population. My cunning plan is not to let this happen until he can speed up his timings as I (and his father) don’t want to lose an opportunity to remove another fox. I could of course act as back-up with another rifle on the night but not just yet. I am also aware that if I “wiped his eye” it could have a demoralising effect.
Sooo an interesting day ahead, introducing the lad to rifle shooting has been a pleasure for me and from what his mother has said the same for him - it could be a very short one or I may have to “Praise God and send for more ammunition”.
Fingers crossed…..

 

[Yukonmountainhunter]

If he's been taught to shoot properly the .308 shouldn't be a big issue. My 2 cents (pence?), I would start him either standing or kneeling, not off the bench.

All my kids started shooting at around 5/6 yrs old. .22 LR for quite awhile then moved up to 7-30 Waters at about 11 yrs old. When my daughter was around 18 she wanted to try my .375 H&H. She's about 55 kg on a big day. She already had pretty good fundamentals so I gave her a couple of additional pointers and got her to try a few shots from kneeling. She fired the first round, managed the recoil like a champ and and was back on target. She was about to chamber another round and I asked her how it was. She looked at me with the biggest grin and said "that was fu&*ing awesome! And proceeded to empty the magazine.

Hopefully your experience with the new shooter will be similar!

 

[User00035]

I started my nephew off on an HMR. From a bench because I thought it would reduce his wobbles and allow him to concentrate on the important things: breathing, trigger action and follow-through.
He started off punching paper. I coached him on the breathing and trigger techniques and got him to empty the magazine into a black cross drawn on the paper and to concentrate completely on that cross with each shot and ignore where his previous ones had gone.
After emptying the mag a couple of times he was on the money, seeing his strikes in the scope and not lifting his head.

Then I gathered up a load of little wind-fall apples from the garden. They were about the size of golf balls. I impaled them on garden canes at various ranges from about 40 to 80 yards, told him where to place his cross-hairs and do exactly as he had when shooting the paper. He smoked virtually every one. the couple of misses may have been down to the ammunition as I'd given him a couple of boxes of Remmington to use up as my rifle didn't like them.

He had a whale of a time. He's 23 now and been shooting ever since.

 

[markj1]

I have taught youngsters how to shoot 7.62 NATO rifles - the key is to ensure that the rifle has low recoil - a heavy target rifle is better than a lightweight hunting rifle - and more importantly to show them how to press the butt firmly into the shoulder before pulling the trigger.

 

[JTO]

Every novice shooter should be made to copy out, in their best handwriting, A Father's Advice, and hang it on their bedroom wall in a suitable frame.

 

[kes]

My first shot with a 12 bore, supervised was with my Dad who taught me everything shooting. My first shot with a .22 was at age 11 (rules were a little more relaxed then). To graduate to the '12' was special, my deer rifle, whilst noisier will never match that first shot with a '12' for, as they say. felt recoil.
Good on the OP for getting another young person into 'The Countryside Way of Life'.

 

[long_range_rob]

Proper technique. Recoil really isn’t a problem till you get up to the belted magnums imho.

I wouldn’t start him out with a .458 Win Mag though.

 

[Bowland blades]

I have been taking a very keen lad out for a shot over the Summer with the .22lr, .17hmr and I even let him shoot the sainted treble two (relax - all legal in NI) but today he is coming to the range to try the 6.5x55SE and the .308 which will becinteresting for me and I imagine very interesting for him because he has not encountered recoil to any real extent before.
I imagine his reaction will go one of two ways - either an expression, facial or verbal which (hopefully politely) clearly says “never again!” or as I am hoping, a huge grin and looking for more - and more! Sooo a bit of a nervous/exciting day for me, never mind him, as he has been dead keen and an excellent pupil - to the extent that he is now very confident at out to 100 yards but might struggle initially at longer distances - especially when recoil comes knocking.
Where the big difference between range and quarry shooting will become obvious is the time he takes to release the shot which is fine at targets and should of course improve with experience - he has not yet shot at live quarry but being the son of a sheep farmer and despite my efforts (11 foxes so far) having lost a few lambs this season he is dead keen to even the score with the fox population. My cunning plan is not to let this happen until he can speed up his timings as I (and his father) don’t want to lose an opportunity to remove another fox. I could of course act as back-up with another rifle on the night but not just yet. I am also aware that if I “wiped his eye” it could have a demoralising effect.
Sooo an interesting day ahead, introducing the lad to rifle shooting has been a pleasure for me and from what his mother has said the same for him - it could be a very short one or I may have to “Praise God and send for more ammunition”.
Fingers crossed…..

recoil is dissipated by a heavier rifle . My old FTR rifle in 308 pushed less force into my shoulder than my lightweight 243 win

 

[User00035]

Proper technique. Recoil really isn’t a problem till you get up to the belted magnums imho.

I wouldn’t start him out with a .458 Win Mag though.

Acquiring that technique, which involves building muscle memory, is a lot easier on light recoiling rifles than heavier ones. Learning to walk before trying to run etc.
Flinching and lifting your head is the natural thing to do when something smacks you hard in the shoulder. So in my view, better to learn on something that doesn't and then work your way up.

 

[markj1]

My first shot with a 12 bore, supervised was with my Dad who taught me everything shooting. My first shot with a .22 was at age 11 (rules were a little more relaxed then)....

Bisley allow children aged 8 and up to fire .22LR on Open Days.

 

[Bowland blades]

Recoil adversely effects shooters accuracy until they have trained up to it. Start anyone 5 stone to 25 stone gradually in my experience.
start with airgun , move to RF , small cf , medium Cf etc ( not all straight off in a line ) .
If you think your immune to recoil try this ;
Get someone to load your rifle for you but at random they should put a primer and powderless dud . ...... Did you move even slightly off target at the squeeze when the mystery dud was in the chamber? Very many do, do you think just your index finger pressure on the trigger did it ? Because it didn't! try dry firing over and over when you know 100% the gun is clear bet that little twitch has gone.

 

[User00035]

Recoil adversely effects shooters accuracy until they have trained up to it. Start anyone 5 stone to 25 stone gradually in my experience.
start with airgun , move to RF , small cf , medium Cf etc ( not all straight off in a line ) .
If you think your immune to recoil try this ;
Get someone to load your rifle for you but at random they should put a primer and powderless dud . ...... Did you move even slightly off target at the squeeze when the mystery dud was in the chamber? Very many do, do you think just your index finger pressure on the trigger did it ? Because it didn't! try dry firing over and over when you know 100% the gun is clear bet that little twitch has gone.

A shooting instructor told me that he once developed a flinch out of the blue that wrecked his shooting. Obviously he knew all the techniques and what he should be doing but once the flinch bug had got into his brain, even with all his experience he couldn't shift it.
He said, the answer for him was to go back to shooting a springer air rifle in the garden. Holding it gently like it was made of eggshell so he wasn't pulling it and it was free to move in his hands. Concentrating steadily on the target and watching the impact and doing it again and again until he was shooting it without even blinking and his groups were tight.
He then got his rimfire out and repeated the same process. By the time he worked his way back up to his stalking rifle, the flinch had gone.

 

[kes]

When first foxing with a .223, I raised my head quickly after every shot. I read about this and concentrated on NOT looking over the scope sight to see but looking through the sight. I read a bit about this problem (which wasn't really a problem) but since I always hit what I was aiming at, I overcame the tendency very quickly.
With the .308, the problem never arose, since I was concentrating on the effect of the shot, better seen through the scope.
I was always taught (with shotguns) to ignore recoil and concentrate on the 'sight picture', so much so that to shoot a shotgun effectively I taught myself to take the gun out very often and sight on a spot on the wall, mounting and sighting maybe 100-200 times a week. As said above this very effectively develops technique and the improvement in results was startling.
I still dry fire the rifles, just to maintain an easy familiarity with the rifle, magazine loading, etc. Therefore, when I go out foxing or stalking no part of the process is unfamiliar, except the shot.

 

[Stalker62]

Apropos tyro.

Never heard that in my life.

Had to google it.




(plural tyros) a person who has little or no experience of something or is beginning to learn something synonym novice.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Apropos tyro.

Never heard that in my life.

Had to google it.




(plural tyros) a person who has little or no experience of something or is beginning to learn something synonym novice.

Aye - first form Latin if memory serves though another neuron tells me it had origins in ancient Rome? Anyways Goff Thomas of Shooting Times fame way back in the last century often used it - I don’t think I googled it though…..

 

[bakereloadprune]

Bisley allow children aged 8 and up to fire .22LR on Open Days.

I didn't realize it was so young, makes me think about my kids and nieces/nephews...

My eldest has still not twigged what or why I go to "the club" twice a week (my local rifle and pistol club)!

When my son was younger I got him a collection of nerf guns to get him comfortable with the idea of targets and accuracy...but things took a bit of a turn when he started freaking out at other kids for not observing total safety...so I backed off a bit!

I'm thinking of starting him on air first and working up from there to rimfire and hopefully SG. Thankfully cubs and scouts still have this activity in our area. Hardest part is being in the metropolitan suburbs where these things can't/shouldn't be talked about (without being frowned upon) vs my agricultural upbringing where it was much more normalized.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Well then, that was a resullt! I think I have the winner of the Biggest Smile of the Month competition.
Despite attrocious conditions all day the apprentice had a blast in every sense of the word though perhaps the jump from 22lr to 6.5 was not my best idea - still his face when he turned round after the first shot was worth it all. Ten shots with the 6.5 then on to the .308 and he took to it like a duck to water. In fact we got so involved that we nearly ran out of time so a quick dash across the range left us with just twenty minutes of .22 pistol and again he loved it.
The reward for me was seeing this very bright young man take to my beloved sport so well and obviously really enjoy it - soooo many questions and a very genuine thank you at the end of it all quite made my day but gawd my head hurts…..

 

[bowji john]

No age restriction for .22LR on a miniature range

I teach youngsters daily and have done so for the past 7 years

They shoot out to 150m with .22LR off bench at paper or steel gongs from 8'' to 1/4''

Also snap shooting at turning targets off hand with an air rifle - in a jungle lane scenario

Sadly, for many of them, their biggest challenge is adding up their scores (They are from SEN Schools)

Adding 7 + 8 + 3 is a real struggle for quite a few

I use shooting to teach responsibility, attention to detail, concentration plus a little bit of maths and physics

 

[Foxyboy43]

No age restriction for .22LR on a miniature range

I teach youngsters daily and have done so for the past 7 years

They shoot out to 150m with .22LR off bench at paper or steel gongs from 8'' to 1/4''

Also snap shooting at turning targets off hand with an air rifle - in a jungle lane scenario

Sadly, for many of them, their biggest challenge is adding up their scores (They are from SEN Schools)

Adding 7 + 8 + 3 is a real struggle for quite a few

I use shooting to teach responsibility, attention to detail, concentration plus a little bit of maths and physics

Good man!
Slightly different over here - no age limit!