Last month I had the opportunity to take my 10 yr old son out for his first trip shooting ground squirrels. Although he is a bookworm kinda kid taking after his mom way over his dad, he enjoyed himself.

I have gotten him from being totally against firearms based on media exposure to getting him enjoying shooting. He is blessed with an exceptional hand to eye coordination.

A Ruger 10/22 with a left handed Boyd's stock and heavy barrel, with a 6 power Leupold scope has helped gain his interest a lot.

At first it was trips to the rifle range. This is a kid who would rather do his homework, or even have to take a bath and wash his hair ( he hates water in his face) instead of going to a rifle range.

I am emailing Don on exactly how to post some pictures of his first kills. He did take his first 3 sage rats at distances between 75 and 85 yds, and instantly grasped what I taught him about trajectory.

If anyone has the opportunity to do this, I found it more enjoyable than actually taking them myself.

cheers and good shooting
seafire

Please be careful doing this. First you take your son out shooting 22's-your ammo bill goes up a bunch! Then he "borrows" your 222-Dad doubles the time at the reloading bench! Then he shows up with a Swift-Its a good one, Dad! A new barrel, new scope, new caliber to reload for.....Not sure where it will end!! And dont get me started on his trap shooting addicitions!(This is all tongue-in -cheek. My son is 16, a safe hunter, good shot, and good company. I am proud of him!)

Seafire,

I did all kinds of hunting with my son, took him fishing often, snowmobiling in the winter, camping... He enjoyed it but it really wasn't for him. It kind of bothered me as I wanted him to feel the same way about things as I did.

He is 30 now, owns his own home and is doing very well in computer graphics. He still doesn't own a gun, but does go pd hunting with me on one of my summer journeys. He wouldn't pick up a gun to shoot anything else, but put a pd out in front of him and he becomes a killing machine.

His hobby is building small fast computers, and I see the passion he has for his hobby mirrors mine for guns. I guess he didn't grow up so different than me after all.

Good stuff, Seafire.

Jim

Thats great !!! I will warn you that I started my 'now 12 year old son' shooting pds with a 22lr when he was about 7. He now has 22-250, 260 Rem., .204 Ruger, 22lr and a 20 ga. shotgun and is extremely proficient with all of them. Just think the more he gets into it the more you will be loading up, buying, sighting in........

PS my son was kinda of moms boy homework type too.

My 9 year old was with me and a buddy last fall when I called in a yote to about 10 feet befor nuking it. Then a hour later I called in a couple hundered pound bear that my buddy shot. Well he is now a screwed up addicted hunter, bound to piss off his future wife. We chased around some bear over the weekend and saw one monster at a little over 800 meters. The bruin was safe because he was 1500 feet down into a roadless area with only 20 minutes of daylight left. We'll give it a shot on Saturday again. It helps that his best buddy is the son of one of my hunting pards (who is also a wife pissing off hunting addict).

My sons use to like to go hunting when they were young. I even got them to go Deer hunting with me a couple of years. But since neither of them harvested a Deer they got in there head after missing a few times that they could not kill a deer and gave up. They could give a rats ass less about hunting anymore. I am as addicted as I was when my father first started carrying me while he was hunting.

My wife likes venison but resents the time I spend with my friends and father hunting for them. She took the hunter safety course years and while she likes to shoot a pistol at cans paper and a snake if it happens to wander in the shooting range. But she wont shoot at anything else. But at least she likes venison now fishing is another story she would spend every waking hour fishing if she had a chance.

I even persuaded her to clean her fish the last time she didn’t complain I told her that if I was hunting and she went fishing that someone was going to have to clean them so they didn’t go bad.

Sorry I got of track from hunting to fishing.

My 7-year-old has been pasting gophers with his Chipmunk rifle for a couple years now. At first, he had to stand on the passenger seat of my truck and utilize the "Montana Bench Rest" (rearview mirror).

Last weekend, he shot a centerfire for the first time - my CZ in 17 Rem - and flattened one at 117 lasered yards on the first shot. He pocketed the piece of brass as a souvenier. Had to autopsy the gopher to see how the damage differed from those shot with his .22.

Like those above, I'm sometimes quietly disappointed that he doesn't embrace it like I do. He loves to shoot at the range but isn't so hot on gophering. He loves to shoot the "cool" guns but then kinda yawns as if to say he's mastered that, let's move on. Sometimes I think he'd rather play with the rangefinder instead.

I bet he'll come around though. He won't be able to shoot my .50 for a few years yet, so I have him until then at least!

Redial

I am still holding out hope that mine will make it a part of his life as I have. He got all cranked up a couple weeks ago when he got his new .204 Ruger and we took it out for the maiden voyage. He shot a .512" five shot group at 100 yds. with it..............about mid May the pds better look out.