I'm getting old chaps, it's true.

First kidney stones and now people entrusting me with teaching their children to shoot...

I felt better today after Armageddon earlier this week and ventured out of the house to a new permission to see about a nice leisurely walk after Bugs.

I arrived at the new place to meet the farmer and her family for a brief chat about the boundaries and so on when young Abby appears and begins to tug at her mother's skirts.

Mother shooed her away but Abby was not to be denied. It turns out that this particular fourteen year old girl is not like most in terms of persuasiveness. She has, for example, talked her school into letting her do Clay pigeon shooting as part of her GCSE P.E. course no less, Shooting as part of a GCSE...

Anyway it turns out that young Abby is applying for her SGC very soon ( Does anyone know of a cheap SH cabinet I can buy her? ) and wants to shoot a bunny with a rifle.

Would I take her out?

Well, this was novel.

I've taken a few kids out shooting, mainly dead keen teenage sons of mates who though full of enthusiasm and able marksmen, tend to fidget and be plagued by the all too short attention span that kids these days seem to suffer with.

It helps, we have found, if someone else from Daddy teaches them about shooting, a friend, gamekeeper or some other slightly more removed figure that they'd be less inclined to argue with.

Now I'm great with the lads, suspect I never grew up myself, but what the ruddy heck was I supposed to do with a Hannah Montana-loving, ooh-I-got-mud-on-my-ugg-boots teenybopper?!

Thankfully young Abby was none of these things. A little Ninja in fact, she moved quietly, instinctively hugged cover and picked up very quickly on the use of shadow, wind and dead ground. Top this off with a quite magnificent killer instinct ( at one point she put three shots in about two seconds into a bunny she winged with the first shot, I had to tell her "Ok stop now Abby, I think it's dead now"; fair brought a tear to this jaded old eye guv'nor). She could spot rabbit ears at 100 yards in fading light, such that I would have had trouble spotting them with the binos...

As we set off from the yard I was walking normally talking to her older sister when Abby scampers a little ahead and starts fox-walking tight up against the left hand hedge line, scanning the margins as she goes.

I stop mid-sentence with the older sister and call Abby over to test her gun handling, competence like that deserved the reward of a rifle to provide teeth for the little Artemis.

Big sister was told to bugger off, there being serious business afoot, I showed her how the safety worked and only needed to remind her about muzzle awareness once in the entire afternoon. I consider this remarkable considering how many grown men with years of experience ignore this most basic rule with regularity.

A quick chat about backstops and a promise to keep talking to her throughout so that she'd know exactly what to do put her at ease about the shooting and broke the ice somewhat. I told her that if the grass was long and the shot far ( I was going to use 30 yards as the absolute cut-off point and take it from there ) I would go down on a knee and she was to rest the rifle on my shoulder. This works well with kids because my bulk tend to hide any movement they make trying to get comfortable and I get a good view of the reaction to the shot. It also makes sure they stick to me and not wander about where I can't grab them or the rifle should I need to intervene.

So far no mention of Justin Bieber, so good.

As we're walking along I'm thinking "God I hope she's ok with killing things" when she leaps into to my side hissing "squirrel! can I shoot it?". This is my first inkling that she is made of the right stuff. There is a squirrel on the ground under an oak tree about 25 yards from us, Nutkins had literally just spotted us and was upright looking at us. I told her I was checking the backstop and tree line and quickly gave her my blessing.

Clunk, click - Thud!

Barely a second from oking the shot to the squirrel flat on it's back giving a last kick, shot straight through the centre of the chest.

We wandered around for a couple more hours, we made quite a team with her knowledge of the land, fantastic eyesight and my well..erm...well it my rifle so there.

We got a few more bunnies, a few misses with explanations and even saw and stalked to 60 yards of a muntjac just for fun.

She was the best kid I have ever taken shooting and I am due to take her out again next week.

Take a kid shooting, doesn't matter whether it's a boy or girl, just take a kid shooting and it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your shooting career.

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Great job Ghubert!

Very nice story and well told to boot!

Well done Amir! Great story.

You are doing the right things, Ghubert!

Great job, well done! Enjoyed the rundown and agree, she is different but in a good way! Waidmannsheil to the young lady.

Well done! Congratulations!
I have had many rewarding experiences while teaching new hunters "how to" and have found young women to be my best students. I firmly believe that the evolution of hunting from a man's sport to "co-ed" is a very positive development.
If our sport is to survive long term in an increasingly urbanized world, we need more women hunters talking to women about the positive experiences that they have while enjoying the hunt.
Here are pics of some of my apprentices,good hunters all:

Good work !

It's best to do the whole thing , life of the animal, shooting, butchering [anatomy lesson too] cooking and eating if necessary !

I just got through down loading some 06 for my neice. she well use my Ruger no.1 light sporter with 150gr speer flat points at about 2000fps.

I watch this young lady at 12 smoke a whitetail doe at 302 yards.

She 25 now and tore her rotater cup in a volley ball game and eeds some light loads for a while.

quote:

Take a kid shooting, doesn't matter whether it's a boy or girl, just take a kid shooting and it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your shooting career.

Great advice and a great story. We need more folks wth your attitude, and more kids with thaty kind of desire for hunting to survive. My hat is off to you Sir.

Great story Amir, and I love your way with words.
I always knew that behind your lawyer image there was a kind and gentle man