Was having a BBQ at a mates place awhile ago and was having a chat to his wife and her friend, both of who are studying to become vets. The friend was up at the Toowoomba fields days and was talking to a gunshop dude about a rifle to put down the occasional cow/horse, he suggested a .308!

Anyway I offered to take them both to the range and introduce them to firearms. Well one thing has lead to another and I put forward a request to the blokes at my ADA branch and we are having a range day for about 14 4th and 5th year vet students. Most of these students have never held let alone fired a rifle so it should be interesting. I'm taking out a .22 brno, my 22-250AI, my 6.5x55 sported and my old mauser veguerio in 8x57. We'll get them all started on the .22 first then see how they go. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Nothing else creates a new shooter like starting with something to overcome the newbies fears, low recoil,low noise level and a target that reacts to being hit vs paper.
If they are acceptable and available, the clay targets are perfect. I have found that at first the newbie gets excited when the target is hit and breaks and as they shoot a little, they start competing with themselves to hit smaller and smaller pieces.

Perfect situation for a set of self-resetting steel targets , or some of those walk-along ones that roll over and present a new target each time they are hit.

Had two boys out last evening on our new set of resetting gongs, much more fun than punching holes in a sheet of paper , and instant results too.

A great idea to turn posssible antis into pro firearms people.

One of the best ways o turn someone on to guns is to take them shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by TCLouis:
Nothing else creates a new shooter like starting with something to overcome the newbies fears, low recoil,low noise level and a target that reacts to being hit vs paper.

No doubt!! That's how my wife's shooting addiction started.

Good work Bakes!!

Good work, Bakes.

Did you see the report over at AHN, on the session that was run for some WA final year vet students last year?

Organised by an AHN member student and the SSAA. Some good ideas there, like the pigs' heads for euthanasia practice. There was an article in the latest Aust Shooter too.

http://www.australianhunting.n...ex.php?topic=91740.0 [member only viewing]

My local vets are not anti-gun and anti-hunting and usually ask where I've been and done since last time. The whole vet shop is female too except for one guy.

The guy is a temp and occasionally there. Also vets in Hong Kong, and he is South African. Yes he does also shoot and maybe hunts.

Good idea to introduce the students to shooting. Will leave them hopefully with a positive experience and attitude.

No didn't see that Gadge.

Well we had a good day. Started off with a bit of a talk about rifles, ammo, what would be suitable for them to put down a large animal etc. The shooting started with everyone firing .22's and to everyones credit, all the students had a go at some of the bigger rifles (3006) etc. My friend who organised all the students told me that some of them remarked at how nice we shooters were . They probably thought we were all rednecked hillbilly's.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
My local vets are not anti-gun and anti-hunting and usually ask where I've been and done since last time. The whole vet shop is female too except for one guy.

The guy is a temp and occasionally there. Also vets in Hong Kong, and he is South African. Yes he does also shoot and maybe hunts.

Good idea to introduce the students to shooting. Will leave them hopefully with a positive experience and attitude.

Yeah mate 0- individulal vets may not be agin or may indeed be hunters themselves but their associations are actively anti-hunting, in Australia at least.