I took the NRA rifle instructors course last year so I could work with scouts so giving this test was fun for me as well. And yes, I’m harder on mine than others so there wasn’t going to be any sliding by. He would either do this or fail and not get his badge.
The Boy Scout shooting requirement is that they hit 5 shots that can be covered by a quarter at 50' three times and the targets have to be clean. They can’t just blaze away and then find 5 holes close together. We had about 5 targets that didn't qualify including one that had a simple very large hole and then one off to the side where he got in a hurry.
Well after 200 rounds or so cheap $13/500 brick ammo so he could get used to my “boring old bolt action”, he settled down and started shooting with precision. We then broke out the match ammo I found and his groupings got better until he nailed it. My rifle is a Romanian Training rifle and the sights are pretty crummy for this type of test but a sight picture is a sight picture is a sight picture. The front post is about 1/8th inch thick and the rear sight is a simple V. Even at 50’, that post covers most of the target. However, what it lacks in sights, it makes up for with a surprisingly crisp 2-stage trigger. The sights aren't adjustable so all his shots are a touch high and to the right.
Anyway, he had no choice. This is the .22 rifle I have and I wasn’t able to borrow anything better. Also, the scout court of honor is soon and it was a now or never type of deal. Like I asked him after he spent the first hour creating a vacuum, “You didn’t expect this to be an easy test did you?”
He passed and now he knows about becoming calm, breath control, slowing his heart rate, good support, and once the heart rate is slow and he’s calm, get the trigger to trip between heartbeats which is easy on a 2-stage trigger. He went from 5” patterns when he started, to 2” patterns with the cheap stuff and then to 1” patterns with the match. He shot Winchester Match .22 Long. I couldn’t find Long Rifle but it didn’t matter. He did great.
I did learn one trick that I never realized before. Even if you have a mag fed rifle, shoot single shot. The repetitive action of sliding one round in at a time helped his concentration and after we went that rout, he improved.
If any of you dads have scouts that need to practice for this test and you’re in the Houston area, the Conroe Shooting Center has pistol targets that you can use for bench rest shooting. The first target rail is at 25 yards but we were able to place the target stand at 50’. The range has cardboard target silhouettes and I simply taped the targets on. There may be other ranges where shooting at 50’ with rifles is possible but I don’t know where they are.
