My son's first pistol experience
Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 8:03 am
It is early here at the family camp, the house is quiet. People and dogs are still snoring and I am enjoying my first cup of coffee and reflecting on the series of first experiences my son has gained in the recent past, culminating in our trip trip to the range yesterday. He is now at 21, just starting to gain some of the types of experiences I had when I was growing up. To be fair, I came of age in a rural setting where hunting and fishing was available, litterally, out my back door. We drove vehicles on the farm long before we were able to get our driver's license. I had my own rifles and shotguns starting at 13 and friends let me shoot pistols. I am by no means a Daniel Boone or sturdy frontiersman, but I have had a fair share of those experiences that teach you work with tools and to get by in the woods.
My son grew up a city boy. He is a competitive swimmer and fell in love with the sport by the time he was ten. The result of this was practices six and sometimes seven days a week for the last 12 years. His experiences are people related, traveling all over the country meeting new friends, albeit mostly in the confines of natatoriums. I evny the poise he shows in airports and restaurants and his scholarly skills are superb. He just graduated from college with a degree in architacture and has secured a job that will put him through graduate school. It was in his final semester that he started learning some of the other important things in life.
HIs final semester was a design build project in which he and his fellow students turned a blighted parking lot into a playground for an inner city school. He had a blast! He learned to drive using a clutch, operate a backhoe loader, use chainsaws, grinders, jackhammers and a variety of carpenter's tools. He flew in late the other night for the long weekend and on the two hour drive to the house, he was excitedly telling me of the things has done and asked a zillion questions about manual transmissions, clutches, shifting gears and jake braking. The time flew by as he detailed the many things he got a taste of and how much fun it was to do something that he hadn't tried before. She who must be obeyed, had mentioned to him in an email that I had joined a rod and gun club here and he was curious about shooting. Due to our circumstances when he was growing he had little experience with guns. He had a BB gun, but our city was not BB friendly. He got to shoot a little in Boy Scouts as they held events each year at Elm Fork, but as he gained his Eagle rank when he was 13 and he got deeper into the swimming world he did not get any more shooting.
Yesterday after he helped with a few things here at the cabin, I asked if he wanted to try the pistol range? I could not have made him happier if I had presented him with a new car. The short ride to the club was full of questions about caliber and loads. we got into a short discussion about ballistics and he immediately understood the concept and told me it was the first topic they covered in his physics classes. He then wanted to explain the formulas to me, but I assured him that he was correct. We had a refresher on gun safety and then I started him with my old Ruger .22 single six. Being cheap I had a bunch of small paper plates left over from trip to a local eatery and I stapled them to the board for targets. The benches were set at 15yds and I had three of the paltes set about 30 inches apart as targets. HIs first few shots were either high or low and I could see he was nervous. It was gratifying to see how well he managed his trigger finger, both in keeping it out the traigger guard except when shooting and also in how didn't jerk it to fire. After he calmed down a little he started finding the targets and the smile grew. He got comfortable with the revolver and then we tried the .22 conversion kit on my Sig 226. Again he got the got hang of the aiming point with little effort. Oh to have his conditioning and a resting heart rate just below 60. We ran a few mags full through that and he was punching the targets pretty regularly. I switched back to the 9mm set-up and he tried that. It took a couple of rounds to adjust to the recoil and he settled back into a fairly consistent accuracy. Finally I brought out my 1911 in .45 and asked if wanted to try? Of course he did! It was the end of day so I just loaded 5 rounds into the magazine, and gave him the gun and the magazine. He was comfortable charging the weapon, but a bit apprehensive about the recoil. The first shot went high as the trigger is a match grade trigger and the break caught him by surprise. The recoil was ok for him and he put the next four rounds into the plate. On his last shot he hit the staple and the plate came fluttering to the ground. It was purley luck but it was exactly the kind of thing that stays in one's mind as the capstone of a fun outing.
The ride back to the house was full of chatter and as we were unloading the car, He asked if we could go back tomorrow, weather permitting. Sounded just like the younger kid after his first day at Disney. I guess it is never to late to start someone on this road. I apologize for the rambling and if you made it this far, thanks for reading.
My son grew up a city boy. He is a competitive swimmer and fell in love with the sport by the time he was ten. The result of this was practices six and sometimes seven days a week for the last 12 years. His experiences are people related, traveling all over the country meeting new friends, albeit mostly in the confines of natatoriums. I evny the poise he shows in airports and restaurants and his scholarly skills are superb. He just graduated from college with a degree in architacture and has secured a job that will put him through graduate school. It was in his final semester that he started learning some of the other important things in life.
HIs final semester was a design build project in which he and his fellow students turned a blighted parking lot into a playground for an inner city school. He had a blast! He learned to drive using a clutch, operate a backhoe loader, use chainsaws, grinders, jackhammers and a variety of carpenter's tools. He flew in late the other night for the long weekend and on the two hour drive to the house, he was excitedly telling me of the things has done and asked a zillion questions about manual transmissions, clutches, shifting gears and jake braking. The time flew by as he detailed the many things he got a taste of and how much fun it was to do something that he hadn't tried before. She who must be obeyed, had mentioned to him in an email that I had joined a rod and gun club here and he was curious about shooting. Due to our circumstances when he was growing he had little experience with guns. He had a BB gun, but our city was not BB friendly. He got to shoot a little in Boy Scouts as they held events each year at Elm Fork, but as he gained his Eagle rank when he was 13 and he got deeper into the swimming world he did not get any more shooting.
Yesterday after he helped with a few things here at the cabin, I asked if he wanted to try the pistol range? I could not have made him happier if I had presented him with a new car. The short ride to the club was full of questions about caliber and loads. we got into a short discussion about ballistics and he immediately understood the concept and told me it was the first topic they covered in his physics classes. He then wanted to explain the formulas to me, but I assured him that he was correct. We had a refresher on gun safety and then I started him with my old Ruger .22 single six. Being cheap I had a bunch of small paper plates left over from trip to a local eatery and I stapled them to the board for targets. The benches were set at 15yds and I had three of the paltes set about 30 inches apart as targets. HIs first few shots were either high or low and I could see he was nervous. It was gratifying to see how well he managed his trigger finger, both in keeping it out the traigger guard except when shooting and also in how didn't jerk it to fire. After he calmed down a little he started finding the targets and the smile grew. He got comfortable with the revolver and then we tried the .22 conversion kit on my Sig 226. Again he got the got hang of the aiming point with little effort. Oh to have his conditioning and a resting heart rate just below 60. We ran a few mags full through that and he was punching the targets pretty regularly. I switched back to the 9mm set-up and he tried that. It took a couple of rounds to adjust to the recoil and he settled back into a fairly consistent accuracy. Finally I brought out my 1911 in .45 and asked if wanted to try? Of course he did! It was the end of day so I just loaded 5 rounds into the magazine, and gave him the gun and the magazine. He was comfortable charging the weapon, but a bit apprehensive about the recoil. The first shot went high as the trigger is a match grade trigger and the break caught him by surprise. The recoil was ok for him and he put the next four rounds into the plate. On his last shot he hit the staple and the plate came fluttering to the ground. It was purley luck but it was exactly the kind of thing that stays in one's mind as the capstone of a fun outing.
The ride back to the house was full of chatter and as we were unloading the car, He asked if we could go back tomorrow, weather permitting. Sounded just like the younger kid after his first day at Disney. I guess it is never to late to start someone on this road. I apologize for the rambling and if you made it this far, thanks for reading.
