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Today, my wife and I took our 9 year old granddaughter to meet friends of ours at a ranch 60 miles west of us. The ranch owner raises Corgis and is often wanting others to visit to help socialize her puppies before they are adopted. She is very strict about the children she allows around her animals and has told some parents to take their kids and leave immediately. She loves our granddaughter and is always happy to have her. It was a trill for all of us to see the 2 week old ones and to hold and pet some of the bigger ones.

But today, I also had a different motive - to teach our granddaughter to shoot. We've been having lessons at our house and she has her own copy of the 4 gun safety rules. But I don't think just handling guns is enough, especially at 9 years old.

I tried to set things up for her success. I cut saw kerf wide slots in a board where I could slide blown up balloons. I also had paper targets on a backstop. I put her in a prone position with a forward rest of wood blocks. At about 45 yardss, even with a scoped .22 rifle, it wasn't going to be a "piece of cake", especially with a strong and gusty cross wind. I hadn't fired the gun myself since I inherited it so I took the first few, just to make sure there were no problems.

I was thrilled to see her put to use all that we had talked about. She started off popping the balloons with every other shot but after a couple for rounds of shooting, she could "run the table", picking off each balloon in succession. She didn't even notice that we started with fully inflated balloons and went on to ones with much less air, making them smaller and harder to hit. She moved on to the paper targets and was shooting consistent patterns in the black.

For me, helping our granddaughter with gun safety and enjoyment has a sense of urgency. Her mother's new boyfriend is an LEO and I was very concerned that our granddaughter started living part time in the household with a least a police service weapon but without a word about guns. I had been primarily talking to her about long guns but today, I also introduced her to my .22 pistol and let her shoot it a few times too, with a lot of physical help from me.

While I had my own ear to ear grin about our granddaughter's success, I couldn't help but think about my grandfather. He was the one that taught me to shoot this very gun when I was about the same age as our granddaughter is now. I remember vividly sitting at a bench rest a his hunting camp in PA and working the bolt as I tried to punch consistent holes in the target paper. Somehow, I think that he would be as proud of his great, great granddaughter as I am. There are not many things that can span many generations as clearly or as easily is being able to use and enjoy shooting a gun that has remained in the family. I'm very proud to have it but even more proud to be able to share it.

yay for teaching little girls to shoot! and for playing with baby corgis!!! (I have 3! yes, I am the crazy corgi lady )

We are pistol coaches and safety trainers for our local county 4-H Shooting Sports groups. It is awesome to see "young uns" learning the safety rules, and then applying them. They start at 9 with this project, and one of our friends 9 year olds competed in the National Shot Gun Trials this year!

Good on ya' for working with your grand daughter!

SewTexas wrote:yay for teaching little girls to shoot! and for playing with baby corgis!!! (I have 3! yes, I am the crazy corgi lady )

The ranch owner has been raising and selling Pembrokes for many years. She has just started raising Cartigans (with a tail) and has a couple that will be old enough to breed in the Fall. She had a litter of 8 Pembrokes that are just two weeks old.

I didn't want to add it in the OP but she asked us to sight in a couple of her .22 rifles. The open sighted one, though heavy as all get out, was right on and I was respectable groups with it, even from offhand. She had a lever action that was a really fun gun to shoot but it had a terrible scope. My buddy and I are going to work to get her something better. We managed to get that scope sighted in and we shot very good groups with it but it was really hard to do and somewhat frustrating. No wonder she was having problems with it.

Divided Attention wrote:We are pistol coaches and safety trainers for our local county 4-H Shooting Sports groups. It is awesome to see "young uns" learning the safety rules, and then applying them. They start at 9 with this project, and one of our friends 9 year olds competed in the National Shot Gun Trials this year!

Good on ya' for working with your grand daughter!

Thanks. I'm trying to take it easy with her. She remarked at how much louder the pistol was than the rifle (she had good ear protection on) so I don't think she is quite ready for a shotgun yet. I have a 16gauge that I got when I was 14 that would be great to start her with but I want to move at a pace that doesn't scare her off. Besides, I'm not sure the ranch owners cows and corgis would be happy with a shotgun.

I'm pretty pleased that our son and his new fiance will be taking their CHL classes in January. He has a lot on his plate now so he is happy that I've started teaching his daughter. Besides, it gives me another bond with her. Last year around this time, I got her training wheels off her bicycle and and she and I have ridden all over together since. I'd like to have her look forward go going shooting with "grampy" as well as bike riding.

Sounds like a great day. I'm also teaching my daughter to shoot and she enjoys it. She also shoots, in addition to others, her Great Great Gandpa's gun. It is really cool to think about it.

God bless you and your family.

What you are doing, sir, is the kind of thing that will preserve the future of our sport.