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Kids Shooting


TRNinTX

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Turtle brought his 12 yr old son out for his first USPSA match yesterday. It is fun to watch as kids learn to shoot and the proud look on Dad's face as he made it safely through his first match.

Good job Jonathan, we hope to see you out again.

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OK guys, I'm imposing a new forum rule. All "new shooter" announcements must henceforth be accompanied by *pictures* so we can all know in advance who'll be kicking butt at Nationals in five years.

:lol:;)

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I'd give him more like - four years! The kid in question is the son of a top 10 finisher in Production at last year's Factory gun; the talent & training skill are all in the family. Plus, the match he attended must have been North Mountain - which was run by 13 year old B.J. Norris when I started shooting there in 2002; I think B.J, is either an A class shooter or possibly a Master by now in fewer than 5 years of competitive shooting experience Face it, kids are more limber, see better, and in many cases, are closer to the low ports than we are Gorilla! Man o man - if only we had all started out that young. Great job Todd & Jonathan! See you at the range. D.

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Thanks a lot guys! Jonathan had a great time and he looks foward to a long term relationaship with USPSA and his fellow shooters. I'll post a pic as soon as I can, but I can make no commitment on time, I am a turtle after all. Thanks again guys, your kind words and thoughts mean a lot to me.

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I wish we had more kids shooting. At our Steel Challenge gig last weekend we had several kids between 9 and 12 years old. Everyone at the match enjoyed watching the juniors shoot and we all made them feel at home. When the results were posted we didn't say a word about the kids beating their parents. Wouldn't want mom and dad to start leaving the youngsters at home. :lol:

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Turtle,

Congrats on having your son finish his first match safely. That is the most important part, also glad to hear he had fun. There was a time when I was that kid, so it is great to hear that everyone treated him so kindly. Not long ago I was at a newly opened indoor range near my house. A 15 yr old and an 8 yr old were not allowed to even watch, despite the fact that they were accompained by their grandmother. This place was far to concerned with getting the $12 an hour range to bother investing in the future of our sport. Needless to say, I wrote a letter and will never be back. Should anyone else make it out to Chesterton, IN, dont bother stopping at RangeMaster Outfitters.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My daughter is 22 months old now and will actually wear her hearing protection while at the range. Now if I could just teach her to pickup the brass not the rocks I'd be in buisness. :rolleyes:

We all need to be bringing our kids to the range. Not just to teach them to shoot but to show others that it is OK for kids to be there.

Dan

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My son attended his first match at 4 days old in 1995 and has been a fairly regular attendee ever since. Get him to pick up brass, I have to get him to stop trying to help load my magazines. A few years back at a match he had retreived a mag out of my bag and was using it to point at all of the targets from the gallery just like taking a sight picture.

I think in about two to three years he will shoot his first match.

Alan

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My daughter is 7 now and has been ROing/scoring for my practice sessions for a couple of years now. Wednesday I bought "us" a Walther P22 to get her started and she's been dry firing in order to get ready for her first live fire session Saturday. I've got to figure out some easy to hit, and very reactive targets to make sure her first experience is a good one. Water balloons are my first thought.

I'm the MD of my club's match, so I have no worries about her being allowed to shoot when she's ready (if interested). I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, although I've had her all geared up to shoot L-10 with my .38 super for quite some time now. Now that I've changed my match to 3-gun format, I'll have to eventually introduce her to a shotgun and rifle.

If I can get my daughter shooting matches with me, there's a good possibility that she could get her mother to join us (I've had little luck). Having the entire family shoot a match would be wonderful.

I got an e-mail yesterday from a parent wanting to know if their 12 year old could shoot my match with a .22 handgun. While I'm sure the child isn't geared up for 3-gun, I let them know the child would be welcome to shoot the handgun stages for free. A rifle and shotgun would be loaned to him in a heartbeat if he wanted to give that a try after a bit of instruction/practice. Of course I have a standing policy of newbies being welcome at any of my practice sessions, and this has been a good way to introduce the sport to folks who may not be too thrilled about shooting with a group of people when they don't feel "ready".

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