Experience training youth to shoot long range?

[hereinaz]

How has it been for you to help youth learn to shoot long range?

I was pretty excited to get a couple pictures. Today is the first day of some hunts, and I got two pictures of two boys, one with his first bull and the other with his first buck. Shots were 675 on a bull and 575 on a buck. Guns were a 6.5 Sherman Short with 140 ELDm at about 3000 fps and 6.5 Creed with a 140 VLD-h at about 2700 fps. I was able to help get the guns set up, loads developed and doped, and helped one of the kids with fundamentals. Both kids were able to make consistent shots at over 700 yards. Dad or someone else doped the rifle for the shot.

Seems to me that kids who want to learn are blank canvas and don't have bad habits and take instruction better than the adults that ask for help. Well, one kid had a flinch shooting a too big 30-06 with a slip on recoil pad "to make it easier". I got him onto a 6.5 that was sized to fit him and he settled right in. It became fun for him instead of frustrating. I converted the other dad from a 300 win mag to 6.5 years ago (I know that was only halfway to the .223, but that was before I was shown the light).

I know the areas they were hunting, and long range is the way to confidently harvest. One shot on the buck, perfect placement and trashed the lungs and heart. Haven't heard about the shot on the elk yet, just go the pic and news.

 

[seand]

It’s been fun, I hope I don’t teach my kid bad habits, definite risk there. She can hit targets better than me, really trying to work on speed now.

Lots of range time with low recoil/suppressed rifles, she has never shot any rifles with even close to moderate recoil and I really think that’s been super important. 20-40 max rounds per session all shooting from/building field positions. Lots of prone off pack, tripod/tank trap/barricade shooting off bags at the local range.

I had my kid shoot a two day NRL hunter match last year (12yo), doing another this year and will try for a few one day events. Great practice, introduces a more variables and new field conditions, a great confidence builder, and a lot of fun.

 

[hereinaz]

I love seeing kids at the matches. They can shoot better than lots of adults!

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

The parent(s) should pay for shooting lessons from skilled instructors and stay out of it completely.

While it may hurt folks' feelings and bruise their delicate egos, far too many parents tend to not be as knowledgable as they think they are and also tend to be horrible instructors. They tend to spew their bias, just like all other areas in the kid's life, which is a major disservice to the kid and his/her ability to learn to shoot effectively.

This is just my experience based upon observations at shooting ranges and volunteering on youth hunts.

 

[hereinaz]

The parent(s) should pay for shooting lessons from skilled instructors and stay out of it completely.

While it may hurt folks' feelings and bruise their delicate egos, far too many parents tend to not be as knowledgable as they think they are and also tend to be horrible instructors. They tend to spew their bias, just like all other areas in the kid's life, which is a major disservice to the kid and his/her ability to learn to shoot effectively.

This is just my experience based upon observations at shooting ranges and volunteering on youth hunts.

Truth!

When kids are in my group at the range, I stand off for a bit, and politely ask the dad if I could share some pointers that helped me. They usually agree and then I take over and usually have them shooting tiny groups with one of my rifles and explain why their full grown human size boom stick is terrible for marksmanship.

If they don’t agree, I cringe and have to bite my tounge when they say, it’s got to surprise you…