Didn't get a chance to post this last weekend, but took my son out to Drake landing to shoot the shotgun I bought him for Christmas. It's been a busy start of the year and I haven't been out shooting as much as I would like, so Ben hasn't shot his new gun since Christmas Day. I asked him if he wanted to go shoot, and his immediate response was, "Can I shoot the course?" Keep in mind that Ben turned 9 years old two weeks ago, and has cycled maybe ten rounds total through a shotgun in his life, and most with me having my hand on him and under the gun. I told him that we'd start off just shooting the gun again and see how it went. When we were signing in, Dan (owner of Drake Landing) asked me if Ben was going to shoot. I told Dan I was hoping to use his orientation station to let Ben shoot his gun a little bit before I shot the course. Dan said that his relays on the traps had been knocked out by lightning, but being Dan, he sent a trapper to the five stand with me and locked out the wobble trap in center position to throw a high straight bird, essentially monopolizing the whole five stand. Keep in mind this is Saturday at 11:00, his busiest day of the week, which just speaks to the kind of guy Dan is and the kind of place he runs.
I put Ben in the third station behind the trap and we started out by going over the gun and discussing proper handling and safety. I put a shell in the gun and told him to shoot at an unbroken clay on the ground, which he did by himself about three times. I then went about giving him some instruction on shooting the bird coming off of the trap, talking about the lead, and where he needed to be to hit the bird. I had him follow a few with no shells in the gun to get him used to swinging on the bird. I was sure he was going to just yank the trigger when the trap went off, like I've seen many people do that I've taken shooting for the first time. Instead, he was late, trying to hit the bird as it started to fall. A little more coaching telling him to cover the bird with the barrel on the way up, and he hits the next bird dead center, his first one ever. He didn't even know he'd hit it, I had to tell him. Honestly I'd have been happy if that's all that happened that day. But, it gets better.
He reloads and hits the next two. He drops two or three in a row, and then proceeded to hit eight straight!
With the realization that he could do this, we left the five stand and went out on the course.
I told Ben that he could watch me shoot, and after seeing the targets, he could try to shoot any of them he felt he could hit. He skipped the first two stations on the old course, but the A bird on station three was mostly straight away with a slight right to left, and dropping. I shot three out of four on the pair. A little coaching on where to shoot the bird based on its flight, and after missing the first one, Ben shot three straight on the A. Station four is a rabbit and a chondelle, and he decided he wanted to shoot the rabbit. I thought, oh boy, a rabbit,fast moving, straight right to left, and hopping. Will he be able to swing on it and hit the bird? Missed the first three, but centered the last one. He ended up shooting at six or seven stations on the course, and hit some crossing birds that I never would have thought possible. He of course kept up with every target he shot that day on the scorecard. I took just over fifty shells for him, and he shot every one. At the end of the day he added it up and he hit 21 targets between the five stand and the course. I know grown men who haven't fared as well. Needless to say, it was a great Father's Day present for me, and a great reminder not to underestimate Ben just because of his age. Links to a few videos below.
https://flic.kr/p/JQm8KH
https://flic.kr/p/28pRx87
Mike
06-24-2018, 04:30 PM
First Time Shooting Clays by Mike Smith, on Flickr
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