Boy Scout weekend at the range.

[bear67]

This past weekend was our "gunpowder therapy" weekend campout for our Boy Scout Troop. I have worked with Boy Scout and 4-H shooting groups for 40 years and hope I can make many more. BSA requires someone with instructor rating or better to be present for Boy Scouts to shoot. Currently, I am the only local leader qualified so they schedule the dates so I can be there. We have a wonderful range on a local 1700 acre ranch and it makes for a great weekend. We have open shooting and 50' qualification targets for the 22s and have a trap range.

In past years we have had 40+ boys shooting and shot over 110000 rounds in a day and a half. Usually have 8 single shot rifles on 8 stations with a couple of spare rifles. The trap range is one at a time, but we shoot all day. Troop supplies 22 ammo and clay birds and the boys supply shotgun shells is they want to shoot. I can usually get eveyrthing donated and made even the 22 RF work this year. We had fewer boys and it was a little easier although I had great help from the adults registered with the unit.

Over half of the boys had never shot a rifle this year (lots of new scouts just bridged over from Webelos). The older boys really are into shotgun games and was most popular by far this time. All together a fun and productful day. These young men are the future of shooting, hunting and protecting our gun rights. Tomorrow night we will teach them how to clean the guns used and talk about what the second amendment means to them and our country.

I encourage all of you to volunteer your time with youth shooting in any form--you will get more out of it than you give.

[osteodoc08]

As an Eagle Scout and OA member, thank you.

I try to teach medicine merit badge every year if time allows and do their annual physicals for a local scout troop. Very rewarding.

[Blacksmith]

In past years we have had 40+ boys shooting and shot over 110000 rounds in a day and a half.

I encourage all of you to volunteer your time with youth shooting in any form--you will get more out of it than you give.

Wow! That is a lot of ammo no wonder there is a shortage!:kidding:

I have worked with a Christian Scout group for a number of years doing something similar. And I instruct and coach a junior air rifle team all year long. Be sure to tell those scouts and any other juniors places to look for junior programs to keep on shooting. Two good resources are:

The CMP club locator, just put in the state to see all affiliated clubs in the state..
http://ct.thecmp.org/app/v1/index.php?do=clubSearch

NRA locator.
http://findnra.nra.org/

[BruceB]

In the late '70s, our local Yellowknife gun club was approached by one of the school boards to see if we'd be interested in instructing junior-high students..... EVERY Wednesday afternoon, all afternoon, for a period of about nine weeks in the fall, and another group for nine weeks in the spring term. The school was sponsoring a wide variety of different recreational and craft activities in those periods, and the students would "bid" to be included in groups which interested them. The curriculum was to be whatever we decided to teach.

I was about the only club instructor who worked shifts and was thus available in normal school hours.

Over the weeks, those young men and women started with .22 rifles indoors, and we then progressed through .22 handgun, muzzle-loading muskets, cap-and-ball revolvers, the full range of centerfire revolvers and autoloading handguns (INCLUDING .44 Magnum) as well as a wide variety of high-power rifles when the weather moderated..... right up to my .404 Jeffery.

The young adults got an INTENSIVE indoctrination. Safe handling was the primary lesson, but that still allowed for plenty of enjoyment.

Typical class size was about fifteen, and other club members helped me when possible.

You know how teen-agers hate to get out of bed? Well....by popular demand from the classes we found ourselves spending ADDITIONAL sessions at our outdoor range on SATURDAY mornings! The students actually rose early for range trips! The range had plenty of sandy dunes and hills, so we also did a bit of four-wheeling with members' trucks full of students on the way home, much to their delight.

This program lasted a few years, and the "shooting" class was always the first one to have full enrollment. Quite a compliment.

The really big compliment was that, even twenty years later as I prepared to leave the North, former students from that class (now parents themselves) would meet me on the street and tell me how THEY were now teaching their own children the same things I had taught them.

This is truly a classic example of "bread on the waters",

[bear67]

Blacksmith, my fat fingers put an extra 0 in that number---actual was 11K--still lots on a weekend.

[contender1]

As a Scouter who has been a member in the same Troop for 44 years, (Eagle, 5 Palms, OA, etc,) I too volunteer as the local NRA instructor for the shooting sports merit badges & other shoots. I truly believe in giving back & have seen the results. Two of my "boys" are Marines with several tours behind them.
Congrats on having such a great turnout & keeping them boys interested in Scouting AND shooting!