Shooting with the family

So I have been the family to try and get them out shooting more lately and been having some fun. My wife and I have a 16 year old daughter and a 13 year old boy. Its easier to get son out to have some fun but daughter has been more of a challenge. So under some distress I managed to get us all out to play around. They all have shot some, I'm just trying to drum up a little more interest in the idea of shooting as a group. The first time out we had a Rossi 357 lever action, a Smith MP 40 and a Browning Buckmark. Daughter wasn't having any luck, son had some hits on target and wife was liking the lever action and could hit a few with the MP 40. But I quickly learned that from lack of use and unfamiliarity somebodies thumb was going to get wacked by a slide and I had watch them like a hawk.


So I took another route, I have snap caps for 45 acp and 38 special so later I got them to do some dry firing in the house. This way they could load mags, operate the slide and try to keep the front sight steady during the trigger break. Over two sessions probably got almost an hour of dry firing and think they all are more comfortable about the controls. Used a G21, Ruger 1911 commander. Then brought in a Smith model 10. As far as favorites the G21 took a back seat and they all thought the Model 10 was the cats meow because "easier" to operate and had a great trigger. I tried to stay away from saying one was better than the other and just them fun.

Reactive targets at close range do wonders for building new shooters enthusiasm. Balloons, clay birds, or jugs of water.

Onions, oranges, Tomatos all work pretty well also.

The S&W M10 IS the cat's meow for teaching handgun shooting IMO.

"Reactive targets at close range do wonders for building new shooters enthusiasm. Balloons, clay birds, or jugs of water."

^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^

Step back, use just the 22's. The heavier calibers, (357, 40 etc) can turn them off.
Next,,, move a bit closer, and make reactive target larger. You WANT them to hit things,, and when the target reacts,,, it becomes FUN! Making it easy,,, for the first few times,,, allows for slow & careful changes. Later on,, you can move a bit further back. then you can make the targets smaller. Once they become comfortable,,, then step up to 38 spls in a 357. Later you can continue on to bigger calibers, and longer distances.

I know,,, I've been doing this for over 20 years with new, young, older, lady, teens etc.

And sometimes they just won't be interested.

My kids learned to shoot when they were 8. They thought it was cool but didn't think it was that much fun. Tried exploding targets, animal crackers, balloons, clay pigeons, soda bottles/cans, steel, etc.

As adults neither one wants anything to do with guns.

I put up a old sheet of plywood and staple balloons on it. When from a little Daisy BB gun to 22s.
I got a little Stevens Maynard they could hold themselves until they were about 8, then a Rem66
that I would single load when more than one kid was involved. One on one I would load it up and
stand right behind them. I didn't have to twist their arm they loved to shoot balloons. Bullseye not
so much. As they got older they didn't do much shooting, got involved in other recreation. Except
for my Grand daughter she loves to hunt & fish. She packs a pistol everyday because her work
puts her in some crummy neiborhoods.

Thanks for the good ideas you guys it should be a lot more fun using balloons and Etc

If YOU want a challenge, try cheap tennis balls. @ a $1.52/3 at the local Walmart, they're a bargain and will last for quite a while using .22's, with larger calibers--no t quite so long. Hits and slightly low "hits" and they react nicely. Just keep movin' 'em downrange and they become more difficult. Don't restrict yourself to rifles and handguns--they work well with shotguns too! YMMV--Stan