# My grandson's first handgun outing



## Bisley (Aug 24, 2008)

I posted this on another forum I frequent, but thought some of you folks might appreciate it, too:

I took my oldest grandson (age 14) for some handgun fundamentals on Friday. He has been hunting since he was 7 and is pretty good with rifles and shotguns. He has actually killed a bigger buck (whitetail) than either his father or me, a one shot DRT kill on a large ten point at about 100 yards, when he was 9 yo. with a .243. He was shooting my .44 magnum Marlin 94 when he was 9 yo, so he is definitely ready to take another step up the ladder.

Still, I started him off gently, with .22, 9mm, and .38 Special, and a few .45 ACPs with the 1911, for a 'reward.' I will save the 10mm and .357 Magnums for later on, so he has something to look forward to. He is a big kid, and game for anything when it comes to shooting, but I wanted to teach him trigger control and follow-through on something mild, and 'burn in' some more safety fundamentals. He has been running free with his buddies on the airsoft stuff for a while, so he needed to be brought back down to earth and return to acting like an adult, when shooting for real. He understands this and knows that his shooting privileges are still 'probationary,' so he did OK.

We had a great day. He handled everything safely, fit right into the range routine, and the boy can shoot. Here he is collecting his reward - shooting the Springfield Loaded Champion - a Commander sized 1911 in .45 ACP.



















I started him out with the CZ-75B with the Kadet .22 conversion installed, and he did really good with it. I let him shoot it till he got bored with it, at 10 yards, then let him convert it to 9mm, which he did quite handily in about 2 minutes. He loved the feel of the recoil and was doing well with his grip and follow-through. The only prompts I had to give him for all of the rest of the day was to lean forward and get higher up on the grip. He has a tendency, like most folks I've taught, to gradually go into a rearward slump, which was making him sloppy. He had lots of flyers at first, but some bulls eyes too. I had to slow him down to 3 or 5 rounds at a time, to let him 'regroup' every so often, but he improved steadily through about 200 rounds.

Next up was the S&W Model 10 revolver. I was going to make him shoot my Model 63 (.22) first to help him make the transition into revolvers, but decided he didn't need to. I let him shoot the Model 10 in single action till he started scoring pretty well (about 3 reloads), then told him to shoot it double-action the rest of the way. He started hitting good again after about two reloads and shot it very well through about 100 rounds.

By this time, he wanted to shoot the .45, so I let him shoot it at some 10" metal discs, from about 20 yards. He didn't miss a beat through 4 magazines, plinking them with regularity. But he started tiring after a while, and missing more, so we took a break and ate our sandwiches. Then we went back to the paper with the .45, and he shot some decent targets, from 10 yards, until I ran out of .45 ammo. I didn't anticipate him shooting it that much, and only brought about 90 rounds.

He was still raring to go, so I converted the CZ-75B back to .22, and just turned him loose to shoot all he wanted. When he started winding down a little, I fixed him one more target, with a 2" sticker on it, and told him if he would put ten in the bulls eye from seven yards, I'd let him shoot the 1911 all he wanted on the next trip. (Actually, I just wanted him to have one really great target to show off to everybody, so I let him shoot from 7 yards.)

He surprised me and did just that, so I challenged him to "double or nothing" (which I had to explain to him) and he agreed. He put 9 more solidly inside the 2" circle and nicked the red dot slightly with the round that got away, so I gave him credit for it, but told him he would have to do it from 10 yards, next time.










It was a really fine day for both of us, and I'm gonna have to start practicing more, so he won't start beating me, too soon. Best of all, he has good taste in firearms. He liked them all but he loved the 1911 and the Model 10.


----------



## SailDesign (Jul 17, 2014)

Fun!!


----------



## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

That will be a day that he will never forget. 
GW


----------



## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

Really cool!


----------



## hks95134 (Feb 13, 2015)

I usually go through the list of 20 or so firearms rules whenever I take someone to the range.

It is well to emphasize and repeat them over and over.

#1 - treat as loaded whether loaded or not.

#2 - never point at anybody.

#3 - finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.

#4 - consider the backstop and all around the target before shooting.

Etc.


----------



## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

My *envy* knows no bounds!
I wish that we had a grandson...
But I bet that one of our granddaughters will become a shooter.
Sure as heck, I'm gonna try...

I have always held that a 10-year-old with proper preparation can successfully shoot the M1911 in .45 ACP.
Thanks for, once again, proving me right.

What fun!


----------



## TAPnRACK (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks for sharing, good memories were made I bet.

My boy is only 6... hoping to start him on a .22LR rifle (bolt action) next year when he's 7. We'll go from there and see if he's ready for a .22LR pistol down the road.







Here he is practicing with his Nerf rifle, lol.


----------



## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

This reminds me of my nephew who is now in his 30s. His Dad lived out of state for much of his life. I taught him to shoot at 9 years old with a 10/22 that was promised to him for his 12th birthday. When the birthday finally came and he arrived for the party I watched his eyes looking for a long thin box on the table of gifts. After what must have seemed an eternity to him I handed over the little Ruger. He promptly took it out and outshot his Dad and his other uncle. He still mentions that to me after 20 some years.
GW


----------



## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

*TnR*, I use very similar Nerf ammunition in a blow-gun made from white-PVC water pipe.
Our son-in-law turned me on to it: Computer programmers use the outfit to blow off steam, when they're working on a difficult project. He said that he'd be concentrating on his screen, and, Zap!, a Nerf dart would fly by his head. So he took it up in self-defense.

My blow-gun is short, only a pocketable one-foot length of tubing. Both the blow-gun and the darts made it through the TSA line unquestioned.
If I'm careful, the outfit is awesomely accurate.

Try it.


----------



## TAPnRACK (Jan 30, 2013)

I'll give it a shot (pun intended).


----------



## berettatoter (Sep 1, 2011)

Nice OP! Your grandson is lucky to have you around.


----------



## Bisley (Aug 24, 2008)

Thanks. He's ready to go again - I'm gonna have to teach him to reload, I think, so we can keep up.


----------

