Tweet
So, I’m taking my 13 year old boy on his first hunt this winter— we will be going for wild boar. He has always been a dead eye with a .22 and has shot a. 38 lever gun a couple times. He tried a mini-14 once and didn’t like it one bit. He did like shooting a AR-15, though. Go figure.
Anyway, this last weekend was the time when he would finally get to try a “big gun”- a Model 70 .308. Our first practice before the big hunt. For months I’ve wondered how he would handle it. He is pretty small (under 100 lbs) but the gun does have a nice buttpad and a muzzle brake. We woke up before dawn and headed out to the range. I set up the target at 50 yards and he loaded three rounds into the magazine— just like we had practiced dozens of times at home with dummy rounds. His first shot was right on the money. Score! His second two shots? Not so much. He was anticipating the recoil.
He settled in after another 20 rounds or so, though. I had to remind him to slow down— hunting barrels don’t like getting overheated. He was loving it! Finally, my son said he wanted to qualify for the “big boy” 300 yard range. At our range, one must get 3-5 rounds inside of 3 MOA at 100 yards to qualify. I sent him into the office to get the target. He was all nerves. Honestly, my only goal this weekend was to get him comfortable with the gun. The mission had already been accomplished but he wanted to go for it.
His first qualifying shot was way off of bulls. Like 5 inches down and left. He was heartbroken until I explained he just had to get a 3 MOA group. So, he aimed for his errant hole and shot a sub-MOA group for all three shots. He was literally jumping his way down range to retrieve his target he was so happy to qualify. He pinned his target on the wall by his bed.
I gotta say I’m pretty pleased with how things went. He loves the gun almost as much as he loves wild boar maple breakfast sausage. Our next mission is to practice on the 300 yard range. After that, we will dial things in with the hunting ammo and then we are off to fill the freezer!
Anyway, this last weekend was the time when he would finally get to try a “big gun”- a Model 70 .308. Our first practice before the big hunt. For months I’ve wondered how he would handle it. He is pretty small (under 100 lbs) but the gun does have a nice buttpad and a muzzle brake. We woke up before dawn and headed out to the range. I set up the target at 50 yards and he loaded three rounds into the magazine— just like we had practiced dozens of times at home with dummy rounds. His first shot was right on the money. Score! His second two shots? Not so much. He was anticipating the recoil.
He settled in after another 20 rounds or so, though. I had to remind him to slow down— hunting barrels don’t like getting overheated. He was loving it! Finally, my son said he wanted to qualify for the “big boy” 300 yard range. At our range, one must get 3-5 rounds inside of 3 MOA at 100 yards to qualify. I sent him into the office to get the target. He was all nerves. Honestly, my only goal this weekend was to get him comfortable with the gun. The mission had already been accomplished but he wanted to go for it.
His first qualifying shot was way off of bulls. Like 5 inches down and left. He was heartbroken until I explained he just had to get a 3 MOA group. So, he aimed for his errant hole and shot a sub-MOA group for all three shots. He was literally jumping his way down range to retrieve his target he was so happy to qualify. He pinned his target on the wall by his bed.
I gotta say I’m pretty pleased with how things went. He loves the gun almost as much as he loves wild boar maple breakfast sausage. Our next mission is to practice on the 300 yard range. After that, we will dial things in with the hunting ammo and then we are off to fill the freezer!
Comment