Thread: 22lr practice

Starting to do a bit of 22lr practical shooting with my kids to help make them a bit faster and confident/comfortable taking the shot when out hunting. We live about 1/2 hour out of Taupo and thought I’d see if a anyone might like to join us and even give me a few tips on teaching the kids.
Cheers Jared

Sounds great, except I am not on the same island...One hint, get some small game sized targets (soft drink bottles, cans, metal discs etc) and dont be afraid to take some larger targets like a 1.5 bottle or a pack of balloons as these represent great "deer sized" kill zone targets..... These can be set up at different ranges and kids react well to the reaction of them being hit far more than paper. Practise accuracy on paper to start with, looking at techniques etc but the reactive session afterwards is fun and helps keep their attention.

One pointer I always get new shooters to do is I get them to try and see their hole / shot through the scope before they look up...this stops them popping their head up once the trigger has pulled and I can go into why I think it works so well on accuracy, but why is not really important. Results talk for themselves...

Just want to say good on you mate.

I been taking my son to shoot as well. I started him off on a heavy single shot to make sure he does not wave the gun around. Now that he is more familiar guns I lightened and repurposed a 10/22 for him to use.

Similar to what Timatalon suggested, I get my son to shoot steel rather than paper.

Unfortunately we are in Auckland, a bit of a long way to Taupo.

If you have young kids who you want to make it fun for, I can recommend bunch o balloons... $12 for 100 water balloons that you fill up in one go.

Awesome thanks
Some great tips and ideas

A spinner or a know your limits rack at 40m will be good, start off shooting prone, then add some time restrictions and make it a fun competition. Once they get confident start doing it off various obstacles and, lean it towards the practical field shooting as seen in thelikes of taranaki long range shooters comps or simon Gillaces events. Since starting to compete there ive seen dramatic improvements in my shooting both at the range and in the field on deer

Good stuff.

I’ll be doing exactly this with my youngest boy this evening.

To keep it fun, I use beer cans filled with water, and set them up at varying ranges, say 18 or 24. Then give the young fella some tuition for the first half dozen or so, then over to him to take out the rest. I’ll sit back and watch him rather than the target, looking specifically for cheek weld, eye relief, if he’s struggling to position his head correctly, how he controls the trigger - any jerks snatches?

Then, how confident and smooth he is with ejecting, cycling the bolt, reloading. I can hear if he’s hit the can, no need to look at that.

We’re training tonight with the extra long sitting position bipod, and how to position the body with elbows on legs etc.

And hopefully killing plenty of bunnies.

With teenagers shooting the centrefires, I like to sneak a snapcap in every now and then. I say it's to check for flinching but maybe it's just because I'm an A-hole!

Speaking of know your limits rack, wasn't there a NZ company making/selling it in NZ? I can't remember the name.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Good stuff.

I’ll be doing exactly this with my youngest boy this evening.

To keep it fun, I use beer cans filled with water, and set them up at varying ranges, say 18 or 24. Then give the young fella some tuition for the first half dozen or so, then over to him to take out the rest. I’ll sit back and watch him rather than the target, looking specifically for cheek weld, eye relief, if he’s struggling to position his head correctly, how he controls the trigger - any jerks snatches?

Then, how confident and smooth he is with ejecting, cycling the bolt, reloading. I can hear if he’s hit the can, no need to look at that.

We’re training tonight with the extra long sitting position bipod, and how to position the body with elbows on legs etc.

And hopefully killing plenty of bunnies.

One of the things I do with teenagers is grab a 15. soft dring bottle or two. Fill them with water. and get them to hit it as hard as they can with a fist, and then a hammer to see what damage they do to it....I then get a fresh one and get them to shoot it with a .22 or a centrefire...Then I point out how much damage they did with a hammer / fist and how much the humble 22 did....It is a great way of demonstrating that just cos it is small (.22) it does not make it a toy...Most kids have hit a finger or hand with a hammer etc so wil know how much that hurts...when they see the damage to the bottle it should give them an idea of how much energy is in a bullet...

@timattalon When I was at primary school (1968-75) we were shown a firearm safety film. The guy used a centrefire (for some reason I keep thinking a 303, even though I wouldn't have know what one was) and shot 20 litre clear plastic drums of water. To this day I can still picture the slo-mo footage of the containers being blown up. Made a real impression on me

Rifle ranch targets make some awesome target packs. We use them at the section22 22lr matches. There has been a heap sold to NI shooters and match directors too.

Originally Posted by Trigger

Speaking of know your limits rack, wasn't there a NZ company making/selling it in NZ? I can't remember the name.

Try @Cowboy06 on here - he sells them.