Range Report, or Making Sarah Brady Cry

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, my Dad and I had the opportunity to take my 12 year old to the range for the very first time.  She was excited about it, and naturally a bit nervous.

My Dad is a member at a very nice outdoor range.  We were able to set up on the 25-meter range and had it all to ourselves.

We started off with a single-shot lever action .22LR rifle.  You open the breech, insert the round, close the breech, and then manually cock the hammer.  Excellent choice for a starter rifle as it gave plenty of safe opportunities for explaining the process and familiarizing her with the weapon.

Papa showing her how to hold and aim the rifle

I was quite impressed with her marksmanship.  The rifle was zeroed at 100 yards, so naturally her shots were landing high.  After she adjusted her aim point down, she started putting rounds right in the center, even without a scope.

There, that's where I hit it

Why yes, that is a bulls-eye I see!!

After she was comfortable with the lever-action, we stepped up to the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22.  This time she got to use a scope instead of iron sights.  The other interesting thing is that she naturally adopted a "sniper's grip", pulling the butt of the weapon into her shoulder with her offhand, instead of gripping the forestock.  It gave her a very stable position.  By the end of the day, she was getting 10-round groups that could be covered with 2 silver dollars (some with just 1 silver dollar).

At the end of the day, Papa let her try a slightly more powerful rifle.  She only sent one round downrange, but had a huge grin on her face the whole time.

My, what a big rifle you have

Perhaps the best part for me was when Papa suggested she could hang her target on the back of her door, and she looked at me with wide eyes and asked "Can I?!?!?".  How in the world do you say no to that?  Personally, I'd much prefer that she hang her targets on the wall than posters of the latest teen idol or boy band :)