Took my 16 yo daughter out for first time

[basscatfrank]

My daughter has been asking me if I would take her to the range with me to shoot my handgun. Neither one of us had any plans for Friday evening so off we went. I explained range policies, gun safety, how to load and rack the slide, and then I let her shoot. She wasn't bad. We were shooting at FBI silhouette targets. She would get one near the center mass but the next one would miss by a few inches, still she never missed the target completely. After she had emptied about 3 or 4 magazines I took the target in and rehung it upside down. I set it back out at 7 yards and told her to shoot for the head. She put 10 shots inside a 3 inch circle. Don't mess with her, boys!
After we had shot up one of the silhouettes pretty good I said to my daughter, "watch the eight". I'm not a bad shot but I don't consider myself a marksman by any means. Well, I punched a hole right through the 8 from 7 yards. Of course, I said to her that's nothing, watch this. I moved the target out to 10 yards, took aim and put my second shot almost exactly through the first hole. I'll admit I was lucky but I played it like thats how I do it all the time. As we were driving home she said to me, "Dad, if I'm ever with you and we get into a bad situation where you have to pull your gun on somebody, give me a signal and I'll go draw an "8" on him.

[xdfan80]

Thats cool. Sounds like it was a nice day at the range. She now thinks you are a pro. What were you guys shooting?

[LKB3rd]

Sounds like a great outing. I have been enjoying spending time lately with my Dad at the range, except it is the opposite. I have been teaching him to shoot, and we both have enjoyed it a lot.
He's my spotter at the rifle range, and we do little shoot-offs at the handgun range.

[basscatfrank]

Originally Posted by xdfan80

Thats cool. Sounds like it was a nice day at the range. She now thinks you are a pro. What were you guys shooting?

An XD .40

[fritzmeister]

Awesome. I shoot with my boys most of the time. It's great fun.

How long before she thinks the 40 is hers?

[Deerhunter]

She won't want the .40, she'll want her own .45

[Brickboy240]

Sounds like a nice time.

My 9 year old daughter has already shot my Ruger 22/45 several times. She's been on her own with the 10-22 for quite some time and also loves the Marlin 357 lever action with the 38Spl cowboy loads. Big fun.

However, the 22/45 has a heavy 5.5" bull barrel and is hard for her to hold up. I am thinking of buying us both a nice used Single Six later on this summer if I have some extra funds lying around. We'll try a centerfir pistol when she is a bit bigger....it might scare her right now!

I think its good for kids to learn how to shoot. My daughter LOVES to shoot her 10-22. Maybe I started her out too young, but at age 9, she begs to go shooting and will put a brick through the 10-22 in a hurry!

- Brickboy240

[cypress]

I took my 19yo daughter out to a range a week ago for her first time ever using a firearm and together we went through about 130 rounds. She had never shot anything more powerful than a BB gun. We went over safe gun handling first and I set her up on a sandbag using standard 25 yard bullseye targets at 10 yards. Initially she was hitting the target but then she started missing. I could tell she was getting frustrated but we kept at it. It was an outdoor range, and the target backing was in such bad shape I couldn't even tell where her shots were going until I started seeing the dust fly up just beyond the target. I kept going over the fundamentals and eventually we figured out she was slapping the trigger really bad. After we fixed that she start to actually get some nice groups. She even did well for her first time shooting in an isoceles stance after that. The other shooters were courteous and helpful and it was a great experience for both of us. I look forward to our next trip to the range.

[Samf]

my niece isn't even born yet, and I'm already buying her a Davey Cricket

[xdfan80]

Its fun taking someone out shooting who is new to it. Last november I took my sister to the range to try out my XD .45. She had never fired any type of handgun before. I think she had shot a 22 rifle years ago but thats it other than bb guns.
She did really well. Pretty decent groups at 10 and 15 feet. She fired about 100 rounds . At one point I had to tell her to take it easy because she did some rapid fire and they dont allow that at the range. I was laughing pretty hard when she did it though.