Yesterday I took the son and my visiting nephew out to the range for 3 1/2 hours. 300 rounds of 45, 44 Mag, 300 Blk, and 308, plus 300 rounds 22lr later, my nephew now knows how to shoot. Born and raised in California, by a mother who was negative on firearms, at 35 he never had a chance to learn about firearms. Other then a friends Glock he had never fired a pistol and never fired a rifle of any kind. Started him with 1911’s and safety training first. Then some basic principles of marksmanship. He picked it up fast and was consistently putting his shots in the black at ten yards. 25 is still a challenge for him. After letting him try out the 44 Magnum wheel gun, I got out the Ruger 10/22’s and let him get comfortable with framing a sight picture and shooting at 25 yards. Plus all the aspects of loading, unloading, checking the chamber and all the other safety rules. After we ran out of 22 ammo we moved over to the 100 yard range, and I had him practicing with the suppressed 300 Blk. With the reduced noise, he discovered I was right when I told him he was flinching when he pulled the trigger. So we worked on that until he was letting a smooth let off and doing nice groups. Finally I got out the M1A and let him run through 100 rounds of 308. By the end of the day he was doing pretty darn good.
I didn’t say much about my son, because he is a dam good shot already, but living in a big city and working he doesn’t get much chance to shoot. It was just nice to see him for the first time in about three months. The two of them and my wife and I have done a lot of traveling overseas together, and my nephew is like a second son in a lot of ways. I really enjoyed teaching him how to shoot even if I had to wait 35 years to do it! He told me later he would remember this day for a long time. I will as well.