On a lighter/brighter note

[frreed]

Love shooting with my son. He started with BB guns and then a .22 single shot rifle. He started shooting dove with a 20 gauge when he was about 12 and then took my 12 gauge from me a couple years later. We started shooting pistols at the range when he was 12. We both love the Walther P22 and have put it through the wringer. He likes my USP 9 and shot it fairly early on. One of my favorite range memories is when he had a hot casing go down the back of his t-shirt. He wiggled, danced and grimaced, but the pistol stayed downrange until he put the piston on safe and laid it down on the table. Yes they do learn the safety rules. He still scolds me if I fail to put the gun on safe at the end of a mag.

Alas, now he is in college (in the People's Republic of Massachusetts) so our range time is most limited. Hopefully we will get to the range over his Christmas break. The Walther is feeling neglected.

[USASGT]

Congrats on the range day with your son! Sounds like a good time was had by all! I bought my son, who is now 13, a Ruger New Bearcat at a gun show about 3 years ago. He enjoyed shooting it very much until I bought him a Mark III 22/45. I think that's his favorite now. He's taken a couple of shots with one of my full-size 1911s, but he seems content to shoot the smaller caliber for now.

[johnson0317]

Well, took him back to the range last Saturday. He started out with the 10 rd revolver, but ended up shooting the Ruger Mark III they have there. I know I need to teach him better in that I need to teach him to slow the heck down. The first magazine of 10 took 2.9 seconds to discharge at a target nine feet away. Four in the bullseye, and all the rest within the nine ring except for one that was barely in the eight ring in a twelve inch target. Next magazine of ten was discharged in 2.51 seconds at a target 10 yards away. All shots within the black. I know the times because I captured it on my iPhone and timed it out when I got home. I hate to think how good he would be if he actually took his time. I can't argue too much since that mag of 10 cost as much as a single one of my .45 rounds. If I could figure out how to post the video, I would do it. It is great! At the end, he turns and grins at the camera and says, "Life is good". If any of you watch Hickok45, that is what he says at the end of his YouTube sessions...and Eli loves to watch old Hickok45. He is absolutely beautiful at the point that the picture freezes.

He immediately warmed to the Ruger and started to campaign to get one for his 11th birthday. I talked to his mother (yes, my wife) who almost floored me by saying I could get one for him. You have to remember that this is the woman that almost went into seizures when I announced my intention to not only start shooting again, but to get my CHL. She has come a long way in the last 8 months.

The long and the short of it is that I could not find a Ruger Mark III anywhere, and I did not want to wait to have it shipped in since we are celebrating his birthday on Thanksgiving. I ended up buying a Browning Buck Mark Camper for him (and 10 snap caps, 1050 bullets, a spare mag, a cleaning kit, ear protection, glasses). I researched the Browning on the internet and found almost nothing negative about it. The reviews were almost overwhelmingly positive. The only glitch I saw was that it hiccuped (for one guy) when he used Remington Golden Bullet ammo. I found this out after I bought the two 525 count boxes of...Remington Golden Bullet. I cleaned up the gun and oiled it at the important points, so hopefully this will not be a huge issue for him.

I will let you guys know how it goes with the new gun. He admits he needs to slow down, but points out that I tend to shoot very fast...so I am going to try to slow down also!!

RJ