So my 9 year old has recently shown enough maturity to overcome my wife's concerns about him learning to shoot a real rifle (as opposed to air rifle). So today we went off to the range to give him a chance to learn the basics on a .22lr cricket rifle and work up to a 10/22 if possible. (The cricket was intended for his little sisters and the 10/22 is the LTR that I use for Appleseed.)
The day was quite imperfect for training. The rain was coming down pretty hard and steady and made me scared to go to Martinsville as the range gets cut off by water rather easily making a wasted trip, or worse a trapped set of shooters.
So we made the longer trek to Riley (45 minutes) and I hoped the weather would get better and the boy would not use up all his patience in the drive. When we got there the rain had subsided some and by the time we were ready to shoot there was a break in the rain.
Riley has a great 25 yard setup with a new sand filled berm that was perfect for us to plink at. To test the rifle I setup at 25 yards and tried the first shot from the cricket to test the sights and function of the rifle. For those unfamiliar with the cricket series, they are a single shot bolt action with a manual cocking knob. In other words, to shoot it you have to stuff the .22lr round in the chamber (it does not have a feed ramp), close the bolt hard (to get the extractor around the rim), slide the bold handle down, and then pull the cocking knob end of the bolt back all before the rifle can be fired. After firing the rifle extracts like a normal bolt action (the more energetic you are the farther the brass goes).
You can see the cocking handle here at the back of the bolt:
The sights are a crude apeture setup that I had little hope in, but I loaded up a Remington cyclone round and fired at the center diamond on a shoot & see target. The recoil was light, as was sound, and amazingly enough the round hit the red center diamond at the very center of the target .25" to the left - breaking the actual red. I was stunned! It was more than accurate enough, it frankly was scary accurate.
So I setup the boy not far from the target and reviewed the safety rules twice. Then we put the first round into the target, or better put - next to the target (but within the berm).
Here he is looking at his results:
We went over sight alignment and he began getting in regular hits. As soon as he had the swing of things he began doing the whole load/cock/fire/eject process:
He even came up with his own modified sitting position:
Soon the skies opened up again and we had to improvise a better sitting position:
(Yes, that is an umbrella shoved down the back of his shirt!)
He got really good at the whole process and near the end suddenly began missing alot but hitting the same point on the berm. We talked and I found out that he simply liked watching the sand crater far more than a hole appear on the target! Go figure...
Anyways, he really got going on the cricket (sorry about the low quality of the phone camera - it misses him finally keeping his finger off the trigger until sights are on the target):
In the end I did switch him over to the 10/22 for a few magazines and he loved the rapid fire and put a lot of holes in the target. Soon the rain chased us back to the covered line and I took a few minutes with the cricket to myself. I must say that it is easily as accurate as my 10/22 and likely far more. I really need to get a web sling mounted on it ASAP.
Eventually the rain was too much and we had done enough so it was time to go home.
The boy did really well and only broke 180 once. He did well with the mechanics and had a decent eye for hitting what he wanted (even if that was sand instead of target). We had a great father/son day. And most of all, he got some reward for his hard work and growing maturity.
All in all, a great way to spend the day, even in the rain.
The day was quite imperfect for training. The rain was coming down pretty hard and steady and made me scared to go to Martinsville as the range gets cut off by water rather easily making a wasted trip, or worse a trapped set of shooters.
So we made the longer trek to Riley (45 minutes) and I hoped the weather would get better and the boy would not use up all his patience in the drive. When we got there the rain had subsided some and by the time we were ready to shoot there was a break in the rain.
Riley has a great 25 yard setup with a new sand filled berm that was perfect for us to plink at. To test the rifle I setup at 25 yards and tried the first shot from the cricket to test the sights and function of the rifle. For those unfamiliar with the cricket series, they are a single shot bolt action with a manual cocking knob. In other words, to shoot it you have to stuff the .22lr round in the chamber (it does not have a feed ramp), close the bolt hard (to get the extractor around the rim), slide the bold handle down, and then pull the cocking knob end of the bolt back all before the rifle can be fired. After firing the rifle extracts like a normal bolt action (the more energetic you are the farther the brass goes).
You can see the cocking handle here at the back of the bolt:
The sights are a crude apeture setup that I had little hope in, but I loaded up a Remington cyclone round and fired at the center diamond on a shoot & see target. The recoil was light, as was sound, and amazingly enough the round hit the red center diamond at the very center of the target .25" to the left - breaking the actual red. I was stunned! It was more than accurate enough, it frankly was scary accurate.
So I setup the boy not far from the target and reviewed the safety rules twice. Then we put the first round into the target, or better put - next to the target (but within the berm).
Here he is looking at his results:
We went over sight alignment and he began getting in regular hits. As soon as he had the swing of things he began doing the whole load/cock/fire/eject process:
He even came up with his own modified sitting position:
Soon the skies opened up again and we had to improvise a better sitting position:
(Yes, that is an umbrella shoved down the back of his shirt!)
He got really good at the whole process and near the end suddenly began missing alot but hitting the same point on the berm. We talked and I found out that he simply liked watching the sand crater far more than a hole appear on the target! Go figure...
Anyways, he really got going on the cricket (sorry about the low quality of the phone camera - it misses him finally keeping his finger off the trigger until sights are on the target):
In the end I did switch him over to the 10/22 for a few magazines and he loved the rapid fire and put a lot of holes in the target. Soon the rain chased us back to the covered line and I took a few minutes with the cricket to myself. I must say that it is easily as accurate as my 10/22 and likely far more. I really need to get a web sling mounted on it ASAP.
Eventually the rain was too much and we had done enough so it was time to go home.
The boy did really well and only broke 180 once. He did well with the mechanics and had a decent eye for hitting what he wanted (even if that was sand instead of target). We had a great father/son day. And most of all, he got some reward for his hard work and growing maturity.
All in all, a great way to spend the day, even in the rain.
.
