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Thread: Teaching a kid how to aim
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15-01-2020, 20:48 #1
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Teaching a kid how to aim
I find this difficult.
My laaitie is 6 this year so I've decided it's time.
I've explained the do's and don'ts, but this will take some learning.
I've explained aiming, but it's still difficult. I can't see how he is really aiming in order to correct him.
Any advice?
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15-01-2020, 21:09 #2
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
Lol, you cannot learn how to ride a bike from a book, doing something is how a child is designed to learn.
My son is younger than yours, he’s got these cheap ass toy guns with the pink suction cup arrows, he destroyed many of them yet I promise you he is accurate with it, young minds learn through direct action.
Long gun, the same thing, first a silly toy gun, then BB gun, then a pellet gun etc.
I knew for a FACT that he was accurate when I was forced to have the talk with him, I saw line of sight how he was pointing me with his toy gun, dead straight, after that the never aim at (insert here) lesson was discussed.
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15-01-2020, 21:35 #3
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
I started off with a scoped air rifle. It was what I had and it is quite simple: "Put the crosshair on the centre of the target and gently squeeze the trigger."
The success of the hits is what keeps him going.
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15-01-2020, 22:27 #4
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
Interesting thread for me.
For my boy it was natural from a very young age to "aim' over sticks and whatever long object he could find. And anything that might resemble a handgun was also used. He is "obsessed" with guns. (But there is 1 rule!!!! Toys, sticks or whatever; no aiming at anything not to be destroyed, even in your imagination.) When he started shooting for real with a scoped and silenced .22 he could not hit anything. He also mixed up b and d in writing and handwriting was seriously horrible. It was "diagnosed" that he is left eye dominant but right handed. It confused the brain of a youngster. We just kept on shooting and he had a few therapy sessions and it corrected itself over time. He is now a crack shot. Maybe figure out the dominant sides of his body as a start and to understand a few things. (There are also a school of thought that the side of the dominant eye should be used for shooting also as seeing the target are most important. It might have been better if he shot left sided as well. We tried, but that did not work. Maybe if from very young it would have been possible.)
My daughter on the other hand is also shooting right sided but always struggled to line up her eyes and the scope and kept on closing her right eye. With patience it did not change until one day when we were shooting with the PCP and everything just snapped into place. It was like. WOW, what happened. Out of the blue she changed her head position, used the correct eye and started hitting targets. She also now is a good marksmen and thoroughly enjoys the PCP and silhouette spinning targets.
SO my advice:
Make sure of dominant parts of the body and be patient. It might take 2-3 years to get it right. A young brain and body cannot snap into the skills that you have learned and practiced over years.
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16-01-2020, 08:26 #5
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
start with 3 pieces of paper. make two pieces of paper look like the front and rear sites, and get him to align them over a target on the 3rd piece of paper . this can give him a view of what it should look like. them start with air rifles like daisy or even a pellet in deadrest so the weight doesn't throw him... and after every shot go look at the target, or put down some 2lt bottels and beer cans. nothing quite as fulfilling as seeing a kid hit some cans with a pellet.
rifles are a lot easier to learn on than pistols ive found also
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16-01-2020, 08:31 #6
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
I recently started my 5yo daughter with a nerf rifle that has a crappy plastic ‘scope’, basically just a plastic tube with crosshairs.
From day 1 I’ve been enforcing the 4 basic rules of firearm safety.
It’s amazing how quick they are to catch on, in a matter of minutes she was scoring hits at close range with proper trigger discipline and grip.
I’ve been supporting this with some PC gaming (I’m a huge nerd) which allows her to see sight picture for iron sights, red dots and ‘proper’ scopes in a risk-free way.
Next on my list of gun purchases is a .22. At this stage I’m debating whether to go straight to a scope or to do iron sights first, leaning towards the scope side.
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16-01-2020, 08:39 #7
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
As a note. You get grown people who you will also struggle to explain how sights work.
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16-01-2020, 11:32 #8
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
Thanks for the feedback.
I currently have him on a pellet gun with iron sights.
His Nerf and clap gun is also handy, but give no real feedback on aiming.
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16-01-2020, 13:14 #9
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Re: Teaching a kid how to aim
A red ryder Daisy gun, couple thousand steels BB's, a few empty coke cans and a safe environment. Draw a picture on paper showing what he should be seeing through the sights on the coke can.
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