This year has been a tough one for my family. Along with losing my mother and health problems-my daughters marriage of 15 years ended in divorce. Sadly as is so often the case, my 2 grandsons suffered the most especially the oldest- who just turned 11.
My wife and I have done all we could do to give them extra attention and have made many trips to visit them even though they live nearly 100 miles away from them. They have also spent several weekends with us.
Unlike myself and my own children ,my grandsons have lived their lives in a fairly large city and have never been exposed much to the country way of life-the woods and streams ,hunting and fishing, etc.
About a month ago I decided to deer hunt and camp with my son this year. I posted about this a couple of weeks ago .The season starts in a couple of weeks .At the same time I had a idea on something I might do with my oldest grandson-(I really do not want to post his name) After talking with my daughter- I bought a New England arms youth model single shot rifle in a .243 caliber and added a decent scope. The next weekend when he came to visit I showed it to him and ask him if he wanted to shoot it.
Now he was not completely without knowledge about firearms. I had bought him a pellet rifle a couple of years earlier and taught him the basics of shooting and gun safety. I had even let him plink some tin cans with my .22 a couple of times under my close supervision .He was excited about shooting the .243 and I explained to him that it would kick some but would not hurt him if he held it tight against his shoulder. I had him sight it and checked it for the proper eye relief of the scope-then headed for a spot on my dads land where it was safe to shoot a rifle-the same place where my dad taught me to shoot and where I taught my son to shoot.
I hung several targets up at various ranges-then reminded him of the safe and proper way to load and fire the gun-and fitted him with a set of ear plugs -and told him to fire at will
My wife and I have done all we could do to give them extra attention and have made many trips to visit them even though they live nearly 100 miles away from them. They have also spent several weekends with us.
Unlike myself and my own children ,my grandsons have lived their lives in a fairly large city and have never been exposed much to the country way of life-the woods and streams ,hunting and fishing, etc.
About a month ago I decided to deer hunt and camp with my son this year. I posted about this a couple of weeks ago .The season starts in a couple of weeks .At the same time I had a idea on something I might do with my oldest grandson-(I really do not want to post his name) After talking with my daughter- I bought a New England arms youth model single shot rifle in a .243 caliber and added a decent scope. The next weekend when he came to visit I showed it to him and ask him if he wanted to shoot it.
Now he was not completely without knowledge about firearms. I had bought him a pellet rifle a couple of years earlier and taught him the basics of shooting and gun safety. I had even let him plink some tin cans with my .22 a couple of times under my close supervision .He was excited about shooting the .243 and I explained to him that it would kick some but would not hurt him if he held it tight against his shoulder. I had him sight it and checked it for the proper eye relief of the scope-then headed for a spot on my dads land where it was safe to shoot a rifle-the same place where my dad taught me to shoot and where I taught my son to shoot.
I hung several targets up at various ranges-then reminded him of the safe and proper way to load and fire the gun-and fitted him with a set of ear plugs -and told him to fire at will
