My Son Shoots His BB Gun For the First Time
I remember my first BB gun when I was a kid, and over Labor Day weekend, my son got to experience his fist BB gun.
It was like a passing of the torch this weekend at my little farm in the woods. Like my dad taught me when I was a young boy, I taught my son the importance of gun safety by learning with a BB gun.
This gun was first given to his older brother who has since grown out of it and is now ready to move up to a shotgun. (That will be another story down the road.)
So you know, my son is not out running wild with a BB gun, shooting randomly at whatever he wants...oh no, there are rules.
Ever since my son was big enough to know what a gun is, he has been a little crazy for them. Now I never got out any guns around him until just a year ago but for some reason he has already developed a love for them. I was a little concerned at first because although I have owned guns for many years, I was never as excited about them as my son is.
He started off with nerf guns and playing with his brother and because he was so crazy about guns, I waited a little while before letting him shoot the BB gun just to make sure he was old enough to be able to respect the gun and learn the rules.
We got out some paper plates and drew some targets and we had a lot of laughs. We hung them up in a safe place where no one would be walking behind them.
I also added something to the safety list, I picked us up some shooting glasses to protect our eyes in case a BB or a pellet bounces back. (A few did, by the way, so this was a good investment.)
I spent some time teaching him the proper way to hold the gun, the proper way to use the safety, how to load it, and how to care for it.
We also worked on walking with a gun when with another person. Always holding the gun away from the other person and never putting the barrel in the dirt. Yes, you have to teach them not to put the barrel in the dirt. Lol.
We practiced together sitting on some buckets and standing up. Then we took a walk around the property and he was excited. He said it felt like we were hunting. He just shot a few downed trees and logs.
We even saw a few deer while we were walking. We checked some of our deer stands and picked out some trees to hang some more, and all in all we had a great time.
Someday he will move up to a shotgun and a rifle but for now, he is in training to learn how to safely shoot and respect his BB gun while honing in his shooting skills so someday he can shoot some small game and that big buck someday.