NRA Youth Shooting Camp, Carmi Rifle Club

Volunteers were busy all day at the Carmi Rifle Club for our annual NRA Youth Shooting Camp.  The morning began with a detailed safety briefing for the students, then they broke into two groups for shotgun (outdoors) and pistol training(indoors).  Here we see a bit of the action at the indoor pistol range where the kids had the opportunity to try semi-autos, single action and double action revolvers.   After a delicious catered dinner all shooting was outdoors, where they shot a variety of pistols and rifles.

I worked the .22 rifle stage and stuffed magazines nonstop until the end of the event.  We had many targets from close up, out to the 100 yard berm.  It is always amazing to me to watch new shooters work their way out on the different targets, and then start breaking clay pigeons at 100 yards with a rifle that is sighted in at 25 yards.  These kids were smart, and every one of them that tried it succeeded.

Events like this one are learning events for the teachers, too.  All day long we are preaching and practicing safety.  The kids soak it up if you feed it to them.  Adjustable length stocks are one of the greatest improvements you can add to a rifle.  Every kid is a different size, and one .22 rifle was used more than any other, because it could be adjusted.  Good scopes help kids shoot well. An adjustable rest for the bench is imperative.  Kids can shoot a rifle well if they don't have to support the front end of the rifle; and again, every kid is a different size.  Good triggers help the kids, too.  Every .22 rifle we used today had a light, crisp trigger, and most of the kids took to a good squeeze with no trouble.