Bringing Guests to the Range

[Hiltonizer]

Over the last year, I recall a few threads with relatively new gun owners asking questions about bringing a guest to their range. I myself having received my LTC in Jan 09 have taken quite a few guests to my range for their first shooting experience.

I figure, with the new year, gun sales at very high levels, and a renewed American spirit towards self sufficiency and preparedness... now might be a good time to exchange some tips and other thoughts regarding bringing new shooters and guests to the range.

A few thoughts of mine:

- As I think anyone here will agree, making sure the rules of safety are very clear is extremely important. We will all have the tough-guy friend who acts bored or contemptuous of safety precautions, but in reality.. I believe new shooters are happy and encouraged by being taken by someone who is taking their safety seriously. Stressing safety and professionalism does a lot more for taking the bubba-effect out of shooting than it does make it boring. I try to blend stressing safety to make new shooters more comfortable, as there can be a lot of apprehension in firing a firearm for the first time.
-- Part of this is always having a jar of disposable plugs, and a few extra safety goggles. They are cheap enough and light enough to keep in your range bag for last second guests

- I try my best to set first time shooters up for success. Guns that are easy to shoot (my mark 3 and AR) at closer ranges. New shooters are encouraged by hitting the 'bulls eye"

- Uncrowded range times are important in my opinion. A crowded range can make safety explanation, and question answering difficult. If possible, I try to bring guests late on a Sunday or during a weekday when my club is usually deserted. Aside from the excess noise, new shooters can be intimidated by a bunch of experienced shooters all on the bench at the same time. I've been lucky by having some great guys at my club be the ones there at times it wasn't abandoned, and helped tremendously with new shooters by letting them try their stuff and providing additional advice.

- Don't overload them with information. I try to not over-explain everything the first trip out.. It seems to be a turn off if you get too technical all in one trip.

I'm sure i'll be taking plenty of friends, co-workers, family this year... and you probably will/have. Please share any thoughts you have on the subject. I think it is important we are successful in spreading the sport.

 

[MisterHappy]

Way to go.

We shooters must become more "mainstream" by bringing more non-shooters to the range and showing them that we're not maniacs, or, even better, "converting" them.

You seem to have a nice, direct, well-thought-out plan.

+1

 

[DJMc]

Make it +2.

 

[MXD]

I have brought at least 6 people to the range to shoot for the first time in the last 12 months. My primary reason is to show people they have nothing to fear. As soon as someone tells me they are against guns because they are scared of them I immediately insist they take a trip with me.

As far as preparing them, I start at my house in my home office and teach them the basic rules of firearm safety. Then I pick one gun that we will bring to the range and I go over the components and operation of the gun. After that, I go over the basic rules of firearm safety. After that I teach them the basics of range rules and etiquette, then we go over the basic rules of firearms safety. Just before we get ready to head out to the range I do one more exercise. I take a nice laser pointer I use for presentations and I attach it to the barrel and I turn it on. Then I tell them to go through the steps to verify the weapon is clear and safe then hand it to me. This is a subtle way to show them where the barrel is pointing at all times, to always assume the weapon is loaded and to keep their finger off the trigger until they are ready to fire (ie: the basic rules of firearms safety)

Obviously, once at the range, I load 1 round at a time until both of us are completely confident.

As I said I have done this at least 6 times in the last year with great success. Not one of them left the range with the same opinion they went in with and 2 of them have already obtained their LTC A ALP's and the other 4 are interested in doing so.


Supporting GOAL and organizations like them is critical. Fighting for our rights is critical but recruiting people that will do those things with us is equally as important if not more important. There is power in numbers.


Keep in mind, if you convert an anti, you have really converted 2 because if a person votes one way and switches to vote the oposite, it is a 2 vote swing. This is possibly our greatest weapon.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

Another hint - If the person has never fired a gun before, the first shot should be single loaded, particularly if you're dealing with a center fire handgun. This will make it much easier if your visitor has an extreme surprise reaction at the recoil (which they should not if you have trained them properly, but first shot single load is a very simple precaution).

 

[Spanz]

What you have to realize is that you are not there to shoot as usual, and just have your guest occupy the adjacent slot. You really have to watch a newbie like a hawk. That means standing behind him and watching him/her a lot.

I would also caution to not scare him away on his first trip. This is not the time to show off the 44 mag revolver or that ultramag rifle.

Also, watch where they are shooting. I had my son's girlfriend out there, and after some time, I figured out that she just did not understand the iron sights. After a lot of instruction/trying, we switched to a scoped rifle, and she had a much better time.

(bring a pencil for diagrams, too!)

 

[BigMike]

Creating and maintaing a culture of safety is the most important thing any/all gun owners can do. As stated by others already, making sure someone is comfortable with the rules, understands them, and can demontrate safe handling before the range is key. Trying to teach this kind of stuff at a range would be a disaster in my opinion. The range is where a rookie is gonna have the worst jitters. Drilling the safe handling methods into a newbie before the range, will greatly reduce the mistakes they will make.
And they WILL make at least 1 mistake


I'm awaiting my interview with the licensing officer in my town.
I am awaiting my chance to become a great ambassador of gun safety to everyone I meet. It is by far the most important part to me, about my (future) gun ownership

 

[MadRussian]

Things I've found useful:

1. It's a good idea to do the EYE DOMINANCE test before you start shooting, last time I took a friend out to the range he found out he was right hand/left eye dominant.

2. Another suggestion is to to make it seem like you load the gun for the guest but leave the chamber empty so when the guest pulls the trigger you can see what the person is doing wrong and help them correct it (pushing to compensate for recoil, in my friend's case, who was missing the paper at first)

3. If you can, start closer up and move back as the shooter's group gets better and they feel up to it. Keep it fun and challenging but not difficult.

 

[HorizontalHunter]

All great points. For kids I have found that they don't want to "punch paper". Generally with kids I let them shoot cans and plastic water bottles full of water set up properly on the range. They clean up when we are done and they really enjoy it. It makes for a fun time

I have belonged to three different clubs in my time and not one of them allow you to bring in "non-members" to shoot which makes introducing non shooters that don't fall under a "family" membership harder. The club I currently belong to has a Junior membership for kids under 18 that is only $10.00 which at least makes it pretty inexpensive for me to take my nephews.

Bob

 

[TonyDedo]

Similar thread about bringing new shooters to the range:

http://northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=86976

 

[M1911]

What you have to realize is that you are not there to shoot as usual, and just have your guest occupy the adjacent slot. You really have to watch a newbie like a hawk. That means standing behind him and watching him/her a lot.

For new shooters, I would suggest that you must watch your guest for every shot. You don't shoot while your guest shoots -- you can't supervise your guest if you are shooting at the same time. Keep your hands in front of you and stand close enough that you can grab the gun or arms in case your student starts to move the gun in an unsafe direction.

Don't over teach, but pay attention and keep them safe.