ok let me start by saying i am a teenager, 17 to be exact, but i HATE teenagers, personally i like spending time with my parents friends and my uncles for the simple fact that people my age have NO maturity. Not to mention that they all have half crooked opinions and ideas that are narrow minded because of the bull their parents feed them. girls seem to be the worst, my friend BB and i arn't talking at the moment because of her lack of maturity and so to try and push the problem farther she desides the attack my past time of pistol shooting. she thinks poeple that own guns just have them to "be cool and shoot each other and themselves" and that the only self defense we should be allowed is hand-to-hand. she also believes that gun owners are "immature and need guns just to make them feel good about themselves and make up for their lack of manhood," this is from the 17 year old sleeping with a 24 year old herion adict, real mature eh? I just really dont understand my generations lack of understanding about guns and politics, most of them have had one sided liberal veiws shoved down their throats and refuse to believe anything if "mommy didn't say so." When will people grow up? everyone said "wait till high school everyone grows up and becomes more adult." man is it frustrating. sorry for venting guys.


44SandW

Instead of venting, consider taking out any gun-haters you can to the shooting range. I've never taken anyone yet who didn't have a great time. Might convert a few.

I'd stay away from the heroin addict, though... bad news.

Good luck.

Mike has words of wisdom. Think about it. Don't forget the hearing and eye protection. Pain is only fun to sicko's. Pepe Ray

I tried to take a couple of these anti gun kids to the range with us (me, my cuz and my grandfather.) and none of them would even come with me, one of them picked me up at my grandparents, walked in and i had a S&W mountian gun in my hand, they dove behind a wall, i personally just think they need to grow up, seeing as a gun in the hands of someone thats that narrow minded is about as dangerous is a gun in the hands of a child.

44 S & W,
I am glad to see another of the younger set shooting and loving it. I am part of the older set though I have taken many of my students shooting over the years. Where are you located in PA. I am in the Hershey area.

As far as taking others shooting, Mike is right. I never took anybody who did not enjoy themselves as long the the handgun was not too loud (good ear defenders) and it did not kick (22 lr). Relax and do not judge them for not understanding. We all have to learn sometime. Catch flies with honey first. You can make shooting more attractive if your range allows the shooting of bowling pins, steel plates and such. Then you may go to shooting full soda cans and shaving cream (very impressive but messy too). In other words, you can shape the shoot so it's more relateable to non shooters.

I will offer you one word of caution about all this. Make sure you ego is in check when you take any female friends shooting with you. Women have the nasty habit of being superb shooters very quickly after learning the basics. You may win a convert but it's hard to deal with the statement, "I don't see what's so hard about this!" Just remember to make it fun... for you and anybody you shoot with.

Bill:D

Pittsburgh Bill, infact i can look out my window at the sky line. We shoot bowling pins, jugs of water (25 yards), Flying birds (read on) and on occations Eggs at 40 yards, its alot of fun, we shoot at both big and small bore, small bore being .22, .32, .380, 9mm ect and big bore being .357, .45, .44 and more or less anything bigger that you can jam into a revolver or auto pistol. for jugs we shoot big bore hand guns at them, though i have shot them up with a 9mm before, still pretty nice sized splashes of water coming out of them. Now, Flying birds is a wonderful thing, its alot of fun. it consistes of 3 pins, a popper, a ladder, a trolley and 4 clay birds. you shoot down the 3 pins, shoot the popper, when the popper falls it releases a pin in the latter which allows the trolley to roll down the ladder, on the trolley there are 4 sticks and onthe top of them are attatched clay birds, the goal is to hit the 4 clay birds before the trolley hits the bottom of the ladder. it is quite fun and im pretty good at it if i do say so myself. i ALWAYS keep my ego in check, most of the men up there have been shooting longer than i have been alive, in fact longer than my parents have been alive. I'm sure that anyone i would take up there would be able to handle and enjoy a .22 auto pistol, what about big bore? what would you suggest giving a teenage girl for big bore?

44S&W; Why did you have a firearm in your hands when company walked through the door? Think about it. Pepe Ray

lol Pepe, first off they were a half an hour early and second off i was cleaning it up a little, it had some pretty nasty gunk in the cylinder, so i desided that since i was going to be waiting a while i would clean up some of the revolvers that i shoot, i had done the long barrel .44 and the .357 and i was just about done with this one, it was pointed at the ground with the cyilnder swung out and i had a rag in my other hand, not like i was pointing at them, just paraniod people im guessing.

44 S&W,

Big bore for for a teenage girl??? Personally, I'd stick to the 22 lr with the best sights, best trigger and light to moderate weight. It sounds like you have a great place to shoot. Keep it fun/safe and some will follow.

Bill

Now it's been my impression that the ladies like something alot more if they are pretty and EXPENSIVE! Since pistols ain't real pretty to start with and I don't think they diamond stud them, you might look at getting her a nice Purdy double rifle in 505 Gibbs or one of the nice EXPRESS loads. A couple gold inlays and you should be in like flint (for a couple days anyway...)

44,

Let your friends help you out with the shooting. Start with whoever shows the most interest - and work your way through. As you no doubt realize, patience and understanding will be required. Also, only take one of them at a time.... they won't have an audience to act stupid in front of.

The new converts will help you convince the 'hard-liners' so to speak, and soften their resolve.

And frankly, if they don't, they'll soon realize how stupid some people are about guns.

You can't convert them all but those you educate, will spread the word.

Oh and forget about the big bores - for any of them. Maybe a few light .44 special loads, AFTER they've had plenty of time with the .22s and such. When they go tell their friends they just shot a ".44 magnum" - hee hee.... you'll know the secret.....

Part of the problem is the public education system. It is primarily a liberal morass which is more interested in producing socialists than American patriots who know and love the constitution.

I found the same thing growing up, and I grew up in Vermont. They seem to forget that for 400 years or more guns have been an important part of not only American lives but the world as well. Firearms have shaped the way this world has been made, for better or worse however you want to look at it. In my grandparents time and before it was accepted that when your son turns a certain age you give him a .22, something many young boys looked forward too. Now what has changed in the last 400 years?, why are people so scared of a tool. Is it because guns are less safe than they were in 1650? **** no, guns have never been safer. It is the lack of experience, education, and simple common sense. I'm not saying you need to like, shoot, or own a gun, but at least understand that people will be murdered regardless of whether there are firearms or not. A knife is just as deadly as a bullet.

Kinda like when a friend showed up at my house and noticed I had several pounds of gunpowder on the shelf. He freaked. I told him I'd rather have gunpowder than gasoline around, that stuff's dangerous!

Lol, poeple scare easy, i was talking to a buddy of mine who shoots and he asked if i had seen the 500 smith, well just so happens i got to shoot one last night for the first time, **** was it great. Anyways, i told him about shooting it and these couple of stuck up girls look over at us as im telling him what kind of damage it does to a bowling pin and they flipped, in their own preppy stuck up ways.

Light .44 special, what about a .38? i mean im sure that they could handle a 9mm, .32 ACP, ect. but i was thinking .38 i know there are some very light .357s with wadcutters in them that, to me, dont kick at all. i was told to invite a friend up for the weekend to our cabin, my grandfather takes a couple hand guns with him (at my behest) and i know he'd let them shoot, so its not a matter of a shooting range, im sure we could shoot jugs or whipped cream cans or maybe smuggle up a couple pins.

44SandW:

Your screed above is interesting on a couple of different levels. If I may, please allow me a couple of observations and/or comments.

1. Please do not HATE anyone or anything. You are far too young for this evil notion to pollute your psyche. If you hate your peers, you will very quickly become disillusioned with life in general.

2. When you state that your peers have “NO maturity” you are half right. They (and you) are developing your maturity.

3. Girls at your age are more mature than boys. If you ever had a serious conversation with BB you would know this. If she is indeed sleeping with a 24 year old heroin addict, and she is a friend, you owe it to her to keep the lines of communication open to bring her back from the brink and into proper society before it is too late.

4. Regarding young people and firearms, it was (and remains to this day) my experience that when young people are exposed to firearms in a controlled environment they universally react positively. The challenge is to properly expose them.

When I was in junior high and high school I was a competitive position smallbore rifle shooter. I shot weekly in the Pittsburgh and Suburban Rifle League and also one or two nights for practice. On weekends I would get together with friends and we would run out to the range and practice with a .22 rifle or .38 or .45 handgun. They were always pleased when they hit the milk jug and we always expended all the ammo we brought. There was a club near where we lived that would throw trap clays for $1.50/25 and we spent many hours breaking and missing. When people (boys and girls, mind you) would break more than 12 or 15 they couldn’t wait to try again. I would explain to them that my smallbore training had taught me that shooting sports are very challenging on a mental level, and they seemed to understand and respond to this.

I know some of these people to this day (I am 46), and they still tell me that my exposing them to firearms and shooting in this positive light has had an impact on their thinking regarding firearms ever since. They have seen the “other side” and not allowed themselves to be swayed by all the media negativity.

5. It is normal for young people to be liberal. I believe it was Winston Churchill that said [here I paraphrase]: “If a person isn’t liberal at 20 he has no heart, and if a person isn’t conservative at 40 he has no mind.”

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, and remember what you paid for this. You really need to chill a bit and enjoy your youth. It will be gone way too soon and you can never recover it. You need to relax around your peers. You have to learn that you can enjoy the company of people that you disagree with philosophically. This is a trait that will serve you well throughout your life. At this time of your lives, you and your peers can act almost with impunity. You are, after all, 17. At 17 not only are you immortal, you are indestructible. As others have stated, try to introduce some of your friends to the shooting sports. You may be surprised with the results. ;)

Well i have atleast 10 friends that WANT to go shooting, just have to convince my grandfather to let them come to the range, doing that might be a challenge :confused:

second off i dont care what studies say, i dont think women of my age are anymore mature than guys, if anything, they're less. this is my personal experince though. and yes i have had a conversation with BB very serious ones, that last ohhh 5 minutes, because for example we were talking about gun control and I'm very against it but she thinks all guns should be taken away(isn't that just a wonderful thought now?) and i presented plain and simple my points in short, and she broke out into yelling and screaming, she cant hold a serious conversation. i know my friend shelly can, but shes 20, it seems that most girls are EXTREMELY opinionated.

As for Mr. Churchill, i guess i have no heart.

Lets hope my girlfriend doesn't check my favorites...but yes girls of any age are for the most part stubborn and highly opinionated. More mature? No, they just know when to stop acting like a jackass, while us guys figure why not go for gusto. I think it's great that so many people want to go shooting, it is a fun sport and when done properly as safe or safer than many other sports.

Lets hope my girlfriend doesn't check my favorites...but yes girls of any age are for the most part stubborn and highly opinionated. More mature? No, they just know when to stop acting like a jackass, while us guys figure why not go for gusto. I think it's great that so many people want to go shooting, it is a fun sport and when done properly as safe or safer than many other sports.

Woo someone else that thinks the way i do, i also believe that girls are more opinionated and yes very stubborn also.