Just had a forum member leave my place here and wanted to post about it while I thaw out a little bit.
Wont name the person, he can pop in this thread if he wants. Saw a post by him last week and found out that we are not too far apart here and he is new to airguns and so I offered a range day here. I've offered similar to others and rarely get bites, perhaps I just smell bad...I'm not sure.
Anyway, he came by and brought his young son with him. Great folks and I think we all had a blast. I've never had kids. Had worked with kids for many years, but that was 10 years ago and very rarely ever got to SHOOT with a kid so this was a treat for me. They have a Gamo of some kind that they brought by and said they couldnt hit much with it. We spent some time just talking in the 'man room' before going out to the range and I mentioned that the scope may be bad or it may be a technique thing or could just be pellet selection.
So after a bit of yakking inside, we went to the range by my shop and I put 3 pellets on top of each other at 20 or so yards with that Gamo. OK..so the scope is good. Made a minor adjustment to windage and handed the kid the gun and after a little coaching on technique, he was reliably hitting small spinners at various ranges and even a welding tank cylinder cap at 50 yards with his gun. Just needed a little coaching on technique and the right pellets. Seeing his face light up when he made the first of what amounted to MANY hits was exceedingly rewarding for me. His dad jokingly said earlier to him 'maybe you just suck' after seeing me stack a few pellets...and in fact, it turned out that it was the pellets he was using that sucked rather than him...haha
They both were brand new to PCP's and had done their research on them. They have a couple Notos on order and are awaiting them. Good choice, I think so we shot my Notos a bit later to show them what they were getting. I went through a little 'class' on PCP's in general and had them shooting a few, up to a Texan 457, which was great to see as neither had actually seen a big bore except in videos. Was good to 'break in' a new airgunner and offer some knowledge. Very rewarding for me and they seemed to enjoy it as well!
Hopefully when the weather is better (was a bit nipply out today), we can get together again for more shooting and we'll shoot even more guns this time.
If there is a point to this post, I guess it would be we should share our knowledge and experience any chance we get. Not only does it help ensure the future of shooting sports by lessening frustration from simple things such as using 'pellets that suck', but also is just fun and rewarding.
