Teaching kids with Downs to shoot air rifles.

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buckyusn

buckyusn

Member
Mar 25, 2017
271
14
TX, United States
Good morning. I am reaching out to the larger community for some help/feedback/advice on teaching my son with Downs Syndrome how to shoot an air rifle from a rested position (bench rest on bags or bipod). My wife and I try to keep our son as active as possible outside of the house when we can, and his two older brothers know how to handle and shoot airguns and firearms safely. We try not to put our own limits on what our youngest son can and cannot do, and under proper supervision, think that learning to shoot an air rifle safely would be a positive experience for him.



Does anyone in the forum have experience teaching a person with Downs Syndrome how to shoot an air rifle (or other airgun)? I know the basics of teaching people how to shoot, since I have taught my two other sons, my wife, and others in the past. Should I try starting with iron sights (which I did for my other two boys), or just jump right to scopes? I am trying to learn from anyone else’s experience before I jump into this next adventure with my son.



Thank you in advance for any advice you could provide.



-Bill
 
Hello the easiest sight to use is a red dot sight, try starting from there and then move on to irons or optics. One training technique I have used in the past with optics is getting a clear sheet of plastic drawing the scope reticle on it as to explain the relationship from reticle to target, and hold over/under as well. The same will work with a clear sheet of plastic and a red dot in the center so a visual picture can be shown. Also when starting my daughters out nothing works better then reactive targets like balloons or cans of seltzer shaken up. Hope this helps and best of luck Eric.
 
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I am a pediatric otolaryngologist who sees a large percentage of children with Down Syndrome in my state. I am proud of you as a dad letting your son grow up as normally as possible. I think this could be a very good experience for both of you. I would only add from a medical perspective to have your son's vision checked prior to starting this project. Children with Down Syndrome have a higher percentage of refractive errors (nearsightedness and farsightedness) compared to the general population. If you are using a scope, you would need to adjust the ocular to match his accommodation if needed. Obviously, he needs to see what he is shooting. Of course, the same would be true if you aren't using a scope. 

I wish you all the best as you spend precious time with your son. May he develop the same obsession we all have with this incredible sport. 

Mark
 
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Thank you very much to everyone that responded. I knew that I could count on this group to help me noodle through the challenge before starting out. I will definitely do the best I can to teach him like his brothers, with whatever adaptations are needed to help him along the way.



I completely forgot about red dot sights (don't know why, I use them on my CO2 pest carbines), and I really like the idea of using a "transparency" with the sight picture drawn on it to show him what he wants the picture to look like. I was planning on using reactive targets, since the positive feedback will reinforce a good shot. I have a few spinners, metal rat and squirrel targets, plus plenty of shoot 'n' see targets. I plan to keep the plinking close range and have lots of large cans, etc., as there will be plenty of challenges without adding distance to the list. :)



Mark, I completely get what you are saying. My son already wears corrective lenses to aid with some eye-crossing that was taking place, but thankfully, the glasses he wears have helped to strengthen his eye muscles enough that his pediatric ophthalmologist thinks he might not need them after his next visit (within the year). I will have him wear the glasses when we shoot to help him with the sight. I plan on putting a red dot sight on my .22 cal discovery. I put in a hammer spring adjuster, and can dial down the speed to keep it nice and quiet (including the TKO moderator).



Thank you again to everyone for your advice and input. I know this will be challenging, but fingers crossed he enjoys it and we can enjoy shooting/plinking together.
 
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Hey buckyusn,

I appreciate your starting this thread. My youngest daughter also has Downs, and I have also been thinking about how I can get her into shooting in some form or another. She is only 8YO now, and is about the functional equivalency of a 5YO or so (according to her charts from school). This is a little young, still, but I have brought my son (who is now 12) up around guns and have felt that he is safe around them. My daughter is still really impulsive, so I'm not going to go there soon (for fear of my own safety), but I like the suggestion of the clear reticle as an example. I'm also thinking about starting out with a BB pistol at point blank range with a balloon or something since she has never been freaked out by noises. Her eyesight is good, but I will probably start with iron sights and just draw the sights on a transparency.



How old is your son? I'm really interested to know how this goes, so I'd really appreciate your keeping us updated as to your approach and your son's progress. Best of luck to you!!!
 
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SkeeterHawk,

Good evening. My son is 14 years old now, and he's finishing up middle school. He isn't noise sensitive, but I like the idea of reducing the number of "variables" that can be distracting while trying to learn something new. We may never get to firearms, and that's OK. He can learn all of the basics of safety without ever shooting a firearm. One of the beautiful things about airguns. :)

I thought about whether to start with a rifle or pistol, and landed on using a rifle rested on a sandbag. My thought there is the same...remove as many variables as I can while we get started. I will also probably start with big balloons up close. I have the red dot sight mounted on my discovery, and have to sight it in to get it prepared for him. I am going to use the transparency idea for the sight picture. That way I can overlay it on any "target" so he knows what it has to look like before he shoots. You might want to get your daughter used to the safety glasses well before you shoot, if she has any sensory issues. Maybe try frangible BBs instead of steel, since there will be less chance of a ricochet? That's why I'm using pellets...less chance of a ricochet (safety glasses still, but lead pellets don't bounce like BBs do).

There will only be one rifle out when we shoot together. That way it is easy to keep track of exactly where it is pointed at all times, and I will be completely focused on him (hopefully having fun). Like a lot of things he has learned, we will work at it for no more than 15 minutes, then take a break and do something else before we try again (if he wants). Slow and steady...patience, and popping balloons and shook up soda cans so he can get excited about his hits. It will be a lot like taking a kid (any kid) fishing. Just take one rod - you won't have time to fish yourself! :)

I will keep the thread up to date as we progress. Let me know how it goes with your daughter!
 
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Good evening, buckyusn.

Thanks for your response. That was great to get to know your approach, and those were great suggestions for getting her used to safety glasses and to use Dust Devil BBs. I'll be ordering some soon to have them on hand.

Now that I am thinking about it, I will probably use the Non-blowback Glock19 pistol with her, and do exactly as you said and only have that gun out. I am thinking that the non-blowback will keep from freaking her out because of the gun "coming alive" when the slide cycles. Also, that Glock has really visible sights. Additionally, I think that the trigger safety would work better for her as she would only have to squeeze it. It's funny, I hardly ever shoot that gun. I'm not a big fan of Glocks, but I kept that one around for some reason...and I guess this is it!

Thanks again for starting this post. I'm subscribed to this thread, so I am looking forward to hearing how your progress goes with your son, and I will do the same with my little princess.
 
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If I may make a suggestion maybe consider using the Daisy single stroke target guns, the 853 from CMP and the 7xx series target pistols. They are both very safe for youngsters, don't recoil, are very quiet, and can use any kind of sight, and are fairly low power. They are also very accurate. I would think they would work very well with special needs students.. Also maybe see if the CMP has instruction for young kids that you could modify to help you as they have alot of experience teaching young beginners. I wish you luck and success in your lessons. Bill
 
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Hi Bill!

Thanks so much for chiming in! I just got started in my education in the Civilian Marksmanship Program, which I will continue going forward. Thank you again for the tip.

The Daisy 853 looks to be pretty hard to find, plus the pump seems pretty big. My daughter's arms and legs are shorter than average. Of course, I could do it for her like I would loading Powerlets, etc., but I wonder how that will go over. This said, looking into the 7xx pistols you mention, seems to be really varied in the results. I probably just need more education to completely understand the options available because I am seeing everything from 1911 styles on up.

I am really enjoying watching my daughter grow and learn in ways that are different than other kids, but it is a bit of a struggle to keep her safe while letting her experience all that life has to offer. I really appreciate the vast experience that all of the individuals (that are also avid airgunners) have to offer on this subject here!

Cheers!

Jonathan
 
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Jonathan, you can find the 853s on the CMP site. The sell rebuilt ones that are returns from the youth clubs they supply these riflesto. I have several that I bought through them for just over $100. I live close to the north store so I went there and picked mine out. They come in a regular wood stock or a monte carlo stock. Alot of people on the forums buy them through the mail and love them. For the price they are a great bargain. I gave 2 of them to the guy hwho rebuilt my old garage for his two young boys5 and 8 I think for Christmas and they love them. They come with a sling, a competition dioplar sight and 3 spacers to lengthen the stock. I have one with a red sight with kids really seem to like.
 
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The 717 and 747 pistols are really good target pistols for the price. The are no longer made but can often be found on ebay. I have bought them for as little as $100. to $250 for a 747 which has a match Lowthar Walthar barrel. They are very easy to maintain and most parts can still be bought from Daisy nery reasonable. The 853s from the CMP also have Match LW barrels. The pistols are pretty easy to cock. Send me a message if you need any more info on the pistols or the 853. Bill
 
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Hey everyone. I hope nobody thought I had abandoned this topic, and I have some feedback for the group. I finally got my son on a day that he was interested in shooting the air rifle in the back yard with me. I tried multiple times to get him to shoot out back with me since I started this post, and every time he said "No!" and crossed his arms. (For folks who haven't spent a lot of time around kids with Downs Syndrome, they tend to be a little bit more stubborn than your average kid. Add my genes to that mix, and whoo boy! What a ride!)



So this past weekend, he finally said yes. He wanted to try shooting with me. After I got over my initial shock, I broke out my Discovery .22cal with TKO moderator and cheap Amazon red dot sight. He and I sat outside and he wanted me to shoot first, so I shot the rifle into my rubber mulch trap that was set up about 5 yards away. I placed a string of party balloons on the ground in front of the trap. This was five balloons tied together with string and staked to the ground so they wouldn't blow away. I decided that shooting towards the ground this close was safest, since even with a mis-aligned sight picture, he would be shooting into the dirt, and not risk missing the pellet trap. He decided that it wasn't loud at all, so I got him set up on the sandbag. This is where it got a little "sporty" working things out.



I didn't prepare any visual aids ahead of time to help him know what a sight picture should look like. He was seated behind the sandbag, and I was 90 degrees on his right, so I could load the rifle, watch/manage his trigger finger, and manage the safety catch. The first shot he tried, I was just trying to make it a safe shot and hoped that he would pop one of the balloons. He missed entirely, but had a great big smile on his face that he got to shoot! (Win for me. He was having a good time!) Trigger discipline was pretty much non-existent, and we talked about keeping our finger out of the trigger guard until we are ready to shoot. I don't think that made much sense to him, and it will probably take many more sessions before he gets it, so I manually kept placing his finger at the ready position. The next step was getting him to shoulder the rifle properly and get a good cheek weld. We tried it several times, and this is also going to take a while before he "gets it." I think that I might have to keep the rifle unloaded and sit next to him with another rifle so he can copy me or my other son. We shot probably about four more shots before he said "I'm done" in a happy way. I decided not to push it, and end on a good note. 



I think we will try this again soon, and I will try and document our progress here. This will be on his schedule, when he is ready again. The next time, we will spend some time with printed visual aids for him to know what to look for through the sight, and probably try and practice a good hold and cheek weld. I will make sure that he gets to shoot as much (or as little) as he wants, to keep his interest. I also plan to blow up a few balloons to max size for him to have the best chance at a hit (also to keep his interest).

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View attachment Red dot sight picture.1653524171.pdf

Today I made the visual aids for sight picture through the red dot sight. I will try and post them here in case anyone wants to use them to teach someone to shoot with a similar sight. If the visual aids do not post, just PM me and I will send them to you via email.
 
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