Junior Long Range Sharp Shooters

[Tumbleweed]

I know I'm just a proud Dad, but I gotta tell you guys this story. I took my wife and my boys deer hunting last Saturday. My boys are 8 and 9. My 9 year old is able to hunt Oregon's mentored youth hunting program on mommy's tag. About 6 months ago I re-chambered my 300Wby to a 300RUM and had my gunsmith install one of his custom muzzle brakes so that the kids could use my rifle for their hunting as well, saves me buying a smaller gun right now. I push 210VLD's at 3,190fps and run a Shepherd scope, the rifle shoots between 1/3 and 1/2MOA at all distances. I have used the set up successfuly on milk jugs at 1,600 yards. The kids have been able to shoot the rifle with no problems at 350 meters and at 550 meters and have been very accurate too. Back to the story. We glassed hard all morning and ended up at our last clear cut having seen no deer, they just weren't moving, still early in the season and the weather is too nice. We were at the lower end of the clear cut. Looking up and accross at a 15 degree angle is a nice big orange dirt bank full of nice shooter rocks. Straight line distance is 975 yards, correction after the angle made it 936 yards. I watched through the spotting scope for a few minutes and determined that I needed no correction for wind. I had my gun on a low lying stump in a very comfortable position. I asked Caleb, my oldest if he'd like to shoot a rock since there were no deer. Sounded good to him! Got him set up on a rock the size of a 5 gallon bucket and told him where to hold in the reticle. I gave him one shot. As I watched through the spotting scope he let drive and to my surprise the shot was only 8 inches low and about 6 inches right! Of course my younger boy Alex really wanted to give it a try too! I made sure he was tight into the gun and still, only one shot for him too. This time as I watched through the scope all I saw was bullet fragments fly off of the rock and got that nice "crack" sound all the way down where we were! 975 yards, an 8 year old, only the 3rd time shooting the gun, are you kidding me!! You see, no one has told them that they CAN'T do it, how many times do we handicap our kids potential in any area of life?

 

[Skimbleshanks]

That is awesome. Getting kids started shooting and hunting is a good thing. Too many kids don't ever get taught about how to safely handle firearms and as a result they grow up to believe the hype and in some sad instances use them irresponsibly and give the whole sport a black eye. So, good on you. One thing though. Where do you get to shoot 1600 yards? I live about 20 miles west of Salem and all the"public land" is locked up tight behind logging company land. The few places I can shoot legally are very limited range wise. In other words I'm willing to travel a ways to shoot longer ranges.

 

[kiwi3006]

Way to go! There can't be many 8 & 9 year olds shooting a 300 RUM let alone at that distance, hell I've never shot out to that range!. Give them a pat on the back from me.

Stu.

 

[Tumbleweed]

That is awesome. Getting kids started shooting and hunting is a good thing. Too many kids don't ever get taught about how to safely handle firearms and as a result they grow up to believe the hype and in some sad instances use them irresponsibly and give the whole sport a black eye. So, good on you. One thing though. Where do you get to shoot 1600 yards? I live about 20 miles west of Salem and all the"public land" is locked up tight behind logging company land. The few places I can shoot legally are very limited range wise. In other words I'm willing to travel a ways to shoot longer ranges.

Skimbleshanks:
We're over on the coast in Tillamook. There's still a fair amount of open land to go up and shoot in. I do all of my elk and deer hunting in a walk in hunting area so that I can get away from the madness. I live on a family dairy farm and am able to shoot up to 1,300 yards at targets over flat ground as well.