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More range time at camp

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dave951

62 Cal.
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We had a group size that was perfect this week. We started on large, easy targets and proceeded to get smaller and more challenging as the day went on. Our instructors all now have matching shirts. And there was one particular young man that I'll elaborate on later.

So for some pix

As usual, we start out with Patch Round Ball in the camp guns.
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And our own PathfinderNC working with the kids at the loading table.
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And PathfinderNC doing an excellent job as always on flintlocks. It really helps that he brings some of his fantastic examples that he's made. The kids are always blown away that a rifle this nice and accurate was not made in a factory somewhere. It also helps that when he shoots it, he doesn't miss either!
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And this is Marty. She's a retired school teacher with oceans of patience and an expert with a cap n ball revolver. The kid she's working with was having problems and Marty recognized early on, flinching was problem #1 to deal with. Here she's starting down that road. She got him over his flinch and then moved on to natural point of aim and other marksmanship techniques. This kid went from struggling to hit anything to nailing everything except the very hardest target we have.
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We have a good sized creek that goes past the range and the ground falls fast to the right of the sign. And yup, there's a crawdad trap just below that sign and the kids get to try crawdads as part of their diet in the Mountain Man program. Some of the crawdads are the size of small lobsters!
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And our instructor crew modeling our new fancy shirts. Of course we insisted we put our best side forward!
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And the first round of volley fire. These 5 guys, in a volley fire, put all the bullets into a 6in group almost dead center on the target. It was amazing to see all the bullets in that small an area from a group of shooters firing on command.
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AWESOME, love it!

I've written this here before, but this is worth repeating for those who work with kids IMHO. On an annual basis we host various local Scout troops for overnight camping and to work on their wilderness related badges. We also introduce them to our multiple firing ranges. At the muzzleloading area, we have the axe head set onto a stump, where there is a recess routed to each side of the axe head to hold your typical orange clay bird. One at a time we load a fowler and let the boy or girls shoot at the axe head ... to attempt to split the ball.

We watch the group carefully to look for ... uhhhh, well you know ... the scrawniest kid or smallest kid or the one being teased the most - you'll know ... the one “most likely to be picked last” for any pick-up baseball or basketball team or any other school/team sport or event.

When they shoot ... we load that fowler up w/ birdshot! With a good hold they'll break both birds ...and it makes that kid into an INSTANT hero! I swear by doing so that we have changed kid’s lives forever!
 
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