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Range help from a TOO brother -

Dannmann801

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
10,640
191
Springboro
Sunday I had the privilege of introducing a young man from work to the shooting sports. He's a sophomore in college, and had never used firearms before, so I had a clean slate to work with. After gun basics and safety instruction, I started him out with a single-shot open sights .22 rifle at 25 yrds, so that he could get comfortable and in a rhythm. Problem was, he wasn't even hitting paper. So looking I see that he's trying to use his left eye while shooting right handed (he's left-eye dominant). Now, I've never taught anybody like that before, but knew there was something to do about it but I couldn't remember what I'd read. So, my first thought was to call somebody from TOO who would know. Figuring Jackalope would know, and since his number is in my phone, I gave him a call, but it went to voicemail. I looked at the time and said to myself "2:00 pm Sunday afternoon, he's probably engaged in coitus...". So I dig a list out of my wallet that has various TOO phone numbers on it and call Beentown (Charles) and lay out my situation to him. Turns out he knew exactly what to do, as he'd encountered the problem before. Easy-peasy, just put tape over the left eye of the shooter's glasses and that forces him to use his right eye.

He immediately started shooting good groups on paper. Problem solved.

Shortly after that, moved him up to my scoped 10/22 and he enjoyed that. Let him just shoot and shoot for a while from different positions. Then moved him up to 20ga, then 16ga, then 12ga. Shot some birdshot, then some slugs so he could see the recoil difference. Working him up from the bottom allowed him to get over any recoil-shyness. Then I set up my thrower and tossed some birds - after an easy correction he started hitting consistently (I set the thower to throw them high...easy shots that built his confidence.....he was smiling big and pretty full of himself....glorious).

But if I hadn't been able to reach out to one of my TOO brothers for some advice, what ended up as a very positive day could have been frustrating and defeating. Instead, we have a young man who is now hooked on shooting sports. Moral of the story: Don't hesitate to reach out to the members of this website, they are a goldmine of knowledge and experience.

And a great big thank you to Charles, and Jack and Jim and FredT and Jesse and Sean and Phil and RD and JB and every other member who has ever taken the time to cheerfully answer my questions (both elementary and complex) on any number of subjects over the years.
 

hickslawns

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Supporting Member
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Ohio
Not sure what I have ever offered other than being a gooftard to laugh at, but thanks for the mention Dan! You are a good man with a big heart. Glad to hear you were able to pay it forward and TOO advice helped you succeed in hooking a young man into shooting!
 

Beentown

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Supporting Member
15,740
154
Sunbury, OH
Glad TOO help Brother. I am happy it went so well. I he gets serious and wants to start shooting both eyes open let me know. There are things he can do to be able to switch eye dominance. Been there done that...

His best advice would be to switch to shooting letfy though.
 

Dannmann801

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
10,640
191
Springboro
Glad TOO help Brother. I am happy it went so well. I he gets serious and wants to start shooting both eyes open let me know. There are things he can do to be able to switch eye dominance. Been there done that...

His best advice would be to switch to shooting letfy though.

I had him try that and he wasn't comfortable....
This young man (Kyle) will end up making some purchases here in the near future, I'm sure. Probably a future NRA member.
 

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,707
191
Mahoning Co.
Silly me, I would have him shot left handed. :)

The tape is a good trick, it does work, good job getting a new guy shootin!:smiley_clap:
 
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