On the way in:
"How far away is it?"
"40 minute drive to the club."
"Awww, this better be fun."
Got there, registered them as guests and they got to see the last participants in the Cowboy Action Shoot finishing up. That earned a "cool!" right off the bat. My daughter thought it was neat girls were in it too.
Took them out to the 25 yd range and posted some Dirty Bird B27s for them, as well as a .22 spinner. After explaining the safety rules again ( we've been going over them for about a month prior) I showed them where the guns are always pointed, finger off the trigger, etc and then they handled the empty guns. Both treated them as if they were loaded, as they were taught.
A quick look over of the MP 15-22 and after a few dry runs, they each got one round in the chamber. Did this a few times and watched them put the safety on, check the chamber, drop the mag and put the rifle down with the muzzle offset downrange.
We walked down to the targets after every set of shots and you could see how excited they were to see where they hit. By the time I got to letting them each unload a 25 round mag, they were pretty much keeping everything in the 8 rings, most in the 9, a smattering in the red. I wasn't so concerned about where on the target they hit, as they were grouping fairly well for first time shooters.
The Buck Mark was a bit harder, of course, but they had a blast with that too. My daughter even got enough nerve up to fire my XD 45 (one round, empty mag under it) and my 8 yr old son and she both laughed hysterically when she fired it and the flip brought her arms up to 60 degees in front of her head. Damned if she didn't put the round centered in the 8 ring below the bulls @ 25 yds.
On the way home:
"Can we come back next week?"
"What about this long ride?"
"I had a great time, I don't care!"
Now I have to work on the oldest one... maybe they younger ones will get the sibling rivalry going.
