Task learned: Shooting a rifle.
Guidance: The first time I ever shot a rifle was with my father and uncle in Oklahoma at my uncle’s cabin he used for dear and turkey hunting. The rifle I was learning to shoot was a .22 caliber which is a little smaller than a standard #2 pencil. It is a short small rifle that has little to no kick what so ever and makes more of a loud popping sound than an actual exploding sound like larger caliber firearms.
My father and uncle explained to me the safe method for holding and handling the unloaded rifle and that I should always point it is a safe direction so that if it were to go off for any reason that it wasn’t going to harm anyone or anything. They then explained to me the safety features on the rifle itself and how it worked. Some rifles must be loaded each time it is fired and some rifles will reload themselves. This particular model of rifle would hold approximately 10 to 12 rounds and would reload itself.
Once I learned how to handle the rifle and its different features I was instructed on how to properly hold the rifle for optimum efficiency and accuracy. But seeing how I do everything right handed but I am left eye dominant and therefore am left handed with a rifle some of these techniques were a bit tricky for my father and uncle to explain to me because they had to think like a left handed person.
Now it was time for my first shot. Luckily my uncle had placed a small sniper scope on the little rifle which made it easier for me to see the very small target down range, which happened to be a soda can. However, I was unsuccessful the first few shots because I didn’t realize that the bullet actually moves during flight and does not fly in a perfectly straight line. This gave me the motivation to keep trying until I could hit my target repeatedly. I also had some apprenticeship with my older cousin who had been around guns more. To this day I am fascinated with firearms both old and new.
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4 comments:
Wow that must have been fun, I to have a fascination with firearms and learned to shoot in a similar fashion.
I always wondered where and how boys learned to shoot guns. Now I know.
I have always wanted to learn how to shoot a gun. I think you did a great job explaining the different steps you learned.
I too learned to shot firearms at a early age, and to put in some of Vigotskys terms, my parents used the zone of proximal development when teaching me about how the bullet drops more and more the farther away the target is. Because i too could hit the target without any problems when it was close but I needed their help as we kept moving the target further away.
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