Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Boy Scouts at April 19th rifle shoot

Volunteers needed! 

A group of Boy Scouts will be visiting Scotts Valley Range for their firearms instruction on April 19th. Daniel Nagel has asked for our assistance. The boys will begin in the pistol range and then come up to the rifle range toward the end of our shoot to first observe us and then with our help to experience the thrill of making smoke! 

Last year there were just a few boys but I'm told that this year they hope to have around 20 participants in the 12 to 17 year age range. As I recall we had about 6 SCML members last year for a smaller number of boys. I'd say we could use more SCML folks this year.

We'll end our match and put some of our equipment away before we begin instruction on procedure and safety. It's our responsibility to load, escort the boys to the firing line, make sure they hold the rifle correctly, cap or prime and then after they fire walk them back to the loading bench. If you haven't done instruction before it's a good idea to allow the shooter to dry fire a few times to get used to holding the rifle, choosing the sight picture and the correct trigger squeeze.

SCML members have often provided the chance to experience muzzle loading to the Boy Scouts either at the rifle range or at a special rendezvous and we've always enjoyed it as much as the boys.