Questor was talking about taking his Daughter shooting, that's great. Did not want to hijack his thread so I am starting a new one.
A few years back my anti-shooting/anti-gun In Laws brought their teenage daughter Cari up to visit. The In-Laws and my wife had a three day seminar to attend. So they left Cari there with Sky and I. The first day we spent loading shotgun shells. Sky liked doing that, and after Sky and I got started she wanted to help. So I got her to promise not to tell her parents what we were doing, and I showed her how to load shotgun shells. Cari really got into it, especially the crimping. She thought that was so cool. We loaded two or three hundred shells that day, then cleaned up and put everything away. Then when Michelle, her brother Mike, and his wife Ellen got home we all went out and had dinner. When Ellen asked Cari what she had been doing that day, Cari told her I had taught her how to shape plastic.
The following day a Saturday, after they left I took Sky and Cari to the Skeet range. Right off the bat Cari met three girls about her age in the club house. All three shot skeet on leagues, and were there to practice that day. Typical early teens they had a lot in common. They sat and talked about girl things while there fathers and I sat and talked skeet. The girls even let Sky sit and listen, even thou he was younger than they were. When a range opened up the girls grabbed their shotguns and went out to shoot. Cari came over and asked me if those girls were really going to shoot those guns, and was that not dangerous, they could get killed. So I took Cari out and we sat down at a picnic table and watched the girls shooting. After watching for a while, Cari asked me if I could teach her to shoot like that. I went to my truck and got Sky's little H&R single shot 20 ga. I took Cari and Sky over to a table, where I had Sky explain all the parts, and how they worked to Cari. Sky demonstrated (with a few reminders from me) how to open, load, close, mount the gun and make the shot. I then had Cari practice those things as I watched. Once she got the idea we moved to a skeet range. I spent the entire time on station one, and after a few shots Cari got to where she could hit the bird going away. Soon she was able to hit one from the low house, so we called it a day, before she got sore, or started flinching. Sky then had to finish up that box of shells. Typical boy fashion he had to show Cari how it was done, and I have to admit he did a good job. To that point that was the best shooting Sky had ever done, little show off. We went and had lunch then to see a movie. That evening the movie was all the kids talked about.
The following day was Sunday, and the league shoot that I was scheduled to shoot in. After league shooting Cari and Sky wanted to shoot again. So we shot, and this time Cari shot a whole box of shells herself. Cari also moved to station two where she hit a few more. Then we went home. That night Cari told her mother what we had been doing, the yogurt hit the rotating device there. Thought the sister-in-law was going to scratch my eyes out. Cari knew what she was doing, and a month later it had blown over.
The next month when we went down to visit, Cari had her father wrapped around her finger. She talked him into giving her permission to go to the range with Sky and I. We went to a range there near her home in Virgina. This time Cari shot from all stations. She hit on stations one and two, then again on stations six and seven. She was having a ball. The next month we did the same thing when we again visited them in Va.
The following month Ellen was furious with me. Cari had convinced Mike to allow her to join a skeet league at the local range. They provided the shotgun. When Mike and I got a few minutes alone, I told him how good it was for her. Mike had a different view, he thought she would shoot for a few weeks then get tired and quite. He felt it was just a passing teenage thing. Something to get under her mothers skin.
For Christmas that year I gave Cari a Stoger Condor 20ga over and under, that had been cut down for someone her size. Again Ellen hated me. Cari was spending a lot more time at the range, and shooting more. When Cari entered College, she joined the skeet team. Cari shot all the way through college. Cari told me when she was going to college and some guy started getting fresh with her, she would drop a line about going to the skeet range. That was usually the last time she saw that guy. Today Cari shoots almost every weekend, just to get out of the house. She shoots in women's leagues, and has gotten a few of her co-workers involved.
