Well I had a friend bring his 7 y.o. son over to my property to ride dirtbikes. Not his first time, but he loves the dirtbike and only has access to a fourwheeler at his mom's house.
As before I asked him when we finished riding if he would like to shoot my chipmunk rimfire. He again told me that he didn't like to shoot as the noise of the gun scared him. I showed him the hearing protectors I had and told him that with these on he would hardly hear it. He put the muffs on and asked me to shoot it first.
I did an he allowed as that wasn't so loud. He then agreed to shoot the gun and I went through a short gun safety lesson and had him load and cock the gun. He shot it, handed it back to me and said, "can I do it again?" He proceeded to shoot up a box of 22 short I had brought out and then turned to my Marlin 39 and wanted to shoot that, shooting up a box of 22 L.R.'s in the marlin. What a grin on his face. I think we have a winner here. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go home, but I promised we would do it again when he was with his dad next time. What a great kid...he wrote a story in school and in it he said, "Mr. Vern is the best thing that has happened to me in my life! His dad shared that with me while he was riding in the yard today. I love an appreciative kid!