joy to a 7 yr old today

[Trigger Mike]

back 3 years ago we lived in the city near Atlanta and the gun club I was a member of was a 45 minute drive so i did not make the trip often. we moved down to south Georgia to the country and bought a few acres to learn to farm and shoot. just prior to the move i bought my then 4 year old a Henry youth 22. I just did not give it to him right away. during the summer to see if he was ready for it i brought it out and let him shoot it. He had always loved lever toy guns and John Wayne and loved my CAS rifle. He still liked it when i brought it out in the summer and even asked if he could have it. i stayed silent on the subject. he has grown physically enough to handle it and over time has gotten better when it comes to behavior in and out of school and has settled down when it comes to guns so i deemed it a good time to let him have it. I was impatient anyway like i am with every gift for Christmas and other events.

 

i decided since Christmas is a Sunday this year and being a minister we have church that morning and won't have time to shoot it that i would give it to him while he is out from school. I gave it to him yesterday evening and he begged and begged to go soon as he got up this morning and try it out. so we ate breakfast and went out and he kept getting better as he went. i noticed a couple of jams so told him we need to clean it so he hounded me to help him clean it so he could shoot it again. so he took it out again and then we cleaned it for putting up. i also had a Cabelas wooden winchester box with 300 rounds of long rifle in it that i had been saving for the occasion. he carried it everywhere all day. he thanked me several times and hugged me tight a few times. he said it was his favorite gun. the other gun he has is a russian natant revolver that i bought for each chid as a tool to teach safety and for an investment. they could sell them for more than i paid already.

 

before giving it to him i gave him an option of a bearcat, that he had shot a few times. he said he preferred rifles

[Warden Callaway]

Good times.

 

My oldest had no interest in guns or shooting and still doesn't. My younger son made up with interest. His first rifle was a Savage Crackshot. I had a old buttstock I cut down to about a 11" pull that he started out shoot it. When he grew a bit I put the original buttstock back on it. He still had the rifle. In the past few years he many of my guns have migrated to his ownership.