What to tell a young guy bent on believing he will be shooting 1500yards right away?

baD mR fRosTy said:
I would tell them....good for you for working and saving your money.

The more you try to 'tell|" them how it is, the less they will listen. They're 15.

Remember what that was like?

Give them your advice, which sounds correct to me, and leave it there. Chances are by the time they have enough cash, they'll have moved on to dreaming about an ultra-light, or a speedboat, lol...and then you can buy their firearms for half price off them!

;-)
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SO true..:)
 
That's great, they're 15 and interested into it, beats what most of them are doing these days. Don't crush their dreams yet, life will do that on its own, do what you can to make sure they hopefully stay with the sport and try to better their skills. .22lr is great and cost effective no doubt there, a bit of bigger caliber stuff to keep them awake and firm up their shoulder, clays are a lot of fun too.

Take them out on a nice calm day, get them to score and keep their targets, group size and points, then take them out on a nice windy day and let them see the difference.
IF your targets are better than theirs, they'll be listening to what you have to say after that.
 
pavmentsurfer said:
Ive got this cousin and his friend who are starting to get interested in long range shooting. They are both 15 and both work and are both saving their money to buy rifles. However, they are also super gullible and believe that because they saw someone on youtube shoot a mile, they can do it too. The one kid told me he went to a military camp for a few weeks last summer and was shooting MOA at 1700 yards while he was there. That one just made me laugh. I did try to explain why that was unlikely (practice, equipment, load development etc) but he says he did it and wont budge. Says he was shooting a $35 000 hand built military sniper rifle with handloads from the armoury. God... whats up with kids these days?

They also think they should be starting out with these super high end rifles and stocks and havent really even considered glass. Ive been TRYING to talk them through things a bit, suggesting maybe starting with savage or remington 700 and a decent piece of glass, learning to shoot and upgrading later on. Its going in one ear and out the other. I keep getting texts with pictures of military rifles and other cool, high end stuff and im getting tired of explaining over and over why A: they are so expensive and B: Why they are not a good place to start.

Anyone got any advice or dealt with some over zealous young shooters like this? I feel like im talking to myself these days.
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just tell them shooting 1700 yards moa means they hit within 14 meters of the target and the CO was messing with them, then tell them about how just about everyone can hit sub MOA at 2000 yards with a 35 000 dollar platform.But you like to do it with a 1022 because that takes skill . offer to take them out shooting and give em a 1022 and see how well they shoot . If the kid is a good shot you will see it pretty quick . PS it isn't just kids that think they can shoot . I was discussing guns with one of my sons airsoft friends , it turns out he is a marksman and can shoot inside a 1/2 inch at 200 yards with his airsoft gun and .42 gram BBs this guy was in his 30's and offered my son shooting lessons for a price . A few Weeks later when my son showed him a provincial gold medal in 50M small bore we were done talking about his sniping lessons.

Best advice, kids exaggerate and no amount of an adult talking will change that . Take them out and teach them to shoot safely and accurately they will probably enjoy it even though your Guns "suck" compared to the real military guns they are used to using and can hit out to 1700 yards with .
 
Let em try, with enough practice and finding that they have to upgrade their equipment they will probably succeed eventually.
 
Making the transition from X-Box to real life is never easy.

Let them spend their money and learn the hard way. Stay clear and don't offer any help unless it's asked for.
 
Tell them to go out and buy a .30 cal something, start with a decent setup and a budget and when they can nail a tight grouping at 100 yards, move up. And maybe some info on ballistics since it sounds like they need that.
 
Lol just let em go do it. Reality has to hit em sooner or later and at 15 their income is likely 100% disposable. Besides guns dont depreciate all that much so they'll still be able to recoup some of it when they realize moa doesn't mean minute of Alberta.
 
Tikka6xc said:
Tell him to go do it or quit talking about it.
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This is the correct approach IMO. Let them spend themselves into oblivion, you've already done your part.

I still remember shooting my first target at 100 yards, I fired my shots and they all went high. When asked why I punched so high I said I didn't know the distance, I thought it was 100, 200 and 300 yards. It was actually 25, 50, and 100 yards. Humble pie.
 
Wow, lots of great mentors on this thread...

So much for encouraging the next generation of the sport...


How about not letting a kid try to save up thousands of dollars to try and achieve a dream that was likely built on falsehoods, only to have him quit the sport months later because he can not live up to it. Perhaps try a little more to help him out and teach him about the actual requirements of accurate long range shooting and how to go about it encouraging them instead of discouraging and ignoring.

Just my .02.
 
There used to be a young man just like this on the board. He talked all sorts of crazy #### that told me he knew absolutely sweet #### all about what he was talking about. I invited him out to shoot with us in the BCRA, he actually came out. We then took him to the range many, many times and worked with him and turned him into a pretty good new rifleman. This is what you should be doing, they are the future of what we do. By the way, his user name is Rohann and in the end he turned into a great young man.
 
Before they have saved up the money, they will likely have met some hot chick,
knocked her up, and their dreams of a happy future will be gone, forever!:)
 
So much for encouraging the next generation of the sport...


How about not letting a kid try to save up thousands of dollars to try and achieve a dream that was likely built on falsehoods, only to have him quit the sport months later because he can not live up to it. Perhaps try a little more to help him out and teach him about the actual requirements of accurate long range shooting and how to go about it encouraging them instead of discouraging and ignoring.
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Many people with the ideas that the OP is talking about, are not at all interested in actually learning to shoot, until after they try it their way, and fail. Many become offended if you offer assistance, and some of them go so far as to ridicule those of us that don't use all the gimmicks that are advertised on the long distance shooting shows. These days, I only offer assistance to those kind of individuals, if they ask for it.
 
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