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

Stevebot-7 said:
Minute of Airport maybe. ;)

Stranget things have happened, someone might have had their ultrasexy devgru socom ninja rifle there, already sighted in, in a vice, and the kid just pulled the trigger without having to do any aiming.

My first rifle, I was happy to hit the paper at 40 yards.

If they come near Edmonton, we can take out my Rem 700 AAC-SD and tell them it's an M24 that I hand built after talking to Weapons Technicians in the Forces ;)
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My Frist shooting I was happy to hit the hill with a full auto 308 win never fired the rifle before and it was bigger then I was at the time. Then a tommy gun and I was happy with 2 targets out of 30 for a 30 round magazine in full auto then in semi I hit every single target funny how that works wish it was still the 80's...
 
Some good suggestions here. I can say this, I'm not going to let my cousin spend $3000+ on a rifle he has no idea how to use. Not only would I feel guilty (I am a bit of a mentor to him, he looks up to me and I won't just let him make a huge mistake without trying my best) but his parents, and mine, would be even more turned off of my hobby.

I've suggested most of what's being said here. I have a nice .22 and a nice .17hmr, both very very accurate to 100 yards if you take your time. They both scoff at the idea of shooting a small calibre. Heck, they scoff at the idea of shooting a Remington 700 or savage 10 because the stock isn't "cool looking" enough. I explained the cost involved in upgrading to a super fancy stock setup... No deal.

Ill just keep at it with them... I want them to like this hobby...
 
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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Maybe let them save and buy what they want just like everyone else does?, My first "precision" rifle is/was a Sako TRG 42 in 338 Lapua and I am now waiting for a DTA HTI in 50BMG. I don't feel that I am any worse of because I started out with a rifle capable of that long of a range.
 
x0ra said:
Wait, 1 MOA at 1700 yards is about 18 inch. Where does your 550 inch comes from ? or did you mistake "meters" for "inches" ?
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When talking to a 15 Y/o the difference will not be noticed, the rest of the post was mostly in jest as well X0ra! Unless someone on here actually can shoot 2000 yards with a 10/22. I know I sure as hell can't :D. If the Kid comes back with the 17 inch answer then I would start talking ballistics with him, otherwise if he wants to smart mouth and brag about something he has little to no Idea about, I would encourage the Op to smart mouth him right back .And show him how shooting really works. If the kid wants to spend 3000 bucks on a rifle cause it looks cool, let him(as long as it is his money ) . Sometimes kids have to learn about money on their own and you should encourage both of them to pay for a pal course as soon as they are able. As someone already pointed out the transition from Xbox to real world can be severe for some .
 
I was that kid at one point in time but with another sport. At 17 I built a 205HP mountain mod sled because I could climb anything and go anywhere in any snow conditions. I spent my $30k and got my ass handed to me by $5k bone stock 800s with some old guy riding it for quite a few years until I became a better mechanic and rider. Now I spin wrenches for a living and ride a bone stick 800. I learned my lesson but at that age we all just want to be the cool guy. Now a bit older and hopefully wiser I'm trying my best to make an out of the box Savage 223 work as good as I can and hopefully learn to push myself and the rifle as much as I can while learning and not wasting too much money on things that won't make it or me shoot better. That's my take.

Take them out and let them shoot a decent low recoil rifle at a fun target(milk jugs full of water are an exploding win) and get them hooked. If they can hit them at 50 or 100 they will want to push them out further and will want to figure out follow through etc because they want to watch them pop.
 
Fenix.NZ said:
Just let him fail at it... tell him "if you need any advice or help or have any questions, just ask" .. so he'll go away.. get his elevation all up the piss, probably shoot into the ground 400m away and then come crying
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My Grandmother used to shoot squirrels at 230 yards with a 22lr she liked it because it wouldn't damage the metal roof at that range it would just dent it if she missed. If the squirrel is running aim 6 inchs over or 3.5 buildings over. Aim as high as that tree which is 8 inches over the target then watch the wind then fire. She setup a pop can and it fell over the first shot because she went ok hold it there looked at it and said this slight adjustment and that should be good. She was really good at picking them off so much that she would hit them in the eye almost every time she didn't like body shots not a fast enough death at that range for them. It would go bang get the shovel.
 
SND said:
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.
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Magellann said:
Let em try, with enough practice and finding that they have to upgrade their equipment they will probably succeed eventually.
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Kevin M. said:
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.
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Help them become life long gun owners and shooters, and do not push them away from our sport.

Contrary to popular belief, more gun owners in this country is a good thing.
 
if you want to steer him away from the million dollar rifles and towards something a little more realistic... I was just sitting through an episode of deadliest warrior about 2 days ago (the SWAT vs GSG9 one). The long range setup for SWAT was a remmy 700 in .308

sooo, young cousin, if it's cool enough for a swat team, its cool enough for you!
 
Problem is that without experience and research you may buy a high dollar set up that does not work for the type of shooting you do and the stock may not fit you properly etc...

How many new shooters but a 338 when they needed a 223 and give up right away after one box of ammo has beat their shoulder and bank accounts?
 
Kevin M. said:
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.
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This. The worst that can happen is he doesn't have to un-learn a bunch of bad habits.
 
15 eh...they're not so bad. I've got a 40 year old Brother-in-law who just got his PAL and is talking about buying a $12,000 AI rifle and shooting a mile right out of the box.

So not so bad for 15 year olds...have patience my friend.
 
flying pig said:
Problem is that without experience and research you may buy a high dollar set up that does not work for the type of shooting you do and the stock may not fit you properly etc...

How many new shooters but a 338 when they needed a 223 and give up right away after one box of ammo has beat their shoulder and bank accounts?
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Cheaper caliber rifle = more ammo to I guess. Its funny to cuz I got a friend that just got this RPAL and all he can talk about is .50 DE, cheavtac intervention, 10ga shotguns and all sorts of crazy exotic guns... And I try an tell him that he's never gunna find ammo for it (small town) an if he does its gunna cost him an arm and a leg. I mean, even me... I want a Barrett MRAD soooooooo frickin bad but it just isn't gunna work for me cuz of where I live. I think I have seen one box of .338 lup in the next town over (113km away) and it was something stupid like $80 or something.
 
My first thought is how much is your running budget? Ever see some super hot new car or truck parked because they couldn't afford the gas and/or insurance?

Burning through $5 bills with each pull of the trigger can be very sobering when you are only earning enough to buy 1 case per hour if lucky.

Can some young kid with the right motivation shoot to 1500yds? Sure. Can he afford to keep doing it? some can, others can't

So I would suggest he look at his real goals and budget. I have some customers that do not blink at 5 figure projects. Others that cringe when it is many hundred.

If being skilled at LR shooting is the ultimate goal, there are many easy and affordable ways to get there. Going out to some F class matches should be a dream come true.

If all he wants is to say he "did this or that", there are likely opportunities to pay to play. Bring a wad of money, make some noise, have some fun, keep the videos.

Unlike many, I was very focused as a teen and I did accomplish a variety of projects that would seem "out of reach". Others couldn't keep on track from one week to the next. What is this kid like?

If he really wants to live the dream, I would say go for it. With the proper gear, he can have an affective 1500yds rifle for around $1500 plus $1000 for optics. Set up for reloading - Another $250 and he could be hitting MOA type targets that far out.

If he has any skill at shooting and can learn basic wind reading, todays gear make this distance pretty straight forward.

He certainly doesn't need a $35K rig to get there.

Jerry
 
Say he does get that rig, goes out and is a natural and picks up shooting LR right off the hop and is able to do what he claims? My bet is that he loses interest right away because for him it's too easy and finding places to shoot further will be next to impossible. Like that woman who shot a hole in one golphing for the first time, never played again. A lot of the fun in this is progression, starting at the top kills a lot of that, only place to move is down.
 
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