Help my daughter shoot better.

[rabiddawg]

My 13 yo daughter loves to hunt with me. She killed two does year before last but goose egged last year. I notice that she closes her eyes just as she pulls the trigger thus causing her point of impact to vary greatly.

The only way I could think of to try and cure the problem is to have her shoot plenty of .22 long rifle at the range. However it does not seem that she is progressing past this. Any ideas on what I can do to help her would be appreciated. Btw she is shooting a .223 rem and just got a .223 wssm from her grandfather for an early Christmas present.

 

[Gunner46]

This one is easy.

Make sure she has really good ear & eye protection 1st.

Then go to the range for some range work. Don't let her load the rifle. You do it. Have a couple of spent rounds with ya. Load one round at a time and then let her shoot. Slip in a spent round about everyother time, but with no pattern to which is loaded.

If it was a live round, ask her to call the impact point on the target. The only way she'll be able to do this is if she has her eyes open when the rifle fires. A few way off calls and she will start concentrating more on seeing the aiming point than the recoil, or noise.

This method will help her overcome either, because she'll never know if the rifle is going to go Bang, or not.

Good Luck

 

[Roog77]

Ditto with what the Gunner said. You can also add an eye patch during target shooting. Might help with the concentration in target impact point, but not such a good idea for field shooting, when you should learn to have both eyes open.

 

[the nikster]

I was gonna say what they said!
Smile alot and have fun with it while on the range so she feels like you two are just out having fun and improving accuracy is just a by-product. I think I still close my eyes on some shots and I have fired ..... a couple of rounds in my day.
Good luck with her.

 

[rabiddawg]

Thanks guys.

Being deaf in one ear myself, I always make my kids use hearing protection. Even when we hunt out of a box stand we plug up when the deer step into the plots.

I have used the empty case trick on her, but only to illustrate that she is flinching. I will try asking her to call the shot next time.

I also spent a couple of hours working on the trigger this morning to lighten it up a bit for her.

The eye patch may help too since the range we shoot at is homemade and has no cover for shade. It was bright yesterday.