Originally Posted by
HDMontana
My stepson turned 12 last year and my son also turns 12 this year which is the minimum age you have to be to buy big game licenses in Montana. The bench will allow us to go up somewhere shooting and get some good father-son-stepson time without having to drive to a rifle range. My son doesn't have a lot of shooting experience with larger caliber rifles yet, just gopher hunting with .22. I only have him 2 days a week since he lives with my ex most of the time. Plus I am going to get them shooting muzzleloaders and see how well they like it.
I started my boys with a .177 airgun, then the .22, then the .50 cal flintlock but I loaded it down to 50 gr 2f goex to start. Just enough to give them a thump with the big bang. We then progressed up through the powder volume to full loads 80-100 gr. After that I stuck a .270 in their hands and they had no issues at all. One of them wanted to try my 45-70 with my handloads....
I told them to hang on tight. lol
HA