Shrapnal

Hi all. My daughter and I are taking the course together. Yesterday was our third class. We have a bunch of great instructors. It's fun to listen to them talk. Especially like the target practice. But, those rest benches are very uncomfortable. I still shoot pretty good, always hit the target. I'm not new to shooting guns, some of the kids in class have never shot a gun before. some miss their target completely. I hope they keep their targets (provided they do improve) to remind them of how good they got by the end of the course. I'm keeping my daughters. She's only missed the target a couple times.

Do the instructors set the sights to miss the bull's eye on purpose? I get good groups, but this last time, it was all to the right of the center. Is it to tell who's really aiming where they are told? I had to chuckle at the boy sitting next to me, he asked the instructor if we can aim for the bull's eye today. "NOOOOO" was the instructors' response. He's kind of an intimidating instructor, you can really tell he is a gun enthusiast.

Can't wait for the next class!!

Terasec

Congrats to the both of you,
Not sure about guns used,
Remember purpose of the course is to make sure your safe and ethical, not to make marksmen out of you,
Don't know if they intentionally misalign the sights,
Or could be they use whatever guns they can get a hold of and may not be sighted in on a regular basis,
They may be lower quality, and/or get banged around a lot during transport for the classess.

Backwoods7

When I took the class they had me shoot a 22 singleshot and a 20ga 1100 Remington and they didn't give us a target to shoot at. Just shoot downrange lol

Jeff Ovington

Well the practical training should not only be based on identifying, safety and ethics it should also be marksmanship as well.
If people are consistantly missing their targets they have no business hunting or even passing the Practical exam.What B.S.

halfbakedi420

if yer grouping yer good, cause you will adjust your own sights on your own gun.
maybe he isnt using his dominant eye, or maybe the gun isnt sighted in correctly, because his story seems to indicate he wasnt the only one.

Shrapnal

Yes, Terasec, safety first! I was just curious. But, knowing how to aim, I would think, is a part of learning to hunt safely, as well as learning the feel of how a gun kicks.

Backwoods7, right now, we're shooting 22 singleshot with open sights. I know the open sights are a bit tricky when your starting out. From what I understand, we will get to shoot just about everything. We have about 7 instructors, we get to shoot some of their own personal guns. My daughter is looking forward to shooting the handguns. At the end of the course we get to shoot clay pigeons. That'll be fun.

Terasec

yes,
accuracy is important,
and instructors generally do discuss that,
but for the course they are probably more concerned with how he/she handles that gun, before, during and after the shot.
they cant train everyone on every type of gun, practice will come on your own time,
only 10-12 hrs in the course,

Jeff Ovington

I wasn't refering to the original poster. In fact I complement him on tge fact he is concerned about his grouping and accuracy. I'm just saying in,and I understand the fact that hours in the pratical
exam are restricted amount of time.But people would put more time in on praticing their shooting skills if their hunting licence was on the line.

Sfury

Well, sort of. Most of the students are pretty young, and not the best shooters yet.

The real focus of Hunters Education is safety. Learning the basic rules of safety, and ingraining them so that they follow them.

Marksmanship comes if the class can handle that training, and has the proper rifles to allow for that. When I went through hunters safety course I was glad the class was short on guns so I could use my Father's Ruger 10/22. I was the "best" marksman in the class because I had a gun I was familiar with, and the sights were set properly.

Leave marksmanship to later. Ingrain safety first, and then move on to the shooting mechanics.

Jeff Ovington

I understand most beginning shooters are young.
And I agree safety first but if that person regardless of age can't hit that target when he's in school. Fail him or her.That is the only way they will learn. If a person gets discouraged and quits over failure
they don't deserve it to begin, their immaturity just showed.Failure can be a positive thing, and the best time to fail is in school not out in the field.If my kid couldn't shoot worth a crap but was the safest person that ever handled a firearm and wrote a book on ethics, I still wouldn't let him hunt anything living until that part was proven.Cause he does not deserve it. Safety first always, shot placement is next, a quick clean kill is the first rule in ethics.