Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Kids at the Campfire Best way to teach a kid to shoot a shotgun

So I got into shotgunning late in life and as a result had to self teach myself. I'm sure I have a bad habit or two or three. My son would like to start bird hunting and I need some ideas on how to teach him to shoot. Oh and there are no shooting schools near, even if there were I could not afford one now. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

Maybe treat it like hittin' a baseball. Footwork, hitting off a tee, then a moving target.

I'd make sure he could hit a stationary target first.

Footwork is often overlooked. Just like throwing a ball, start from the bottom up. I shoot left handed so my left foot is back and my right foot is forward. For righties, it's reversed.

Once he gets comfortable, then you could try clay pigeons with a hand thrower.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

I think one of the absolute keys for anyone to learn to shoot a shotgun properly is to make sure the thing fits the shooter.

If the stock is too long, or too short, or too high or too low, or the child has wide face or a very thin face, you are going to need to do some remodeling. Otherwise, all of the technique in the world won't help.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I would wander down to the loacal trap/skeet club. The skeet field is ussually a lil more relaxed and layed back. ALways an old bird or two down there that just loves givin advice or coaching a kid.

Its how I learned. I dont even want to imagine the amount of shells i would have had to go through to learn on my own, what I learned down on the skeet range shootin with the grown ups

Skeet field and low house 7. Keep both eyes open while shooting and stay there until he has it down. Then high house 7. Same routine. Then move around as things start to click. Don't rush or overdue it. Depending upon his age and size keep recoil to a minimum. Learn the little leads before jumping to the big ones.

Don't listen to the skeet guys that insist he shoots pre-mounted.
Find someone that knows their way around field shooting and listen to them.

Make absolutely sure he is getting the correct instruction. Bad beginning habits are hard to break.

As far as gun fit, for now length of pull is all you need to worry about. If he is young it will probably need to be shorter. Anything over 5-8 or so and off the shelf will probably be fine for now.

Check out the local trap or sporting clays course, our both have youth programs being taught by some excellent teachers.

It worked for my boys and at 13 and 15 they are both outshooting me. And it's a great feeling too.

Will do, thanks again for your thoughts.

2nd's on dropping by a trap range. I live near Colorado Springs. I did that a long time ago and this "old timer" asked if I wanted to shoot a couple rounds. 1st round I broke 8-10. 2nd round with him I broke 17. Turned out he was a volunteer assistant coach for the US Olympic trap/skeet team. He taught me more in 2 rounds than I have learned before or since.

Throw a teacher up in the air and let him give it his best shot...it worked for me!

Recoil is a big deal for kids. Not easy to find light loads in the stores as they dont sell to macho buyers. Rem and Win have them online at midway and others but $.
I have had very good luck with 7\8 oz reloads in a 12 ga hull for kids. We cut down a 26" barrel rem 870 and an 1100 to 12.5 inches length of pull with a 1 inch kick eez pad.
As was stated, start at one station and shoot it till they break it every time.

Dont be worried if the first few visits are 10 shot deals. A few broken targets will go a long way to a happy kid. If they cant break a flyer the first few visits guarantee them a broken clay, then place 4 stacked on the ground at 15 yds and let them blast it. Big praise for the fist dead clays!

If you can find it, a high incoming target that lands about 10 yds in front of the shooter, is the easy first bird. But Low 7 works too.
Shoot low 1 a lot after they break a few birds. The right to left pulls the gun into the cheek and the hard crossing bird requires a good swing on the bird. Use a skeet choke and shoot it till they hit it every time. This will give them a good start on shooting a moving bird.
Watch the cheek on the stock. If it is not down use the dollar bill trick. Load the gun, place a folded dollar between cheek and stock and tell them they keep it if it dosnt hit the ground. Call Pull!.


Enjoy it and make it fun.

My guys love shooting out of the coffin Blind...






Enjoy

Look for a 4-H Shooting Sports program or maybe a club sponsored youth program. Teaching kids to shoot is what we do, we even provide properly fitting shotguns. Of course safety and proper range conduct comes first. Kids shooting with other kids in a friendly, low pressure environment helps.

Not expensive, there's a $10/$15 family membership to the range where we shoot (trap) to cover insurance and I think it's another $15 per shooter - I avoid the administrative part the best I can. Shooting Sports is apart from other 4-H activities so you can participate in that with no other 4-H involvement. No limit to how many rounds a kid can shoot, the more rounds they shoot the more we like it. We have the support of community charitable trusts for grants to cover birds etc. and buy cheap shells in bulk which we sell at as much of a discount to the kids as funds allow.

The biggest factor is shotgun fit, both for good shooting and comfort. Next the shooter dictates how many rounds to fire, some are ready to stop after a few and others are tickled to shoot a full round right off. The worst thing you can do is let it get not fun any more.

Here we start in June when the weather gets nice and go through the state tournament which is some time in September. Most enjoy qualifying for the tourney but competition is down on our list of what we want to accomplish, fun and personal development after safety.

We also do archery over the winter, which is about to start.

my 11 year old is a competitive trapshooter and just finished his first season with several medals and trophies.after a botched attempt at 6 to shoot his 20 ga he was recoil shy and wouldnt go near a shotgun.his brother shot trap for the sctp and aim programs for 4 years before going into the army this year.

a trip to the trap/skeet field is always a good place to start.a lot of the older shooters were more than happy to assist both my sons with answering questions and helping with stance,gun mounting,follow thru,leads and what not.

I haven't tried this yet myself, but I've heard throwing a tennis ball across the ground in front of the shooter as a target is a cheap way to get them used to leading their target. Tennis balls are reactive when hit and re-useable. My son shoots a Mossberg youth model 505 410. He's already bagged quite a few Ptarmigan and Grouse. It's about time I start teaching him how to lead for wing-shooting too.

Thanks for all of the ideas and info.

My now 31 year old got the best bang for the buck at the skeet low house, then moving to angles, then 5 stand. She started out shooting 8 months pregnant, and does pretty good now a few years later. I just got my 10 year old a Mossberg 500 Bantum, and we're working on tin cans and shotgun shell boxes, but I need to find her a shooting vest with a decent recoil pad like I got her older sister (Browning Broken Birds with a Reactar pad). A few shots is OK, more gets tiring. I'm going to experiment with her with an old Frisbee before we hit the range in April.

this is anthony my 11 year old last year at the sctp state shoot in nashville.

There is a great article on this subject in this months Field & Stream mag

Thanks, I'll check out the read.

Usually a stranger can do a better job at teaching your kid to shoot than you can . Daddy seem to expect to much to soon.