West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Youth and Shooting

Safety first for shooting sports

July 15, 2009
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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This is a pretty typical day at the Putnam County Shooting Range at the fairgrounds in Eleanor. A bunch of teenagers honing their shooting skills under the close supervision of adults. According to the experts, this is the perfect way to get kids started in the shooting sports.

"The main thing is safety, if you start early, and get the proper training, you can go all through life enjoying all the shooting sports without any accidents or problems." says shooting instructor David Thompson.

That's the primary goal-safety. From Hunter's Education courses to learning the basics on the rifle range, the safety procedures learned will last a lifetime. David says this shooting range is a great place to start off.

"With the back stop, you can see where the bullets are going to go. You have a partner on each side of you, your gun is always pointed in a safe direction, which is downrange, and any youngster who has been through this training, as far as I know, has never had an accident or been in trouble with the law whatsoever." says Thompson.

That kind of successful history speaks for itself. OK, so you have decided this is the best way to start your kid off shooting, now the next step is picking out the right gun. David says think small.

"It's always better to start off with something small because of the recoil. If a person, if their shoulder gets hurt from shooting a large gun, then after that, it's going to be hard to break them from shooting their eyes when they pull the trigger."

And if their eyes are shut, they aren't going to hit a target. Keep that in mind. For West Virginia Wildlife, I'm Patrick McMurtry, Eyewitness News.