Ben and I took a couple of our favorite plinking (or Blinking as he used to call it) rifles out the other day for some shooting. He used his customized Rem 514 for a little long range practice shooting at a steel plate about 90 yards away. A long way for an 8 year old with a .22.



My favorite walking around gun is a Winchester 75 Sporter that has been restocked by an unknown gunsmith. Whoever did it did a fine job and it has a little bit of a G&H look to it. Ben is showing them off.




One of the reasons I like custom .22's is that here in central IL you can get a lot more use out of them than you can a big game rifle.

Lest anyone think I am not teaching Ben how to shoot iron sights, we did a little practicing for smallbore season as well. I hope to get him off the bipod and into a sling next year, but will likely have to go to a lighter rifle for that.


Regards,
John

PS. The scope on the 514 is one of the Chinese copies of the old Redfield 3/4" tube rimfire scope. Although advertised as being parallax free at 25 yards, it actually has about 2" of parallax at 25. I guess it will teach him to keep his eye centered in the scope.

Very cool with some classy rifles. A family tradition not seen nearly enough. You are both very lucky to share these enjoyments.

That M-75 looks very professional and is another dream project I'm probably not going to get around to.

I think it is wonderful that he is learning at this age.
Mike

It's comforting to know that Ben will be "blinking" long after all we silverbacks have shuffled off this mortal coil. There's hope for our sport, in the likes of this young man.

Very nice. My son has my 7 year old granddaughter shooting my 22s pretty well too. I won a 10/22 with a green laminated. Stock. Put a red dot on it and she was doing great hitting the spinner at 6 years old.
Sorry not we still make her shoot the little buckeroo bolt with iron sights too

I have always loved 22. Don't have any bolts since my bulgary 8 years or so ago. Not sure why
Seeing your guns makes me want to build a new custom. Thanks for sharing

Jerry

I recently bought a Win 75 that someone had "hose clamped" into a M52 stock. It fit OK but looks terrible. I figure to attach a lug on the barrel and replace it with a screw. I haven't shot the thing yet but the bore is pristine. I may find time before I go but if I don't my youngest son will have a nice project.

My office manager's son started shooting at 10 and promptly out shot everyone in his group except a Jr Olympian. He missed qualifying for Camp Perry last year because the sights on the rifle he had to use were not calibrated correctly. He spent 2 weeks in Colorado at the Olympic Shooting Camp last summer and is going to Camp Perry this year. The kid is a "natural" and loves it. I've been cheering him on and so has his dad. He took the NRA coaching course to help the whole bunch. It's good to see the spirit is not dead. His younger sister loves gymnastics but can shoot almost as well.