Nick Leghorn has been an animal lately at getting as many people involved in shooting sports as possible. And taking to the internet to vent his frustrations at ranges that don’t offer him the customer service he’s grown accustomed to. Passive aggressive knife wielding aside, he also set up Take a Newbie Shooting Day to promote established shooters bringing new people to the tribe. And like any good venture, it needed a good kickoff. In this case, the flag went up on National TNSD this past Saturday . . .
I took a small group of three guys to my favorite range, Best of the West, in Liberty Hill, Texas. Armed with a small arsenal, we discussed basic shooting fundamentals, and then let loose a torrent of lead on defenseless paper and shaken soda cans.
But they weren’t the only ones learning Saturday. Here’s what I took away:
- Bring a blue gun for whatever you’re shooting. I only have a dummy pistol, but will be picking up a dummy AR ASAP for such events.
- Keep the group size small. Three people was about the right number for me to handle. Any more and I would have been overwhelmed.
- Keep an eye on the clock so everyone gets to shoot and you don’t end up getting kicked off the range
- Bring as many reactive targets as possible. My guys did great on paper, but REALLY got excited about shooting full soda cans. You can pick up a 24 pack case of generic soda at the local store for less than $2.50. If you’ll be shooting at slightly longer distances, consider a steel plate or some of those self healing rubber ball targets
- Safety first, second, and third. I only had to pick on my guys once or twice for finger on the trigger violations, but we didn’t have any muzzle sweeps and they were great about locking guns open and showing clear.
- My group was small enough that I could run one person at a time while the others watched or reloaded magazines. I recommend only letting one person at a time shoot until everyone gets comfortable.
Enjoy some pictures
