Our Easter weekend was an eventful one. Before we headed back for home, we made a stop at Cabela’s for a special Easter surprise. Zane got his first gun. The Red Ryder BB gun that people dream about having, especially that kid from “The Christmas Story.” His eyes lit up and he announced, “Grandpa is going to show me how to shoot it.”
So we found what we were looking for and headed toward the family farm.
As soon as a we got to Papa and Nana’s house, Zane raced inside to proudly tell them that he got a BB gun and that he was ready to try it out.
We went outside to get things ready while Grandpa got a target setup for us. Zane carefully took his new Red Ryder out of the box with big eyes. Of course had to get the safety goggles. We wouldn’t want him to shoot his eye out.
We had to teach him gun safety to make sure he understood how serious using a gun is. But he intently listened and let Grandpa do the talking.
After going over the rules, Zane was pumped to try it out. I loaded BB’s in there and Grandpa showed him how to pump it and hold it and how the view finder worked. The anticipation of the first shot was going to happen seemed like it would never end. But as he setup to shoot it, he took his time. We initially try to set him up to shoot left handed since that is what he is, but that didn’t look the best for him.
So we switched him around to shoot right handed and that looked a lot more natural for him. He looked, he aimed, and he fired his first shot.
He initially had trouble remembering to put his fingers in the pump area as he wanted to put his fingers under it, but eventually got the hand of holding the BB gun correctly. He put in several more shots and then had to admire his shooting.
By the time he was done, he looked like a pro out there. Grandpa even got out a few cans for Zane to shoot at and he was hitting those pretty good too.
Of course, Dad had to get in a few shots. If anyone knows me, they know I did not grow up with a gun, much less shoot one very often. But I figure I can shoot a few BB’s now in my 30′s!!
Zane probably put in about 50-75 shots that day. He was so excited about it that the next day, he had to bring out his other Grandpa to show him how he could shoot it. A smile ear to ear. A boy and his gun. I never would have figured. That was definitely a fun time.
