My daughter is officially a shooter now.

For as long as I can recall, the fourth of July has been the best holiday. Because as a kid, it meant I traditionally got to go spend the day at the range shooting up my dad’s ammo supply.

This has ebbed and waned over the years, depending on everything going on, especially as I started my own family. But this year, my daughter just turned five and I ordered her a new pink Crosman 760 rifle, some eye protection, a scope that cost as much as the air rifle, and 30,000 bb’s and 2,000 pellets. (Which weighs A LOT by the way.)

That’s right. My 5 year old daughter now has one of those ‘arsenals’ that the media talks about so fearfully when they investigate a shooter who is at least somewhat serious about their hobby. “Oh my goodness! They had a rifle and 1,000 rounds! Aiiieee! The TERROR!”

So… how did it go?

Well she was SO excited that she had to immediately try it out and is hooked. We were outside last night at 8:30pm, well past her bedtime, shooting a giant cardboard box and some Sprite cans.

She struggled with the scope, and I hadn’t thought about how hard it is to teach a kid about eye relief when the rifle is almost bigger then they are. So we took that sucker off, ordered a Crosman reflex dot sight, and I tried to teach her how to use the iron sights for the meantime.

Which went fairly well, but considering where she keeps impacting, I know she is just using the front sight and not the rear combined with it. (Everything is hitting far to the left.)

But, it doesn’t matter. She’s having a blast. She already had a healthy respect for firearms from going to the local gun store with me and oohing and aahing over everything with the stipulation of ‘don’t touch’. And now she has a good muzzle awareness and some handling skills already.

As long as she keeps puts safety first, we’ll get her accurate eventually. (As you can see in the picture below, without a bench rest table, it’s pretty hard for her to hold the rifle up, make a cheek weld, line the sights up, etc).

As she grows, she’ll get better.

And this is how she’s been shooting the rifle. (Apparently she already knew about short stocking a rifle for CQB.)

This week she goes to her Grandma and Grandpa’s for a few days, and she’s insisted that her rifle comes with her so she can show Grandpa. And I’m sure she’ll come back with some more trigger time in.

And finally, in the spirit of the 4th of July, I broke every single rule on a $10 slip and slide (including the pointy object one because I had my pocket knife on me) and lived to tell the tale… or show it I suppose.

Freedom first. Always!