On Christmas day we always travel north to Plymouth, IN to my sister-in-law's family for Christmas. As per tradition, I always lug along various weapons for my 13 yr old and 8 yr old nephews to try out. (they live on a 200 acre piece of land with a very nice, safe area to shoot). This year it was two Rock River AR's, a Rem 870 in 20 ga, and a Ruger P-95 9mm. As always, I started with a complete review of the 4 Lessons of Gun Safety and the operating mechanics of each weapon. The 8 yr old did fine but lost interest quickly and decided to go back to the house to play with his new presents.
The 13 yr old did very well and appears to be a natural marksman. One little issue though; he tends to molest, grope, and grab the trigger! After patiently explaining and demonstrating the technique to him several times, he was still struggling. Finally, I just looked at him and said "Look; just keep your boogerhook off the bang switch and you'll be fine!". He cracked up laughing until he had tears running down his face and kept saying "boogerhook" over and over like it was the funniest thing in the world. From that moment on, his trigger discipline was letter perfect.
When we got back up to the house he took great pride in telling everyone the new word I'd taught him. Ah...I forgot how much fun sophomoric humor is to a pre-teen. The coolest thing was hearing him later tell his little brother that he was holding his Air-Soft rifle wrong and showing him how to do it right (I.E safely).
The 13 yr old did very well and appears to be a natural marksman. One little issue though; he tends to molest, grope, and grab the trigger! After patiently explaining and demonstrating the technique to him several times, he was still struggling. Finally, I just looked at him and said "Look; just keep your boogerhook off the bang switch and you'll be fine!". He cracked up laughing until he had tears running down his face and kept saying "boogerhook" over and over like it was the funniest thing in the world. From that moment on, his trigger discipline was letter perfect.
When we got back up to the house he took great pride in telling everyone the new word I'd taught him. Ah...I forgot how much fun sophomoric humor is to a pre-teen. The coolest thing was hearing him later tell his little brother that he was holding his Air-Soft rifle wrong and showing him how to do it right (I.E safely).
Awesome! 
