Kids & Scary Guns: Getting Over the Firearm Fear Factor

That whole experience set us back a long ways, and I didn’t know if they’d ever want to shoot a deer rifle. That didn’t bother me much since we are a family of mostly bowhunters, but I always wanted the high-powered option, just in case.

That option fell into my lap recently, and I dealt with something I had never really considered.

To my daughters, guns are scary because of the recoil and the sound. This is not an uncommon take with newbies. While we had filed our way through some rimfires, and up the shotgun ladder so they could hunt turkeys, we never messed with deer rifles.

At least not until I got a new .308 that looks nothing like grandpa’s old deer rifle. Those of us who are big fans of firearms know what it’s like to have whole categories of guns singled out, and labeled more dangerous than they are purely from aesthetics. Many elected officials have taken the stance that one gun is dangerous and should be banned, while another is just fine for the deer woods, even though they may functionally be exactly the same. This is reality, and it’s both sad and scary.

It’s also undeniable that some modern guns do look more intimidating. The .308 I just picked up is a bolt-action rifle. It’s not a semi-auto, or as the uninformed might want to label it, a machine gun. It just looks different, and while it’s one thing to listen to a clueless politician spout nonsense about a topic they know nothing about, it’s another thing to ask a 12-year-old girl to square up to a gun and start punching paper.

My girls were already intimidated by the recoil and the noise of a large-caliber firearm, but this gun also had an unfamiliar shape and feel. It looked more like a military rifle than the squirrel guns they were used to shooting, so I had to think about the best way to get them acclimated to a gun I knew they would love once they gave it a try.

The good news for me is that I have a bolt-action .22 that has put a hell of a lot of squirrels and rabbits in the crock pot over the years. The girls have shot it plenty, and so it was nice to be able to show them it side by side with the new deer rifle. Seeing the functionality of both helped to contextualize a gun that looks vastly different but works the same.

Of course, it’s different looking at a gun in your house versus looking through a scope and gently squeezing the trigger.

To demystify our new deer gun, I had the girls watch me shoot it. With the rifle locked into a heavy tripod, they got to see how it functioned and what happened when I shot it. While they are often focused on the recoil and how loud they perceive it to be, I tried to divert their attention to the gun’s performance.

They watched as I sighted it in, which is where some modern guns distance themselves from grandpa’s old lever action. Our new gun, even in the hands of mostly a bowhunter, is a tack driver. Anyone who knows anything about shooting knows that it’s more fun to be able to hit what you’re aiming at, and this goes for seventh-grade girls.

I ran through a whole box of shells dialing in the gun, and then it was their turn.

I can’t stress this enough–if you’re going to have your kids shoot any kind of gun, a heavy, steady tripod that allows you to lock the weapon in is a good thing. In fact, it’s a make-or-break element of gun introduction for a lot of kids.

The weight of the tripod cuts down on the recoil, oftentimes by a lot. This is huge. But it’s also huge to be able to slowly and steadily get the cross-hairs where they need to be, and keep them there throughout the shot process. Mix in some hearing protection, and keep an eye on your kids to see how they handle it. If the recoil is still scary, add some weight to the front of the tripod.

If not, make a big deal out of every shot. Let them know they are shooting like a sniper, even if there groups aren’t as tight as they could be. Understand that they are going through something that you might have gone through a few decades ago, and probably not with a gun that looked like a prop out of a sci-fi movie.

Make it fun, celebrate the wins, and stick to the process. Let them shoot a limited amount of times, and end on a high note. Maybe like two or three good shots in a row. Whatever it is, make sure when you pack up, they are smiling and ready to shoot again.

That’s what we did recently, and while we have some work to do before the fall gun season’s roll around, we are well on our way to a good time in the deer woods. Plus, after just one shooting session, that .308 is a hell of a lot less scary, which is a really good thing.

Check out our Whitetail Week Sale here if you want to save some serious dough on some new gear for this season.