What is your super power?

When I was 7 years old I remember hanging out with my brother and friends and a frequent topic would come up; if you had a super power what would it be and why?  My friend Zack would say he would be superman and we would have to correct him, it’s a power and not all the powers of the character.  He would then follow up with the ability to fly because who would not want to fly?!  My brother always said x-ray vision and as a young man we questioned his intentions. When it was my turn I always said I wanted super strength.  In looking back at my childhood I think this was a function of my place in the hierarchy being the youngest in the family.  After all, when you are seven years old it would be awesome to beat up on any bullies or bad guys!

This past weekend, several of us from the Steel Target Paint Shooting team visited Dead Zero Shooting Shooting Park in Spencer Tennessee.   It was a great trip and worth the time and miles to shoot my first match in two months.  I love squadding with my teammates, but I also love squadding with people I have never shot with before.  Our squad ended up being a great mix of experienced shooters and some new to the sport.  There was a new shooter on our squad shooting an AR style Rimfire gun, which was running pretty well, but had one malfunction.  After watching him shoot there was possibly one or two things going on.  As I watched him shoot our second stage of Pendulum, I could see the end of the muzzle moving around a good bit.  I let him shoot and then when he came off the line I complimented him on his shooting.  I asked what type of gun he had and asked about the trigger pull.  The gun was a little bit heavier with a steel AR style barrel and a factory pull weight in the 5 to 6 pound range.  I shared with him I noticed the gun moving a bit and why I asked.  His dad said that he was thinking about getting into a 10/22 platform.  I told him there was nothing wrong with what they were shooting and offered options of the JP .22 upper to lighten the front end as well as a trigger to lighten the pull weight.  After some discussion about the options I offered the junior shooter to shoot the rest of the match with my Magnum Research Switchbolt .22 and I provided a box of ELEY Force to feed it.  We talked through a couple of safety measures with a lighter gun with a lighter trigger pull and we were off to loading magazines!

As we shot the next stage, I walked to the line with him to walk through the functionality of the Vortex Razor red dot, how to function the TANDEMKROSS extended magazine release and another reminder of the trigger pull of the Powder River Precision trigger.  As the timer went off, he went to work going one for one.  I then shared with him it was OK to push the gun because it was light, fast and accurate.  He then threw down a blazing run.  I turned and looked at his dad who was holding the camera and I told him I was sorry.  He said for what.  I said, “You saw that run didn’t you?” and his son turned around with the biggest grin I have seen on any shooter in a very long time.  I then told his dad I just cost him some money!  His dad smiled and he said “yes you did”.  As a newer shooter, he was on cloud 9!  It was arguably one of the best shooting experiences I have had at the range.  We stayed around and we demo’d some guns and shared stories.

As my good friend Mike Baker says, “Take a kid shooting”.  And let them experience the sport which we all love.  That is our Super Power.  What is yours?

See you out on the range soon!

Steve

Rimfire Rifle Open Build:

Magnum Research Switchbolt with red Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel

Steve Foster Shooting Compensator

Powder River Precision Trigger

Tandemkross Krosspins

Tandemkross Fireswitch extended magazine release

Tandemkross Titanium Twister takedown knob

Blackhawk Axiom Stock with cheek riser

Cencal Cerakote magazine extensions

Vortex Razor 6 MOA red dot

Fueled by ELEY Force