I’m moving out of my house in Fort Collins, and found this in the garage. My first marksmanship award from Big Springs Ranch, Florissant, Colorado 1968. Just up the road from ManBearPig Cave.
Back in the days when boys were taught to use rifles responsibly, rather than view them as weapons of mass destruction. (Thanks to our brainless progressive friends.)
I still have my Hunter Safety Card from 1963. I think that was the first year they were required in Colorado. Everyone a year older or more than me is fathered in and doesn’t need the card. No worries, they know how to treat a gun. It was something a father passed onto his son back then.
Or daughter. I had my Hunter Safety Course at age four.
Dad gave me my first gun at 14. Uncle Sam gave me three others in turn. Silver on each. Does anyone remember the Straight Arrow cards between the rows of Shredded Wheat biscuits in the box?
Amazing! You still have your first marksmanship award and some people are still looking for their birth certificate….
Good one!
Snickerrrrrr
Take aim at the warmist purveyors of horsesh!t.
Rhetorically.
My NRA Pro-Marksman dates from 1963.
I was a late bloomer
Nevertheless, you have done very well. Congrats!
Always thought you were a straight shooter.
Happy Constitution Day!
Today, September 17th, is Constitution Day.
…”Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine brave men on September 17, 1787, recognizing all who, are born in the U.S.or by naturalization, have become citizens.”
…On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created.”…
http://www.constitutionday.com/
Everyone needs to know about it, and learn about it.
In 2004, Federal lawmakers wanted to make sure students across the country know about the history, meaning, and importance of the U.S. Constitution, so they passed a law mandating its teaching on “Constitution Day” September 17, every year.
…”Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, added an amendment [to an appropriations Bill] designating September 17 as Constitution Day, mandating the teaching of the Constitution in schools that receive federal funds, as well as federal agencies.”…
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/16/constitution.day/
Mine’s in a box out in the garage somewhere… dated 1966.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we took our Constitution out for it’s birthday and actually used it.
Or better yet made the Congressmen, Senators, Judges….. READ it and actually follow their oaths to abide by it?
Too bad citizens can not drag them off to be tried for not following the Constitution.
Qualified Expert in 68 with targets from 25 meters to 200 meters.
Then qualified, with another firearms.
Trouble is my rifle was my closest friend but I could never take my friend home with me.
My dad taught me to shoot a 22 when I was 8.
Got my marksman medal with a 45 in the Navy 1968. They taught gun safety in the middle schools in the UP. Used have a schooling team too.
Sorry that should be 1971.
Never had a marksmanship award other than qualifying expert in the Army with about everything I qualified with. Was taught safety and marksmanship by my Dad and Uncle. Dad with rifle. Uncle, who was a national Trap shooting champ, with shotgun so I shot a lot of trap and skeet. Also spent a heck of a lot of time reloading shells. Both Dad and my uncle had shooting traps for pistols in the basement so that is where I learned the basics of pistol marksmanship. From then on it was all Army including tactical pistol shooting and a gold Schützenschnur when I qualified with the standard German Army small arms, including an MG 3 machine gun which was nothing more than a modernized MG 42 really. Busted a whole lot of caps in various training including the OPFOR small arms course at Aberdeen and at the H&K factory demo range.
A close relation recounted to me, was mates with some Para’s who had returned having fought during the DDay landings – one said later after some years, shooting, marksmanship is fine, the real clincher though, is what do you do [are gonna do] when someone, sniper or a unit – is using you for target practice.
Yea, tactical is different from target. But the reality is that a person that can shoot a paper target accurately and/or has grown up hunting and shooting shooting will generally do better in combat than one that has not. It is about muscle memory, breathing control, and so much more. Audie Murphy, the most decorated American from WW II grew up in a fatherless poor family and as a kid helped put food on the table shooting rabbits with a .22 rifle. Before him Alvin York was a dead eye marksman in the hills of Tennessee before he used those skills so effectively in WW I.
From the very first time I sat foot on an Army qualification range it was easy and I qualified expert and there is no doubt in my mind that was because I had grown up shooting.
BTW the NRA was established in the first place because some Civil War veterans thought that Americans needed to be trained in using firearms and shooting accurately.
My Dad put me in a Junior NRA marksmanship class when I was in 7th grade. I had received a new bolt-action .22 cal Winchester rifle for Christmas and part of the present was lessons. Worked my way up from ProMarksman (25/50 prone at 50′) to Expert Rifleman (10 targets each with 45/50 in prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing) in my senior year in high school. Safety was ALWAYS the standard. Mr. Francis Braine, our instructor, emphasized every week: “NEVER point your rifle at anyone or anything, UNLESS you intend to shoot it.” It was an incredible experience that I wish all young people could be taught instead of these d*** computer games where you always kill the bad guy!
Speading of global cooling:
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/15/global-warming-likely-to-cause-colder-and-snowier-winters/20962706/
Oops. SpeaKing of……..
I shot bow. After that hitting a bullseye with a 22 was a cinch.
this one is ticking me off.
I don’t remember shit about my NRA training. I do remember teaching about 10 children how to shoot safely. I want to here how you passed it on people!
How times have changed:
In 1963 I entered high school in small town rural Ontario. All the grade 9 boys were required to be in cadets and part of the training was shooting single shot .22 at targets in a range in the basement of the school. Evil firearms were stored on site! The kids that were interested could shoot regularly with their targets entered in a competition. My cousin was a good marksman and went to Bisley in England to compete.
My first hunter safety course was father, older brother, two uncles and a grandfather at age eight. All were vets with the attitude of “you need to learn with a single shot twenty two.” You bring down what you are aiming at with it, then after that, any other caliber is a piece of easy. Forget a ten round mag and semi-auto, at least to begin with.
The best learning experience was me versus a skunk. The skunk shot first.
I got to sleep outside for a week.
Okay all you sharpshooters, Bob Munden is an egomaniac, but he’s fast…and accurate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tvpaD4oatk
Crap. Sorry…
Trying again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWaBimM0Us
This one is a little better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7HN7THecwg
Tom Knapp was always great too…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajRydkuRPlg
Growing up in the 50’s in semi-rural Massachusetts, I had a Daisy BB gun at 8 and a .22 rifle at 12 (still have it; still shoot it). We would take our rifles and ammo to school and leave them in the principal’s office. We would pick them up after school and walk to our favorite clump of woods and shoot tin cans, etc. or any small critter that moved (or flew) in our vicinity. It was no big deal to see a group of boys walking along the street with rifles slung over their shoulders. We never even conceived of shooting a person.
I’m glad to hear your story. I thought I was going crazy!
I got a Browning .22 semi-auto for Christmas when I was 11. My friend had a single shot .22. We used to ride our bikes for about a mile through suburban housing, with our rifles on the handlebars, to a place where we could safely practice.
Nowadays, the SWAT team would be called for two boys “armed” with rifles!
Yeah, but I bet your gun didn’t have the shoulder thing that goes up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WhNkIsP59pM#t=24
That add on at the end should be placed at the end of every democrat statement.
Yep democrats do not know the difference between semiautomatic and automatic. They don’t know the difference between a clip and magazine. And at least one thought the front sling swivel on an AR-15 was the bayonet stud. I could go on but……..
Bayonet stud??? 😆 – I wish I could have been there to hear that!
Here you go: It was the Chicago Tribune: http://mrconservative.com/2013/01/3918-clueless-liberals-at-tribune-push-weapons-ban/
One of the things stressed in hunters safety classes was you are responsible for the discharge of a bullet from your gun. From the time it leaves the gun to the time it comes to rest. You are responsible for the damage done in its flight path. Period. Includes any weapon that shoots a projectile.
I taught my sons and daughters, and had them go through classes. BB guns, toy guns that shoot projectiles, bows, whatever, you are responsible.
And that is the critical point.
Now a days if some idiot trespassed on your land and holds up their toddler to pet the nice horsie – YOU are responsible when your breeding stallion eats the kids candy coated fingers.
Responsibility is never the fault of the person who acted irresponsible, it is always the fault of someone else. In the case of guns and shooting it is the fault of the gun and Conservatives. If a drunk runs someone down it is the fault of the bartender….
If a drunk runs someone down it is the fault of the bartender….
And the beer, wine and alcohol manufacturers, advertisers, the parents of the drunk and society at large for even allowing booze to be around…anyone or anything other than the person committing the act.
But never me Hic
http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/di8/AX6/di8AX69ie.jpeg