Empowering Young Marksmen: Rob Beckman and Becky Wetzel on Youth Shooting Programs, Safety, and Opportunities

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Hi, welcome to the Arm Guardian Podcast.

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This is your host, brian.

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We're going to have Season 2, episode 21 here just shortly, but I wanted to give our listeners an update.

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We're reeling in from Hurricane Helene and still doing a lot of cleanup.

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We've got some repairs to do and just emotionally kind of overwhelmed at the moment.

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But we're going to do this episode and then we're going to pause the podcast and just emotionally kind of overwhelmed at the moment.

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But I'm going to do this episode and then we're going to pause the podcast for an indefinite amount of time, just so that I can get the things done around that need to be done as well as take a little break for mental health and everything.

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With the struggles of being out almost two weeks without power and running with a generator and all it just took a emotional hit for me and my family.

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So we're going to take a little bit of a break with that and hopefully we'll be back, but I will definitely be keeping y'all updated.

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Today's podcast we're going to have Rob Beckman and Becky Wetzel.

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We're going to be talking about youth shooting.

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Rob Beckman is a big advocate for the Boy Scouts and Becky is an advocate for youth shooting with the 4-H organization.

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So stay tuned and listen to today's podcast.

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Our sponsors for the podcast are Right to Bear Legal Protection and Blackout Coffee.

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There'll be QR codes for discounts and more information later on in the podcast.

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Hi, welcome to the Armed Guardian Podcast.

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I'm Brian, your host.

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We've got here with us today rob beckman and becky welsel.

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Uh, that that's close.

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Uh, we're gonna talk today about youth shooting and, uh, the pros of it, uh, what, what it does and different things that are out there to involve youth into shooting, and we'll talk a little bit more about that.

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So moving on, welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

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Thank you for coming and being a part of the podcast today, and this is something that I'm really big into youth shooting and I wanted to.

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I've had Beth Alcazar on.

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She talked a little bit about the USCCA's women's program and the children's program that she developed and or helped develop, and I wanted to bring out some other aspects and got with Rob and you know we kind of came up with this, you know, for the scouts and the 4-H, and wanted to just put out some information for families that may be interested in familiarizing their kids with firearms or even getting them into competition or team building and stuff like that, so that the fear of the firearm is not there and that, uh, you know, they know how to act around a firearm.

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Know that I know when we were real young played cowboys and indians and stuff like that and pointed the make it, made up guns and the cap guns and stuff.

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But uh, you know, looking at that, uh as a dad now and as a firearms instructor, were we really teaching a lot of the safety rules that we want to enforce with things like that?

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And I get kids are going to play, but we also got to incorporate proper training.

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But we'll go ahead and jump into intros, becky, we'll start with you.

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Give us an intro of who Becky is.

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Okay, becky Welzel, I am actually the former Ohio County Indiana 4-H pistol instructor and acting shooting sports coordinator.

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I also am the vice president of our local women's shooting group, women Armed and Ready, and I'm also a NRA pistol instructor and range safety officer.

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Okay, all right.

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Well, thank you for that, rob.

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Give us your aspiring intro.

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Aspiring, uh, intro.

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I'll give you a short little introduction um, I work with the uh scouting usa.

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Um I'm a district commissioner for them, which, uh I I take care of the west side of cincinnati for them, also part of the council's uh shooting sports committee.

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Uh, when I'm not doing that, I'm also a ohio hunter education instructor, for it's uh helping for helping a lot of youth get their first taste of going out and being safe while they're hunting.

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I'm also the second vice president for the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association.

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That is the NRA state organization here in Ohio that promotes safe shooting practices as well as conducts several different shooting competitions, probably the most famous one being Camp Perry up in Northern Ohio and then the Cardinal Shooting Center in Central Ohio.

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Those are two big places that a lot of people probably recognize that Ohio Rifle and Pistol is associated with it.

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And then, while I'm not doing those volunteer activities, I actually have my own podcast called the farm trainer podcast and I do a training for the NRA and the USCCA.

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Um, from basic pistol to advanced pistol, to rifle, shotgun, muzzle loading.

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Um, if it goes bang, uh I'm I, I I play with it, shoot it and teach other people how to do things safely with it.

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Okay, all right, well, well, thank you for that.

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Um, I wanted to.

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We'll start off with the kind of the open-ended question uh, you shooting, uh, why should we talk about you shooting?

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Uh, and know what?

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When should we incorporate the teaching them about the you shooting and how?

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How do we involve the kids and the parents, because the parents have got to be a part of it as well.

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How do we kind of incorporate all that into youth shooting and leave this as an open-ended jump in?

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I'll jump on that first, becky, if you don't mind.

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Here's one thing that's kind of.

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As a parent and a grandparent right now, one of the things you realize is just how innocent kids are.

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They don't see danger in anything.

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You know they walk outside and you know they'll just walk out in the middle of the street without anything twice.

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You know they have no concept that something's dangerous about it.

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You know they'll see.

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You know knives, they'll see stairs in your, in your house, and you know they don't think about you know walking to it slowly or anything else like that.

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They run toward them and it's like, okay, you're going to fall down those steps.

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So when it comes to go, when it comes to go along and we uh, you know, talk about when to teach them.

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It's like any other life skills.

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If you're a firearm owner, I think you need to teach the kids appropriately as they get older.

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You know, obviously, toddlers, you know, don't touch type of thing.

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You know, think of it, think of it like a sharp knife.

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If you got a sharp knife on the table, you're going to tell them not to touch it, but you're also going to go along and move that knife away from where they can reach it because you realize that telling them once might not work.

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And then, as they get older, in the three and four-year-old range, I would say that's when they can understand things, you can explain things to them a little bit.

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And then, when they get around the five and six-year-old range, it might be time to take them out and do a little shooting.

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Now, it could be a BB gun, it might be a 22, uh, different things along those lines.

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But the the whole point about it is is you're guiding them through it, you're making sure the muzzle staying down range, you're reinforcing to them to you know, keep the finger off the trigger.

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Um, you're definitely not going along and saying you know, here's, here's my shotgun, go out with your friends and go, go hunting with it.

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You know, if you're going to take them out hunting, you're going to be taking them probably until you know they're 10 to 12 and then you know you're going to, you're only going to trust them with a you know, with some, with a trusted adult at that point, or trusted, uh, you.

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So that's kind of way I kind of uh, set things up.

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It's not as if when they turn 12 years old, all of a sudden we're going to whip open the doors and say here's your, here's all the guns we're going to teach you about them.

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Because if we haven't taught them to, you know, stay away from hot things and sharp knives and streets and different things like that.

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We're setting them up because it's not just your house that you got to worry about it, it's what do they do if they go over a friend's house?

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Right, because with you know, last estimate I heard there's some over 500 million guns in the united states.

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Um, I think it's probably low.

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But at the same time, when you think about it, if you don't have a gun in your house, probably one of their friends does, and and even if you keep your guns safely locked up that you, you know are utterly you know as safe as you can be with it, you've also got to realize that you know what, what?

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What's your kid going to do if they find one in a park.

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What are you going to do if they find one?

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you know, find a bullet um you know, in a sandpile and I'll use a quick example.

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I have my daughter.

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When she was three years old, I educated them, you know, kind of as I I said, and when she was three years old, my son, who was six at the time, was playing baseball.

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She was playing in the, in the sand pile, you know, they had sand piles around and all of a sudden she, uh, got up and brought over and gave my wife something or a hand and then went back to playing the sand.

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It was a, it was a, a cartridge, and you know, probably somebody was in the gravel pits and they were shooting and you know, and something dropped and they lost it.

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Yeah for it.

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And then it got transported there to that school by doing that.

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But she didn't, she didn't have a hesitation, you know.

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She didn't try to go along, beat it between two rocks, she didn't try to, you know, do different things.

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She knew that.

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You know, if she saw something like that, it wasn't to play with and to go along, just hand it to mom and go back to playing.

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You know, do the fun things yeah so that's my long-winded answer to your simple question there, brian, I don't like becky filling anything I missed from the mother's point of view.

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Yeah, I know, for the 4-H we don't allow them to participate in shooting sports until about like third grade, so I guess that's like age eight or nine.

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But I do know that, like the NRA, like you said, rob, teaching them gun safety at an age appropriate level is important.

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So I know that the NRA has the Eddie Eagle program.

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That's kind of you know what they need to do if they encounter a gun.

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But I think a big part of teaching youth about guns and things is taking away the mystery.

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Because when kids are curious about things, they, even if their parents tell them not to bother with them, sometimes they still will, just because they're curious.

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And if you demystify those things for them, that goes a long way to them just saying, okay, I know what that is, I know what it can do, I'm respectful of it and I can leave it alone.

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And it also gives them a chance to learn how they function and things.

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So they're not trying to figure out how it works and then maybe accidentally have a discharge or something like that because they know how it works Right.

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So that's, I think taking out the curiosity factor for the kids goes a long way.

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Okay, yeah, we had a uh an issue, uh an event, uh unfortunate event that, um, a mother and father had stopped at a local big box market and they had the 4th of July fireworks stand out there while the parents got out when intending just to be out for a minute and get back in.

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Well, they left a child in the vehicle.

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Vehicle running Child got out of their car seat and found the mother's pistol in the vehicle and was playing around with it and ended up shooting himself himself.

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And it just a lot of a lot of curiosity with the kids, especially if you don't indoctrinate them with it.

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But we can all say don't touch, don't touch, don't touch.

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But if we don't educate them appropriately, the wise and how serious or how deadly it can be, it's, it's kind of hard to to what's the word I'm looking for it's kind of hard to stop the trend if you don't do it early enough in their teaching or in their learning events.

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But that's something that you know.

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I made a newsletter on my business about the event and not armchair quarterbacking it or anything.

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But I really stress the importance of the, the safety and and teaching and educating, and then it's the safe storage for the ones that aren't uh able at the age to understand don't touch why, and stuff like that.

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You know, getting on, the safe storage which is another big topic that we probably won't discuss in this episode but that's another aspect of being around youth and kids and having guns is the safe storage of it.

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Well, one thing that I bring up when I'm teaching classes is it's not just keeping the guns out of reach of kids, it's keeping the guns out of the reach of unauthorized people.

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I know we're focused on youth, but it's very common to have aging parents that can't take care of themselves, maybe move in with you, and that could have dementia, could have Alzheimer, that you know, that can't take care of themselves, maybe move in with you and that could have dementia, could have Alzheimer's or could have other issues with it.

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And we can probably also identify that in every family there are relatives that we all say, oh, they're coming, okay, well, we know, you know they're the type that maybe aren't the most responsible drinkers, maybe they're not the most responsible.

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You know the way they live their lives and everything else like that.

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And the thing about it.

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When you talk about keeping guns out of unauthorized people, that's your three-year-old, that's your six-year-old, but it may also be your 26-year-old.

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That's having, you know, some financial problems.

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Or you know the 60-, you know the 60 year old.

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That's, you know, coming to that that has early onset alzheimer's and such, and that's where we really need to change the focus of just okay, I'm going to take and put this gun up on the refrigerator because it's out of the reach of my kids.

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To okay if somebody comes in here that shouldn't have that.

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You know where we're, we're doesn't need to be stored and you know someplace it's easily accessible.

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You know where we're, we're not doesn't need to be stored and you know someplace it's easily accessible.

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You know for self-defense, but also, at the same time, secured, because there's so many sad stories like the one you shared, that you know.

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The thing about it is you know how did the kid get out of the car seat?

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Well, if you've got kids, you realize just how sneaky those little boogers can be.

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You know one minute, one minute they're.

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You realize just how sneaky those little boogers can be.

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You know one minute they're.

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You know over there and they're being nice and quiet on their toys and the next minute they're underfoot Dora.

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It's like how'd you get there?

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And you've got to figure out how to juggle things and realize, okay, it's not if it's just when.

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So you've got to always, you know kind of predict, you know what are the kids going to do and the same thing comes to you know, around your house, um, we don't have our grandkids, aren't with us all the time, but when they visit we've got child locks on on different things to make sure they can't get into.

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You know the dangerous pieces.

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We've got little locks on our stove so you know they can't accidentally turn the gas on.

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You know just those little things that we all know not to do.

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But they haven't quite gotten old enough to understand those pieces.

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And it's a important piece as adults that we take responsibility, not just for our guns, but responsible on how we live our lives too.

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Right, yeah?

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yeah, it a no, and depending on the family situation as well, cause I've got my middle daughter and grandson that currently living with my wife and I, and he has autism.

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Uh, he's very inquisitive, he's no, if he finds something, he's.

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He's pushing buttons, pulling things and uh, uh, he'll climb up on top of the washer and dryer and just sit there, spin, play with the knobs and everything.

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And they're, they're, they're learning, uh, how things work and everything.

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And you know, just being able to recognize, okay, uh, this person's here in the home at this time.

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So I just can't leave my, like you said, gun on top of the refrigerator or, you know, in the nightstand without safely securing it.

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And it's something that I think we all, as adults and being protectors of our family, we kind of forget a little bit about the safe storage aspect of it.

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And you know the thinking of what's around us and and know who's around, how long are they going to be around, and just um, knowing yourself too because, being in law enforcement, I've had some unfortunate events where people have taken their lives and is uh various, uh, various different things I had, uh, I won't go into details, but I had a young 20 year old that uh shot himself with a 22 rifle and uh over a breakup.

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And then we had a 60 year old old man that uh lost his wife a year prior and no, going through that, that heartbreak, Uh, he just felt that he couldn't continue and ended up taking his life.

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But no, just knowing and keeping an eye on our family members, even the ones in the house, uh, no, or is there something going on to and I know we're kind of getting a little off topic, but no, it's something that being aware of your family situation?

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No, uh, people going through something?

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Uh, you know the kids.

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Uh, unfortunately, uh, the youth are being targeted by gang initiation.

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So, no, there's, there's that aspect.

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No, are they, who are they hanging out with?

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Uh, are they hanging out with the wrong crowd?

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And how much more should you amp up your, your awareness of of the household situation?

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So, definitely.

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All right Well well, one thing, one thing I forgot to forget to include in my answer, before my long-winded answer, brian, was when it comes to scouting the, the Cub Scout world, they're able to go along and shoot BB guns up until you know, they're aged age 10.

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And that's when they cross over into scouting, uh, usa and troops, and in Cub Scouts, um, they organize district events that are safe, because a lot of times BB guns you can take it to a, they can do an event at a local park, put up some tarps as backdrops and they'll shoot into cardboard boxes.

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It makes, you know, gives the kids something to do and it's, um, you know, fun, because everybody likes to be able to go along and have a little piece of paper and then build, you know, show, how many holes you punched into it.

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When they get a little bit older and they get into the scouting troops, they start off with shooting 22 rifles and shotguns.

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Most camps have 20-gauge shotguns, some have 12.

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And they're able to go along in scouting and earn their rifle merit badge or shotgun merit badge and their most loyating merit badge.

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And then when they turn 14, they're actually able to go along, take part in what they call cowboy action shooting.

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And that's where they go along and they can shoot a 22 pistol, single action pistol, uh, 22, lever action, uh rifle, and then a stagecoach uh type of shotgun, so it makes it, um, you know, kind of fun, and then a stagecoach type of shotgun.

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So it makes it kind of fun and puts a little bit more activity.

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Because just as much as we're talking about the responsible side of it, we also want to show the kids a little bit of the fun side of it, because it can definitely be a lifelong skill, something they can enjoy, whether they're young, going through college, or whether they're 70, 80 years old and they, they still want to go out and hang out with friends and other responsible adults.

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Yeah, okay, yeah, our gun club I was telling becky, we we do a uh youth shoot, uh at least once a year, if not twice a year, where we invite the youth out.

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Uh club members will bring their their 22, uh, 22 shotguns, their uh pistols and stuff and and kind of, let you know, teach the kids a little bit about gun safety, let them shoot a little bit so that they get over the fear of uh they maybe they're at the age where they know this is something that you don't play around with, but no, hey, this can be fun uh while I'm doing it, and it's a way to enjoy and get out and enjoy the fresh air that so many kids these days are not getting tied up by games and stuff.

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And that's another point, the video game industry.

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I don't have a problem with them, but some of these player games where the zombies and the call of duties, uh, some of them get fairly graphic and unfortunately not all the kids will uh be restricted from the uh the gore of it uh, but then they also provide some unrealistic uh views sometimes, and some of those games of the firearms and things like that.

00:22:16.978 --> 00:22:26.940
So anything else on the wise wins and how to involve in youth shooting from either of you.

00:22:29.188 --> 00:22:40.424
I know as a pistol instructor one thing that I kind of you know like I said, we would always focus on gun safety that was the utmost importance and like shooting basics.

00:22:40.424 --> 00:22:44.512
So we started out with safety, then we moved on to shooting basics.

00:22:44.512 --> 00:22:51.289
Then, after they kind of had those skills down, we moved on to I was trying to find things to make it fun.

00:22:51.289 --> 00:23:00.415
I found some targets that were kind of like battleship type targets so the kids could compete against each other trying to sink each other's battleships.

00:23:00.415 --> 00:23:13.065
I found an apparatus where I could take like empty soda bottles, fill them with just really pressurized air so when the kids shot them they'd go flying off into God knows where.

00:23:13.144 --> 00:23:15.255
So when the kids shot them, they'd go flying off into God knows where.

00:23:15.255 --> 00:23:22.320
Yeah, I think really making it fun for them is important as well, once they get the safety and the basics down, just to keep them engaged in the shoot.

00:23:24.667 --> 00:23:26.775
Two things along those lines.

00:23:26.775 --> 00:23:28.751
You brought the video games.

00:23:28.751 --> 00:23:40.313
Everybody's got to realize that video games, movies, uh, tv, they're showing one type of gun culture and most of the time it's very unsafe.

00:23:40.313 --> 00:23:42.117
You know they walk around fingers on triggers.

00:23:42.117 --> 00:23:50.028
They go along, make it seem like you know if you shoot them once the person goes down and different things like that not really realistic.

00:23:50.028 --> 00:23:56.538
You talk to anybody who's been around guns and they can tell you just how unrealistic Hollywood makes them seem to be.

00:23:57.179 --> 00:24:08.032
And then, uh, the other part of trying to go along keeping it fun for the kids, because, put it this way, there's not a whole lot of things that people do that aren't fun at some level.

00:24:08.032 --> 00:24:15.852
I mean, even as adults, when we go shooting and we're shooting there for prizes, we're shooting there for bragging rights, something along those lines.

00:24:15.852 --> 00:24:50.387
And one of the nice programs is, uh, the nra has, is their mark marksmanship qualification uh program, mqp, the old winchester uh marksmanship program, and what it does is allows you to go along for rifle, pistol, air gun, shotgun, have a specific qualification to make to be a marksman, to be a distinguished marksman, and all that is done, correspondence through the mail on the honor system when you get up to distinguished marksman.

00:24:50.387 --> 00:24:51.250
That's the only one.

00:24:51.250 --> 00:24:59.335
And then that's the highest level, that you have to be uh, witnessed by an NRA member, but all the other levels you don't have to be an NRA member.

00:24:59.335 --> 00:25:10.906
You don't have to do anything besides sending your uh, saying that you qualified for it, and your money, and they will send you your um, your patch, and I think you get a little pin with it.

00:25:11.167 --> 00:25:23.461
With it too, which you know if you're a kid, and you can put that on your uniform or put that on um, you know, something that you're taking to camp with definitely goes along and shows that you've done a little bit more than just go out there and, um, you know, shoot a little bit.

00:25:23.461 --> 00:25:27.493
So that those are two things that people should keep in mind when it comes to youth shooting.

00:25:27.493 --> 00:25:28.897
Okay, all right.

00:25:30.224 --> 00:25:33.071
Well, uh, we'll go into the next one.

00:25:33.071 --> 00:25:38.152
This one will start with you, Rob, about scouts, and we've talked a little bit about it.

00:25:38.152 --> 00:25:57.196
But what kind of programs does the boy scouts and cub scouts offer for the youth and how does it evolve from maybe a club level up to the national as far as competition and stuff like that?

00:25:59.443 --> 00:26:08.732
I'll answer this two ways, because when it comes to the scouting, there really isn't a national competition or so for the scouts itself.

00:26:08.732 --> 00:26:16.109
As I talked about before, the Cub Scouts are limited to just doing BB guns at district or council level events.

00:26:16.109 --> 00:26:26.752
But when they get up into scouting they can start shooting the .22s, they can start shooting the shotguns and do a little bit more for it.

00:26:26.752 --> 00:26:46.111
Now, over when it comes to the Rifle and Pistol Association, one of the things that's really interesting is once kids get into high school, they can go along and start taking advantage of NASP, which is the National Archery and School Program, and a lot of gym classes, hostos around where I am.

00:26:46.111 --> 00:26:52.028
If you are interested in finding more, just go out and Google it and they will tell you what to put in the schools.

00:26:52.028 --> 00:26:56.720
Schools have an easier time with archery than they do with firearms.

00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:10.809
The other one that we've got that is growing fairly rapidly too, is the United States Clay Pigeon Association, or forget exactly what the acronym is, but it's also geared at high school students.

00:27:10.809 --> 00:27:18.826
But they go out and they do sporting clays and that's where those sporting clay activities the kids learn how to shoot.

00:27:18.826 --> 00:27:22.817
They also go along and learn a lot of times, because we all know shooting's not free.

00:27:22.817 --> 00:27:23.163
They learn how to shoot.

00:27:23.163 --> 00:27:24.008
They also go along and learn a lot of times because we all know shooting's not free.

00:27:24.008 --> 00:27:25.632
They learn how to do some fundraising.

00:27:25.632 --> 00:27:33.951
So they volunteer for a lot of different fundraising groups, whether it be NRA or Pheasants Forever, those kind of banquets to help them out.

00:27:33.951 --> 00:27:59.202
But they can actually go to a couple events and all of a sudden find themselves in a regional clay pigeon shooting event or potentially like a national event at the cardinal center, and those are kind of events to where it sounds pretty easy until you go along watch these youth actually shoot and they are damn good, very, very, very good youth

00:27:59.242 --> 00:27:59.584
shooters.

00:27:59.584 --> 00:28:11.229
And here's one of the things that you know most people don't realize is the biggest division one scholarships that go unused every year are in the shooting sports.

00:28:11.229 --> 00:28:19.949
So when you go along and look at Michigan Michigan, you look at Ohio state, you look at Indiana they all have shooting teams but in a lot of times that you don't hear about them.

00:28:19.949 --> 00:28:32.631
Ohio state university has one of the most decorated pistol shooting teams in the entire country, but we very seldom hear about it.

00:28:32.631 --> 00:28:37.090
They actually, I believe, sent two team members to the Parasol Olympics.

00:28:37.090 --> 00:28:39.541
That's how good they are.

00:28:39.541 --> 00:28:42.510
And the whole team was only something like six people.

00:28:42.510 --> 00:28:46.729
So when you think about it, a third of them came from ohio state university

00:28:46.769 --> 00:28:47.190
alone.

00:28:47.190 --> 00:28:51.084
It's one of those, uh, you know, feathers in the caps for it.

00:28:51.084 --> 00:28:58.111
And if you've got a youth that can learn how to shoot, that could be pistol, that could be rifle, that could be, uh, sporting clays.

00:28:58.111 --> 00:29:05.051
Uh, you can, they can get on shooting teams and get be scholarship eligible for for a lot of different schools.

00:29:05.051 --> 00:29:11.853
I went along a couple years ago and visited Michigan State University and they had a $5 million shooting facility.

00:29:11.853 --> 00:29:14.786
Oh wow, five with six zeros behind it.

00:29:15.488 --> 00:29:15.828
Wow.

00:29:16.339 --> 00:29:32.883
And it was really really nice to put it there Indoor shooting for the 22s and outdoor shooting for the sporting clays and it just goes along and shows you I mean, $5 million, that's a heck of a building to have just for shooting sports.

00:29:32.883 --> 00:29:56.326
And I was sitting there watching the Olympics at the time and I forget which one it was, but I was sitting there with the competitors that knew firsthand who the Olympic competitors were because they had gone along and shot against them and they were like, yeah, they shot, they beat me by three tenths of a point.

00:29:56.326 --> 00:30:04.823
And it's like three tenths of a point when you go along and do all the shooting, but they were very good shooters and I saw these people shooting.

00:30:04.823 --> 00:30:08.070
It's like that's, that's pretty good.

00:30:08.070 --> 00:30:13.580
And to think somebody beats you by only three tenths, that shows you how competitive it it is at those kind of kind of levels.

00:30:13.580 --> 00:30:37.068
But that's it's a great opportunity because even though scouting doesn't have the ability to move up or compete along those lines, uh, you can learn it in scouts or 4-h and then parlay that into getting on a team at a sporting uh, sporting club and then from there go along and if you've got a good eye, you know good trigger squeeze.

00:30:37.068 --> 00:30:44.625
All of a sudden you can find yourself at the top of the rankings or ranked in the top 100 across the nation for it.

00:30:45.027 --> 00:30:46.070
The Cardinal Shooting Center.

00:30:46.070 --> 00:30:52.288
For those that aren't familiar with it, it's a mile long shooting center that has sporting clays.

00:30:52.288 --> 00:30:59.926
They've got I believe it's something close to almost 100 different shooting bays for doing sporting clays.

00:30:59.926 --> 00:31:04.773
Plus they've got the right some, some short range rifle and some pistol bays also.

00:31:04.773 --> 00:31:07.077
So it's a great facility, uh up there.

00:31:07.077 --> 00:31:17.650
But it's also one of those that shows you how much money's in it, because people don't go along and take a mile long stretch and then build trap houses to throw those pigeons out.

00:31:17.650 --> 00:31:20.742
Every you know 200 feet or so and do that for a mile long.

00:31:20.742 --> 00:31:21.023
I've been on.

00:31:21.023 --> 00:31:23.375
I've been at many clubs before that had you know 200 feet or so and do that for a mile long.

00:31:23.375 --> 00:31:23.715
I've been on.

00:31:23.715 --> 00:31:34.372
I've been at many clubs before that had you know two or three trap houses but to go along and have to get on a golf cart because it'd take you too long to walk the entire range, that's an experience.

00:31:36.622 --> 00:31:42.232
I know our uh, one of our local colleges uh, over in Statesboro, georgia, southern.

00:31:42.232 --> 00:31:53.202
They have a a big brand new or fairly new shooting facility that they, you know they teach uh handgun safety courses and concealed carry courses and stuff like that.

00:31:53.202 --> 00:32:02.723
But it's uh, uh they do a lot of shooting activity over there at their uh college and their it's an indoor range range.

00:32:02.723 --> 00:32:16.416
They don't do a whole lot other than pistol but they just make aware of, you know, the shooting and doing it safely and educating the, even the college students.

00:32:17.560 --> 00:32:20.105
And you know we had talked briefly, rob too, about you mentioned Camp Perry.

00:32:20.105 --> 00:32:22.147
We had talked briefly, rob too, about you mentioned Camp Perry.

00:32:22.147 --> 00:32:34.339
I know we've got down close to us in the south down here Talladega for the CMP, which is an organization that I didn't think about when we were doing this up.

00:32:34.339 --> 00:32:45.742
But I know our club that I'm a member of, we are a member of the CMP but we just haven't been able to organize any shoots or anything yet.

00:32:45.742 --> 00:32:56.821
But that's something that I've been wanting to kind of promote this year uh with their club and that's another way that I know that they do national competitions and and stuff like that.

00:32:57.343 --> 00:33:03.873
Um, there's something else, oh, uh, talking about uh, youth and with rifles.

00:33:03.873 --> 00:33:17.865
Uh, we, our club does host the ara, the american rimfire association, and they, uh, they have a or at least our club has a junior competitor uh ranking in it.

00:33:17.865 --> 00:33:41.089
Uh, where no youth can come in and they're not competing against the top cream of the crop that have the $2,000, $3,000 rifle setups that they can with what they've got, they can shoot and have a factory round and compete and have it age appropriate.

00:33:41.089 --> 00:33:44.601
Where they're not, like I said, be kind of you know.

00:33:44.601 --> 00:33:49.051
Have it age appropriate where, no, they're not, like I said, shooting at somebody that shot for 15 years and has a three thousand dollar rifle set up.

00:33:49.051 --> 00:34:00.040
But uh, okay, uh, anything else you want on the scouting part of it, rob no, I think we covered most of it okay, becky, what about you?

00:34:00.201 --> 00:34:05.692
uh want to tell us a little bit about the 4-H and what they offer for the youth there.

00:34:06.901 --> 00:34:10.291
Sure 4-H takes a little bit different approach to it.

00:34:10.291 --> 00:34:17.454
The kids do their specific shooting sports as part of a project that they would submit to the state fair.

00:34:17.454 --> 00:34:28.628
The disciplines we offer are pistol, rifle, shotgun, black powder and archery so they can choose any one of those.

00:34:28.628 --> 00:34:33.731
A lot of kids participate in multiple projects for that.

00:34:33.731 --> 00:34:41.972
We do also have like regional and state competitions for the kids if they choose to enter into those.

00:34:41.972 --> 00:34:45.047
But most of the kids do it strictly as a project.

00:34:45.047 --> 00:34:59.987
So when their local county fair comes up they get to compete with other kids that are in the project for the county and I know each discipline has like a junior champion and a senior champion, because we do kind of divide it out by age.

00:35:00.849 --> 00:35:13.001
And then they're also required to complete what we call a just a indoor project, so like a poster board explaining the parts of a gun or one that my daughter did one year.

00:35:13.001 --> 00:35:21.708
She was taking shotguns so she made a cutaway model of a shotgun shell and just the different components in a shotgun shell.

00:35:21.708 --> 00:35:34.346
So they have to do an indoor project as well to kind of demonstrate their knowledge of what they've learned during the project okay, all right.

00:35:34.967 --> 00:36:21.315
Um, so if we're looking into the programs and we probably touched on the scholarships and you know we've touched on the competitions and everything I know that there are other youth programs out there other than the 4-H and the scouting see the tactical MIAs and stuff out there that are actually competing at that young age and have a good understanding of firearm safety, marksmanship and being able to actually run a firearm safely and efficiently.

00:36:21.315 --> 00:36:31.653
Anything else that you want to touch on on any of the other programs or something that we haven't discussed in our open conversation?

00:36:32.840 --> 00:37:01.751
Well, a program that I'm not associated with but it does do a lot of good out there is called Project Appleseed and they teach you marksmanship and they also teach you American history, which I think is two things that are really neat, because in order for you to earn your rifleman patch from Appleseed you've got to be able to shoot fairly proficiently, and that's open to both youth and adults to do that.

00:37:02.219 --> 00:37:39.184
The people that put it on are very dedicated volunteers because between going along and talking about trigger press and sight alignment and how to go along, they're educating you about you know what in these different battles to realize that a rifleman, you know, was probably the the most um, feared, uh person in the revolutionary army, because we didn't have that main cannons, we didn't have you know a whole lot of ships, but if you had one rifleman it could pin down an entire group of british redcoats.

00:37:39.184 --> 00:38:13.186
And that was one of those things where, when you start going through the history, it's like wow, knowing how to run a gun effectively can not only provide fun, it can also provide protection for you and it can also go along, turn the tide of a revolution because you're able to go along and stop the tyranny okay alright, anything else that you guys want to discuss before we go into the the big question I'm good okay all right.

00:38:13.226 --> 00:38:20.443
Well, uh, I'll ask the question and then whoever wants to jump in first can, and then the other one can follow.

00:38:20.443 --> 00:38:30.971
But, uh, every episode we're asking our guest uh, what do you do for decompression, relaxation, um, from your daily activities?

00:38:30.971 --> 00:38:34.623
Uh, who wants to go first?

00:38:34.623 --> 00:38:43.311
I think rob was pointing I'll let becky do it rob rob knows this well of me.

00:38:43.820 --> 00:38:46.648
My big relaxation thing is I love to go boating.

00:38:46.648 --> 00:38:47.632
Boating is my passion.

00:38:47.632 --> 00:38:55.293
So during the summer months, about every other weekend, we're at the lake enjoying the outdoors and the boating and stuff.

00:38:55.293 --> 00:39:04.472
And when I can't get away and go to the lake, I like to relax in the hot tub with a glass of bourbon All right, good.

00:39:04.833 --> 00:39:06.621
Thank you for that, rob.

00:39:06.621 --> 00:39:07.385
You're up next.

00:39:10.481 --> 00:39:16.974
I'm in a high-pressure job so I try to relax multiple times a day to keep the stress down, to say the least.

00:39:16.974 --> 00:39:20.931
And the biggest thing is just get away from all electronics.

00:39:20.931 --> 00:39:22.603
Go out for a walk.

00:39:22.603 --> 00:39:24.248
I went at lunch today.

00:39:24.248 --> 00:39:30.552
I took my grandson and carried him to the mailbox, which is about half a mile away.

00:39:30.552 --> 00:39:34.811
Now it's like a 30-pound bag of potatoes that squirms around in your arms.

00:39:34.811 --> 00:39:47.751
But besides the exercise part of it, it gets you away from staring at that screen all the time and waiting for the next email to come along or waiting for somebody to go along and answer your questions.

00:39:47.811 --> 00:39:50.626
And do do things and also kind of put things in perspective.

00:39:50.826 --> 00:40:11.304
Because you know work you know gives us the ability to, you know, pay our bills and enjoy life, but at the same time, you know, at the end of the day, it's more about you, about our legacy and how we treat each other than anything else, and that's a real important thing for everybody, especially this time of year with the elections coming up.

00:40:11.364 --> 00:40:29.090
To realize, speech, all these things that, quite honestly, when I was in school I was coming up, people were preaching it from the top of every mountain.

00:40:29.090 --> 00:40:49.556
It seemed like to make sure people realize and appreciate what we have, because we've seen it with some of our celebrities when they travel abroad and they get caught doing something that other countries are definitely not as understanding as the US is when it comes to saying things, to go along, doing things.

00:40:49.556 --> 00:40:52.005
We do live in a great country.

00:40:52.005 --> 00:41:12.123
We're not perfect, we're an experiment democracy, but at the same time, keep it all in perspective, because go any other place and you will very quickly appreciate the chaos that we have in the United States and your fellow Americans, because there's no other country in the world that's like America.

00:41:13.126 --> 00:41:13.768
All right Well.

00:41:14.349 --> 00:41:14.751
I think.

00:41:15.152 --> 00:41:24.702
Thank y'all for your your input and your time talking about the youth and how we can get them involved and things that they they have out there for them.

00:41:24.702 --> 00:41:41.887
And, uh, if uh anybody has any questions, uh, either if you want to put out your contact information or no contact where they can reach somebody for more information, either on the scouting or the 4-h uh program, okay, all right.

00:41:42.369 --> 00:41:56.797
Yeah, if people are interested in finding out about scouting, about Ohio Hunter education, more about the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association, they can get a hold of me at hunting H-U-N-T-I-N-G at orpanet.

00:41:56.797 --> 00:42:03.650
So orpanet, and that'll come to me and I will hook you up with whatever information I can offer.

00:42:03.650 --> 00:42:09.811
I don't know everything, but I do know a few people that I might be able to find different information for.

00:42:10.572 --> 00:42:10.833
All right?

00:42:10.833 --> 00:42:17.313
Well, again, I thank you all for your time this afternoon, and you all have a good weekend and stay safe.

00:42:18.681 --> 00:42:19.905
Thank you for having us.

00:42:20.447 --> 00:42:20.969
You're welcome.

00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:26.311
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