Airguns are great tools for learning early hunter safety

I grew up with guns, and from an early age, learned to handle BB and pellet guns before moving up to real firearms like .22 rifles and .410-gauge shotguns. There’s an entry in my baby book that I shot a house sparrow at the tender age of 3 with my trusty Red Ryder BB gun (with assistance holding that now prized possession from my older brother, Brian).

My younger brother, Brent, also learned to shoot with airguns, and we thinned the starling population on the edge of Fulton, Illinois, our hometown, most nights at dusk with our beloved pellet guns.

One of my classmates, a brilliant kid with a straight-A average, was never allowed to have any pellet guns until he reached his 16th birthday. His parents didn’t hunt or shoot, and it goes without saying that Jim was a maniac with his first gun, waiving the muzzle at us as we constantly scolded him. Brent and I learned safe gun handling from our father and Brian. Hunter education was just starting in Illinois in the early 1970s, and Brent and I were grandfathered in for hunting licenses.

You don’t learn gun safety from osmosis or some instinct that suddenly tingles and kicks in on your 12th or 16th birthday. It’s best learned hands-on from experienced hunters, whether family or strangers.

That’s why I’ve taught hunter safety for decades, including 13 years in Iowa and 20 in Wisconsin.

Kids lucky enough to be raised in hunting families get the itch to join the fun very early. Some kids have to seek out an uncle, cousin, neighbor or other experienced hunter on their own for both training and a place to hunt. And airguns are excellent training tools that can help them learn safe gun handling and shooting skills.

As most of us fans of “A Christmas Story” know, a BB gun can “shoot your eye out” (I had a junior high history teacher who had a glass eye because of a BB gun mishap), but the relatively low power of said airgun offers a margin of safety when a youngster has a misstep. A high-powered rifle that launches a bullet 3 to 5 miles or a shotgun that creates a 73-caliber hole in plywood is far less forgiving.

I should note that some of today’s airguns are not your father’s or grandfather’s Daisys and Crosmans.

PCP (pre-charged pneumatics) in bores as large as .50 caliber can take down big game, including deer, bears and Cape buffalo. Break-barrel pellet guns up to .30 caliber can produce enough energy to take down small and medium-sized game up to coyotes. Air guns are now legal for deer in Wisconsin (if you hunt with one for deer, contact me because I’d love to do a story).

The National Rifle Association, the world’s oldest firearms safety organization, offers six tips on teaching new shooters with airguns.

One big advantage in using a BB or pellet gun for youth training is the lack of recoil and noise common with hunting firearms. No ear protection is needed for airguns (eye protection is a must). Kids can develop flinching from the start with a firearm, so it’s easier to teach shooting fundamentals (trigger squeeze, breathing control, shooting positions) without the shoulder-rocking explosions.

Learning to shoot with iron sights is always a good idea, especially because most young eyes are sharp and clear. But a low-cost scope can be mounted on many air rifles, getting kids ready for the same sighting advantage on their first deer rifles.

Look here for more tips: https://www.nrafamily.org/content/6-hot-tips-for-teaching-new-shooters-with-air-guns/.

Hunter safety instructor Bob Bohardt, of Shawano, says some parents want to start their kids in a class too soon. While the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources does not have a minimum age to take an in-person or online hunter education class, the reading level of materials is designed for someone 12 or older, he noted.

“How much time do you spend on one kid?” he said, explaining that kids age 8-10 may struggle to even hold a firearm and may be enrolled just because a parent wants them to take it. “How do you stop this?”

Bohardt, 74, will mark his 40th year as a DNR certified instructor next year. He helped start in-person hunter ed classes in Shawano, Gresham, Bonduel, Bowler and Tigerton, but these days, he helps lead the one-day internet field classes (a hands-on class after students take an online course) with the help of his granddaughter, Stephie Popelka, also of Shawano. Bohardt is also a longtime delegate for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress for Shawano County.

When he visited his grandma’s place as a boy, he sometimes shot pellet guns but for the most part learned firearms safety with a bolt-action .410 shotgun.

The state’s mentor hunting program is ideal for young hunters not ready to take a class. The law says any mentee must be within arm’s length of the mentor. Bohardt liked the old version of the law that required the mentor and child to share a firearm, but now each can have their own gun. There is no maximum age to be a mentee, other than those born before Jan. 1, 1973. You must be at least 18 and a hunter ed graduate to be a mentor.

Here are more details on mentor hunting: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/Education/OutdoorSkills/mentor.

Another great way for youngsters to learn firearms safety is to shoot trap. Bohardt is involved in that, too, helping start a Youth Trap League at Shawano Gun Club that involves students in grades 6-12 from Shawano, Wolf River Lutheran, Bonduel, Marion and Tigerton schools. The league sees about 80 kids in spring and up to 60 in fall, all learning the responsible way to enjoy a shooting sport that will get them ready for the woods.

Ross Bielema is a freelance writer in New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.