Introducing someone to shooting for the first time can be rewarding for the both of you, but there are some things you should take into account before you head to the range. You’ll want to setup a table like this one with all of your equipment. You don’t want to have to worry about holsters, drawing, any advanced gun handling skills because your student is new.

The other thing is you want is to make sure your student has an understanding of basic firearm safety rules, but the two that are really going to apply for your session are always keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and always be aware of your muzzle. Pointing in a safe direction at all times.

After you have addressed safety the next step is making sure your student understands sight picture.  You can do this with something as simple as post it notes and your target down range.  I’m going to create what the rear sight should look like on this target. 

Now we are going to add the front sight into the picture. And what you want to explain to your student is, you want equal amounts of light along the sides of the front sight, and that the bullet is going to impact right at the top of the front sight. You want everything straight across on top and equal amounts of light right here. 

Now that your student understands what he needs for the sight picture, the next step is feeling what they need to feel with their trigger, and working on their trigger control.  The best way to do this is in dry firing, without any ammunition. Explain that to your student. We’re not actually shooting yet we are just learning the mechanics of shooting.

As the instructor, you want to make sure when they are on target, they’re pulling the trigger straight back to the rear. Smooth motion, so when they take those first shots with ammo they’re going to be good ones.

Now it’s time to shoot and I like to start students with a .22, like this M&P .22. It allows them to shoot and focus on their fundamental skills without the distraction of heavy reco

The other things you want to remember is to keep the target simple and easy. We’ve setup a paper plate at about 10 feet.  That’s going to be a confidence builder for those first shots. The benefit of using the M&P .22 is that when your student has developed good fundamentals and has the confidence to shoot a larger caliber, the transition to a centerfire M&P will be simple.  The controls and how the gun feels will be similar.

Now that your shooters has the basic fundamental down its time to really have some fun and you can do that inexpensively with something as simple as these balloons I’ve setup.  Let’s go shoot’em up.

Don’t be afraid to challenge with harder targets like these dishwasher tablets. They’re a lot harder to hit, but they’re a lot of fun! 

Well I found a target I need to work on.  Remember when you bring a new shooter to the range you want it to be a welcoming experience.  Be safe and have fun.