Teaching BSA Rifle Merit Badge, My First Time Experiences

I recently finished up teaching 10 boys age 12-14 how to handle and shoot rifles.  Many people would think this is crazy.  Shooting guns is dangerous and kids shouldn’t be doing it.  Others, people would question my sanity for risking my life-giving young kids’ guns.  Personally I think more boys should know how to safely shoot guns.  So here’s my journey on teaching the BSA Rifle Merit Badge and BSA Shotgun Merit Badge.

My motivation for Teaching the BSA Rifle Merit Badge.

Growing up in a city without a father around I didn’t get a chance to shoot guns.  If it hadn’t been for Boy Scouts I wouldn’t have shot my first gun until after 30 years old, if ever.

To me, everyone should get the chance to learn to shot a gun safely.  Firearms safety should be offered to any person who wants to learn.  Thus, why I’m so excited about teaching the BSA Rifle Merit Badge.  It gives me a chance to make sure at least the boys in my troop know how to be safe around firearms.

Especially when there are still accidental deaths caused by kids not knowing gun safety.  This is my way of helping protect our youth and giving them some fun at the same time.

My Training

BSA policy is that you can’t be a Rifle or Shotgun merit badge counselor without being an NRA basic rifle instructor, and NRA basic shotgun instructor.  They don’t care how much knowledge or experience with firearms you have.  The BSA requires you go through NRA instructor training before you can teach any shooting sports.  Normally to get this training I’d would have to take the Basic courses.  Then the BIT training, then the instructor courses for both rifle and shotgun.  At over $100 a class.  Training is cost-prohibitive to most people.

I lucked out big time.  While I was at a summer camp meeting, the shooting sports director told everyone if they wanted to help at summer camp come talk to him.  Which lead to me finding out about their counsel’s instructor training program.  It only cost me $125, and only took 3 very long days.

Three Long days.

The training started bright and early on a Friday morning.  Of course, I had to take off work to go.  On day one we went over how to train students.  We where in the classroom almost none stop until 9 pm.  Of course, we had a few short breaks and great meals.  However, that was it.  I was so tired that night, by the time I hit the bunk, I was out cold.

The next day we went over the Basic Rifle course and even got a chance to do a little shooting.  Although the weather didn’t play nice.  It was about 35 degrees outside plus wind chill.  Which made the outdoor range at camp a little cold.  At least it wasn’t raining or snowing.

For the last day.  We learned about shotguns and went over more details on how to teach students.  It was really fun.  Learning skills on how to get students involved in the learning process.  We also got a chance to go to the shotgun range and break a few blue rocks.   As I hadn’t shot a shotgun for a long time.  This really helped me out.  Plus, a couple of instructors brought their .410 pistols for us to try.  Needless to say, I was very surprised when I broke a clay with a pistol.  The weather was way nicer for the shotgun range.

The rest of the day was spent learning about how to teach the basics of shotgun.  With a final test and some questionnaires on how we liked the class, I was finally done around 5 pm.  Although it was a long weekend.  It felt almost too short and like I could have spent almost a week learning everything I would need to start teaching just the BSA Rifle Merit Badge.  Little alone the NRA courses or the BSA Shotgun Merit Badge.

Teaching the Boys

Knowing everything I learned in my class.  I decided it was time to teach my first BSA rifle merit badge and shotgun merit badge.  Now the BSA isn’t nearly as strict about the exact information that has to be taught during a class.  They would prefer that the class mirror the NRA Basic rifle course and the NRA Basic Shotgun Course. 

Even though about half of the merit badge requirements aren’t taught in those courses.  So I decided I’d combine them and teach the boys everything they need to full fill the requirements for both BSA Rifle Merit Badge and BSA Shotgun merit badges.  All in two evenings and two range trips.

I spent many hours working on a powerpoint to present for the class.  While I started with a basic powerpoint given to me, I added a lot of slides and notes.  Which after teaching the class once.  I realize I need to do some work on.  In fact, I should split it into two power points.  One for the first night and one for the second night.  I also need to add breaks into the notes to remind me that the boys need breaks.  3 hours is a long time for them to be learning.  Although the Scouts in my Troop did an amazing job of having only one short break.  If any Leader wants a copy of my presentation to feel free to email me at Jeff@myknowledgeguy.com.

A morning on the Range

On a beautiful warm Saturday morning, we all meet at a local outdoor range to do the shooting portion of the BSA Rifle Merit badge.  Izaak Walton of Lincoln was kind enough to let us use a special trap they had set up just for .22LR rifles at 50 feet.  They didn’t even charge the boys for it. 

We had a couple of good benches, sandbags, and other rests.  There was also a roped off range so we could prevent anyone from accidentally going downrange.  I couldn’t have asked for a safer range, range for the boys.  With a couple simple Ruger 10/22’s, and a few other rifles.  The boys made quick work of shooting their 5 groups of 5 shots all in a quarter size.  In fact a few boys had every string of fire inside a quarter size grouping.  It really made me realize just how well these boys listened and how natural they where at shooting.

The next weekend we went out to a shotgun range at one of our local State Parks.  We lucked out that no one else wanted to use the range while we were there so had the whole range to ourselves.  With two throwers going.  The boys took turns trying to break at least 24 out of 50 clay targets.  The best part is out of 11 boys 9 of them did it.  Of course a few of the boys had shot trap before so this was easy for them.  The other boys were just really quick learners.

Things that Need improvement

It’s clear when I look back on things.  I could use some improvement on my teaching.  The first thing I realized is that boys need breaks.  The first night I was determined to get through things, I forget to give breaks.  On top of giving breaks, I also need to get the boys a little more involved with the learning.  We had every boy demonstrate how to safely pick up guns and hand them to others.  While making sure they are unloaded.  However, there are other things I could have had the boys help with.  It’s a learning thing for both the boys and the instructor.

Conclusion

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog writing about how to shoot a rifle.  Writing about rifle shooting is easy. Teaching actual people, that’s harder.  Let’s set aside any public speaking fears.  The only thing that made this easy is that I’ve watched most of these boys grow up from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. 

You add that to my motivation to teach them how to be safe around firearms.  It really wasn’t too hard to teach the BSA Rifle Merit Badge.  However, there will always be doubt in my mind if I’m doing it right, and if the boys are truly learning anything.  I just happened to luck out this first time when I saw boys who never shot or handled a rifle, doing both amazingly well.  Which I won’t take even half credit for, but I do know I did have something to do with giving them the opportunity to show themselves how good they are.