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As the few remaining snow piles melt away, everyone is chomping at the bit to get outside with summer sports. Baseball, track, trap and skeet shooting sports are knocking out the basics in order to go outside and start competing at a level only we up north here are used to… balls to the wall. A new crop of trap shooters are emerging as that sport has come rolling back into the area over the past couple of years. Gerrells and Scheels gun departments are where you can find Munich parents trying to size up our sons and daughters for the perfect fitting weapon to help them get started.
Everyone remembers the first time they ever shot a gun. Mine, like many, was at the persistence of my dad when I was about seven. I remember him hovering over me when I took my first shot other than with a BB gun his 30-6. Needless to say, it rocked my world, and I steered clear of that gun for the next eight years. It was my first lesson that if my dad said to start smaller, I should start smaller. He always encouraged me to hunt gophers, probably because I liked the little critters, and he was ready with lesson number two. When I bagged my first one, the .22 I used didn’t leave much left of my furry little friend, and when I came up to him with my eyes leaking, he looked at me and said, “Never aim at something you don’t want to destroy.” That lesson still follows me, and I am still a drill sergeant at heart when I see lax in barrel discipline. As most people know, if a child grows up knowing about guns, the only thing that petrifies us parents is when kids come over that have never been around them. There are a lot of rules in our families with gun safety, and that is probably why we support trap and skeet shooting clubs so much - that is at the forefront of every outing… safety.
Another thing that every kid remembers is the first time a gun has hurt them, by either not holding the buttstock tightly into their shoulder and looking through a scope or by my own…being zapped. Not a lot of electric fences near our house, but I went out hunting with some friends and will never forget attempting to lean my rifle against a fence so I could crawl under it. Needless to say, I had to quickly reason with my friends that I had a water bottle in my front pocket that spilled on my pants in order to save what little dignity I had left that chilly morning…it didn’t work.
Overall, I’m super pumped about my boys taking up the sport of shooting. They love it as most do, mostly because I think to them it is like a real life video game. Plus, it keeps them outside, which is a perpetual goal of parents these days. Yeah, it’s always dangerous, everything is, but trust that if your kids are thinking about joining the team, safety is the most important thing stressed in front of maintenance, operating, and firing the gun. Good luck to all, and we will see you at the range.
Matt Mitzel is the unofficial events coordinator for Munich, a supporter of Langdon-Edmore-Munich athletics, football coach, and all-around Munich mega fan, earning him the nickname “Mr. Munich.”