Lee, the youth shooting project has begun....

Bob B

Bob B

Well-known member
Found a NEF pardner, used at a local shop in 20 ga. Ordered a case of rem low recoil 7/8oz 1100fps loads and a kick ease pad and cheek protector. Will whittle the stock down to a more kid size shape and prob. have to reload for a while. Found some good info on 3/4 oz 1050 fps 20 ga loads using International powder. Hope to keep the thing from kicking the kids too hard. Will compare to the Auto that Hank has and report back. Will also post some wood chip pictures of the stock work. Just waiting for the Lee Loader I found on ebay for 20 bucks to show up.
Found some good info on the NSSF web site on a scholastic program they are running for kids to learn about shooting.
Am even going to call Tom Roster to ask about feasability of light 20 ga. steel target loads to ease my good friend TuTu's concerns about the young trap shooters spraying Pb all over the shooting grounds. See Mr Sutton, all that time waving the butterfly net from the soapbox was not in vain.
 
have to retrain them......as we see here freuently old habits be hard to break......

Makes me feel like I wasn't just smacking my head against the wall for no reason.....

thanks for taking a postivbe step....

Steve, GET THE LEAD OUT, Sutton
 
Just a caution from experience : Watch the "cutting the stock down" bit. Did that with an old H&R Topper and it like to beat a few of the boys to death. Might be best to start them with a youth shotgun even if it means waiting 'til they have the "wingspan" to hold it correctly. Our 20 ga. 870 wingmaster pump (youth) is on its sixth kid with another still to go.... Probably will be passed down to the grandkids as well.
 
I had one of those pardner 20's ten years ago. It was fairly brutal to shoot. It was just so light. You could add some weight to the stock to calm things down.
 
The 20 NEF that I have is a mule. I've never shot it with reduced loads though. I hope the one you have isn't full choke..mine is and a load of #6's has the pattern of a slug out to about 20 yards. A friend that lived in the same trailer park that I did in my wilder days...had a 12ga that was cut off just in front of the handgaurd and just the pistol grip left on the back...man! 3" OO buck was...AWESOME.
 
I'm a fan of the NEF rifles, have a .223, but their shotguns can be some nasty critters. The worst kicking gun I ever shot was a 20ga pardner. I wonder if it is the drop or something because I've shot other light guns and they weren't that bad. I'd add a little lead, or tungsten, to the stock or maybe better fit a simms limbsaver pad to it.

If you can find some winchester x-pert steel loads they should make nice target, also dove and snipe, loads.

Tim
 
New on efor me but don't forget I was the guy that onces asked what DHBPF stood for....so if it turns out to be something rediculously obvious I'm going to blame it on the antler goring I took to the forehead at the beginning of the carving weekend.....

Be gentle with your laughter if its obvious please.....my feelings are easily hurt donchaknow.....

Steve
 
Steve,

Puzzled me too, but I figured out it stands for "New England Firearms" - It's a maker who has an entry-level, single shot, break open shotgun. Probably very similar to the H & R Topper I mentioned. Hammer safety that has to be cocked - IMO very unsafe given the strength of most younger shooters to be able to cock it back with their thumb without having to wave the barrell all around.
 
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NEF

is a company from Gardner Mass that makes inexpensive break action single shot guns.
Thanks to every one for the tips on past experience with them. I hope to mitigate the recoil issue with a three phase plan involving very light reloads with only 3/4 oz of shot(RE a 28 ga load in a 20 hull), cutting and fitting the plain maple stock not just in length but also drop to fit properly with sorbothane Kick Eez pad and cheek protector for the comb. Lastly the stock will be full of ------you guessed it, lead, to add some weight to help in the recoil numbers of the equation. Just can't bring myself to use mercury with TuTu watching over me, but you should see that stuff in the lab, talk about cool element.

I want to see if I can get a workable platform for smaller kids that does not break the bank or their interest with too much recoil.
As I said I will post how we make out for others who are training young shooters.
I also will take on the steel target load issue with the range officer at my club and the guys who test pressure data to try to give folks an option for places that lead might be an issue. With the price of lead shot steel is not that expensive any more.
Gun is here and the pads came in the brown truck yesterday. Pictures to follow.
 
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I'm wishing you good luck on it. Back when I was starting out shooting, my dad would take the herd out in the back yard with his .22 auto and put 1 shell in at a time..we would all get to shoot a couple at a can...I can remember the day I bugged him till he let me shoot his 12ga auto (rem 58, I still have it)..I was about 7 or 8 and he had to help me hold it up..it was several years before I wanted to shoot that again. When I turned 11 he got me a Savage 22/410 O/U and the hunt was on..I used..and use..that gun on everything. I would save my lunch money and buy 2 1/2" 410 shells at Monkey Wards cause they were cheap and 22 shorts at a little bait shop near grade school...can you imagine a 12 year old walking in and buying a box of shells nowdays? Especially when he had a bike out front with a gun tied on the handlebars? A cop asked me what I was going hunting for..told him I was just going shooting and he told me to be careful.
 
Lee I still chuckle when I think about me and a friend riding thoruhg the neighborhood at 13 with our shotguns tied, (no bungees then, or if there were we didn't know it), cruising the sholder of the River Road picking up deposit bottles which we then took to the 7-11 to trade for shotgun shells. This was "pre-Apoo" days and back all of the local 7-11's not only carried shotgun shells they would break a box and sell them singly.

Police Cruisers passing by would wave when they saw us.

Ahhh the GOOD OLD DAYS.

Steve
 
Bob,

Check with your local gun club to see if they or any surrounding clubs participate in any of the SCTP, Scholastic Clay Target Program, shoots. It is part of the NSSF. My daughter just started shooting trap with our local SCTP program. It has gotten back interested in doing stuff in the field with me. She is 17 and the size of a grown woman but I still try to mitigate recoil as much as possible. I'm currently loading 7/8 oz, 1200 fps shels for her. She said the 1 1/8 oz loads weren't bad but she hardly feels the recoil with 7/8 oz. Just after I started loading the lighter loads for her she was in a car accident and fractured her sternum. !0 days after the accident she was back shooting without pain. Well, no pain for the first 195 rounds. She just toughed it out the last 5 to finish her rounds!

Good luck,

Tom
 
I actually had one cop ask me to shoot the pigeons downtown..had to stand in the park right next to the main drag to do it though and that was too boring for me. The city used to supply shells to guys who would shoot pigeons there on Sunday afternoons..this wasn't on the outskirts of town either...it was right DOWNTOWN...nobody thought anything of it.
 
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