Every Thanksgiving, our family gathers at my brother in laws farm in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia for supper and fellowship. Over the years a shooting tradition has evolved and a variety of weapons will usually show up. I took my Garand and an AR rifle last year. This year the only rifle that I brought was my Nitro 46, with a full AirHog tank and a sack of freashly cast, sized and lubed K-8 slugs. We had a varied gathering of grubby middle age guys, their lovely wives and an assortment of young people aged 20 to 30. My kids had fired the Nitro but nobody else had ever heard of a large bore air rifle. "Pellet gun, eh?"
A hung my steel IPSC target on its stand at about 60 yards. Had a Harris bipod and could shoot from a seated position on the ground. Hooked the tank up with regulator set on 3000 and proceded to let everybody blaze away. Several of the young women had never fired a rifle, but out of 30 shots taken, THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE MISS BY ANYONE. You can imagine the surprise and laughter that followed each trigger pull, the boom and buck of the rifle followed by a big CLONGGGGG when the slug hit the target. There is nothing more fun than ringing reactive targets.
One of the young girls had her sister video her with her iphone and then posted the movie on her facebook page. In 30 minutes, she had 18 responses from her pals, some of whom wanted to know what the heck kind of BB gun she was shooting! Social media! Don't look for me there.
Anyhow, a great afternoon and lots of family fun. Guns of all sorts, used safely, create a common point of interest in families and traditions like ours are anticipated all year.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Hugh

Wow. What a great story Hugh. Thanks so much for posting it. So glad it fit into your day.
Makes me all fuzzy.

Gary

Iphone

What a great tradition! Not only does it sound like great fun, but it's a wonderful opportunity to share the shooting sports with the younger generation. Not to mention that you get to shoot other peoples toys.