Summer time in Montana means that the Fall hunting season will soon be here. It is time to start “fine tuning” your shooting skills in preparation. I recently had the chance to have some quality time with my 5 year old nephew while taking care of a local landowners rodent issue.

Call it “pest control” or call it “target practice.” But shooting “Gophers” is one way to, not only help improve your aim or control the rodent population for landowners, but it also allows you to take a kid out and teach some firearm safety. In my case, I was the one being schooled. Every time I would get out of the truck, I was told to “Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction” , “Make sure your safety is on” , “Make sure your gun is clear” and “Don’t shoot any cows.” I got to say, I was proud of my little guy for knowing so much about firearm safety at such a young age. And there is no better way to teach this as well as make it an adventure for the kids, then to take after some varmints.

I’m sure you can ask just about any landowner around if they “have a need to reduce their rodent population?” And they will point you to a pasture that has mounds of dirt springing up in it. Taking care of these critters will save the landowner from having to lose livestock that break their legs after stepping in one of the hundreds of tiny holes.

Even though I tried convincing my little “prodigy” to not shoot like Wyatt Earp and grip the .22 cal handgun with both hands. He did pretty well for himself. Even though he gave more critters “haircuts” instead on “lead poisoning.” We still had a pretty successful day.

But before you go out. Take a little advice from our buddy Carl Spackler.

http://youtu.be/Bv87T1CQF8E