Given the constraints of time and space, I'll add my 2c worth. 1. Your son shoots OK from the bench so at least he's doing something right. Next, I'd move him to the prone position with a sandbag rest. The prone position is the steadiest of all positions and is important considering he's only 8 years old. Here, he should lie with his legs outspread and his body at about a 45 degree angle to the left of the gun/target line (for a right handed shooter). The left elbow should be directly under the rifle and the rifle should rest on the heel of the palm. This way, the rifle will be largely supported by bones rather than muscles which will provide a relatively stable platform. A properly adjusted sling will help. This will enable him to better HOLD THE RIFLE STEADY. This is what he was able to do at the bench but is now having trouble with. 2. Aiming and trigger squeeze. Briefly, if the sights are aligned correctly on the target when the rifle goes off, the bullet will hit on the target as desired. One way to accomplish this is to only squeeze the trigger when the sights are properly aligned. This means stopping the squeeze when the sights, due to rifle wobble, waver off the target and picking up the squeeze when the sights are again perfectly aligned. This means the firer will not know precisely when the rifle will fire which will help to prevent flinching and yanking the trigger. Yanking the trigger will almost always result in a miss. It's important to relax during this phase and breathing becomes a necessary nuisance because of the body movement it causes. You taught your son to fully let out his breath which is not the way to do it. What works best for me is to breathe normally until just as I'm taking up the trigger slack I take a normal breath and let out half of it and continue with coordinated aiming and squeezing. This becomes automatic after a while but you have to get to know the rifle's trigger pull characteristics. I wouldn't do that with a "hair trigger". (;>))At any rate, don't have him "breathe all the air out of his lungs". 3. Fire groups of three shots each and teach him how to "call his shots" and score/critique each group. Talk it over with him. If two of his shots were right on the mark but one was off, does he know which one probably was off the mark and why? Make any necessary adjustments and try, try again. 4. After sufficient time firing from the prone position he should be doing quite well and his confidence to hit what he's aiming at be at a point where he can take up a position much more useful for hunting. 5. The sitting position. When you told him to use "his knee to steady on", what did you mean? A really big mistake is to put the elbows on the knees. The loose cartilage of the elbows and kneecaps will cause wobble. And when you said "knee", did you mean just one knee? That would be the kneeling position, not the sitting position. Don't teach him the kneeling position just yet. The proper sitting position is much more stable than kneeling and just as useful for hunting as it gets the firer and his rifle up out of the vegetation. There's a lot more to it but with all the advice you've been given in this thread you and that fine boy of yours should be able to get'r done.
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Today's Featured Article - Madison's County - by Anthony West. Philip Madison has been a good friend of mine for quite some time. He has patiently suffered my incessant chit chat on the subject of tractors for longer than I care to remember, and on many occasions he has put himself out, dropped what ever it was he was doing, to come and lend a hand cranking handles, or loading a find onto a trailer. Although he himself has never actually owned or restored a tractor, he was always enthusiastic and always around helping with other peoples projects.
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