My just-turned-18-year-old nephew is soon visiting, and I gather from his mother that he needs a stern talking-to about his upcoming educational path decisions, and etc. This is also his spring break vacation, and the first quality-time he's had to spend with his outdoorsman, gun-totin' uncle. He's fascinated with guns and shooting (albeit at video game level), and I've taken him shooting a couple times at pistol ranges. Now, I'm planning to take him to my friend's wilderness cabin, where we can shoot a variety of handguns, rifles, and shotguns, including some Tannerite explosive targets, a melon or two, water jugs, and tin cans. I think I have a decent program in mind, but would welcome advice and comment from fellow forum members with similar experience.
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Avuncular advice?
- Thread starter jkc
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HCD
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If their are any small game in season, take him hunting then have him skin and help prepair the meal. Puts life and death in a different perspective. Something vidio folks dont have, it's not a game anymore, it's real life and real death.
BLACKHAWKNJ
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I would watch his gun handling skills and safety practices closely.
Just have a good safe time. Sounds like a good time.
As to the stern talking to, if you can remember (I still can) at that age who knew what they wanted to do? I doubt anybody can "talk" him into doing much of anything.
Leave him out alone in the desert overnight, then talk to him
As to the stern talking to, if you can remember (I still can) at that age who knew what they wanted to do? I doubt anybody can "talk" him into doing much of anything.
Leave him out alone in the desert overnight, then talk to him
Farmer17
Member
The battery timers that competitive shooters use are a lot of fun. You can set a certain number of tin cans or targets up and see how long it takes you to knock them down. Then you try to beat your time. You can also compete against each other, but I would just take .22s to the range because my girlfriends 18 year old son can sure burn through the ammo fast!
truckemup97
Member
Tell him you can't go to the cabin or shooting until you get the house re-roofed. A couple of days on a roof in the AZ sunshine will make him think twice before skipping college. 
Avun---huh? Man, that's a two dollar word if I've ever seen one. Don't get too stern or he will resent it. Heck, I'm almost 58, and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
There isn't even another word in the Thesaurus for Avuncular.
I never head the word either, through college or from my very proper English speaking Father who I think knew every word ever written. Stuck on a crossword, go ask DAD
He was that way with poetry also.
Snapping Twig
Member
Talk WITH him, not AT him.
Find ways to ask questions that will lead him to the answers you need him to know.
Of course you have to establish authority, but try to do it through inspiration.
A little fear is good, but only as a background thing. He has to know there's a line not to cross.
Accept the fact that as a kid, he's a knucklehead, but guide him to the right path.
When he inevitably screws the pooch, do the questions thing leading to the correct choices.
Flashcard him by asking questions as to why something is the way it is, like... Why do we treat all guns as loaded - for example. This gets the grey matter working along productive lines and sows the ground for positive information and decisions when you help him to arrive at them.
Good luck.
Find ways to ask questions that will lead him to the answers you need him to know.
Of course you have to establish authority, but try to do it through inspiration.
A little fear is good, but only as a background thing. He has to know there's a line not to cross.
Accept the fact that as a kid, he's a knucklehead, but guide him to the right path.
When he inevitably screws the pooch, do the questions thing leading to the correct choices.
Flashcard him by asking questions as to why something is the way it is, like... Why do we treat all guns as loaded - for example. This gets the grey matter working along productive lines and sows the ground for positive information and decisions when you help him to arrive at them.
Good luck.
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CAN I COME TOO??
Sounds like it came from a medical dictionary. Or a Scrabble word list.
m657
Member
....take plenty of ammo....
Well, it was the precise word for the task, vastly superior to any alternative, and, offered ear-pleasing alliteration, and, didn't cost any more to use than some cheap, inferior word. Moreover, its use has evidently been to the edification of some forum members, an always worthwhile incidental benefit...
I'm in no position to literally talk sternly to the kid --- and I'm sure he would just tune me out if I did. I think gentle cajoling is my best bet. I think the most important thing he needs to wrap his addled mind around is the importance of getting a decent education so that he can make a decent living with merchantable and portable skills that allow him to live where he may want to, and earn enough money not to worry about a livelihood.
I'm a once-certified instructor, so he'll get the usual gun-safety spiel, good instruction, and will be watched like a hawk.
I think he'll quite quickly shy away from the more hard recoiling handguns, and the heavier shotgun loads, and suspect that .22 rimfire will be the most popular caliber. I'll bring a Ruger MK1, a 10/22, and a 617 and a few thousand rounds of ammo. Just so he has bragging rights among his peers, he'll need to put a few rounds, at least, thru an "assault rifle."
Bring along some of your friends that would be good role models of living the straight up life. He needs examples of people he wants to be like when he grows up. Show him through your interactions together as a group the kinds of standards he needs to set for himself in the coming years. Talk in larger terms about how responsibility for firearms crosses over into many other areas of life.
And have fun. He will not forget this trip.
And have fun. He will not forget this trip.
mwtdvm
Member
I was in a similiar situation 15 years ago. Kid had done well in HS and was headed for a major University. l got as far as things will be different and would require a lot more effort... I was informed that he thought he would do quite well thank you. End of first year had barely a C average and he ended up pursuing other career options than chem eng. Sometimes they stumble, sometimes they have to fall before they can get up and stand tall.
Hope your nephew will listen..
Hope your nephew will listen..
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jkc, uhhhh...yeah, what you said.
Seriously, I hope this young man appreciates having a man take this time to spend with him and give him these experiences. I hope he admires and loves his uncle.
Seriously, I hope this young man appreciates having a man take this time to spend with him and give him these experiences. I hope he admires and loves his uncle.
My advice is don't use words like 'avuncular' on him.......
Gotcha, as close to monosyllabic as I'm able! Gorilla-like grunts and body-English, too, are in order, I suppose... Thanks!
truckemup97
Member
Wow. Was I your nephew? I'm pretty sure I gave the same story to my uncle and a couple of my deceased father's friends.
You might gently point out that the the good life : guns, ammo, cabin, are the result of hard work and savings. Then stop at McDonald's and discuss the joys of life at minimum wage...
