Gun Safety

This summer is going fast. I just competed in the USA Shooting National Championships at Fort Benning, GA. Over the course of several days, the match consists of two days of air rifle at 10 meters, two days of .22 caliber (aka smallbore) rifle prone at 50 meters, and then two days of 3-position smallbore rifle, also at 50 meters...

It’s kind of inevitable; we all become our mothers and fathers. Suddenly you realize that they were usually right and you were just a brat who should have been listening to them all along. That's a scary moment, and it makes you think. But do you know what's even scarier than that? Turning into your coach. This realization is multiplied when both of your parents (as in my case) double as your coaches. Now that I’m a coach, I'd like to thank every coach who has ever taken the time to work with me. I finally realize what a pain in the butt I must’ve been to coach all these years! Continue reading →

Looking at the unloaded firearms spread neatly in the bed of the pick-up truck that day, I had the shotgun, the .22, two handguns (a 9mm and a .45) and an AR. I immediately discounted the two handguns, they were too much for such small hands and muscles. He had handled the .22 just fine and he had even fired a couple of target loads through the shotgun one previous occasion, but it was still a little much for him. I was going to have him shoot it using a Lead Sled. I didn’t want to risk the recoil beating him up and making him frightened to shoot. It’s important at this stage of teaching a young shooter to keep it fun or you could lose that shooter for life. I looked at the AR. It was lightweight, packs a soft recoil and had an adjustable stock that could be instantly slid in to fit his length of pull. It made perfect sense! Continue reading →

Hey, man. You ready to meet a kid who's hip to the times and jive with the lingo? Well, keep looking. I'm Kelly Bogart and I have no idea what I'm doing (but I know I'm doing it really, really well). I'm writing a blog. I've never done it before, so please bear with me. But if social media has taught me anything, writing a blog comes naturally to a 21 year-old girl of my generation, so I've got that going for me. But my blog is going to be a lot different that my other 20something counterparts, it's not about my time studying abroad, it's not about my life as a hipster who did it first and it's definitely not about cooking because I have no idea how to do that, unless Easy Mac counts. Although those are great blog topics, my blog is about my life as a precision rifle shooter. A what? You heard me. I'm a 5'1.5" (the .5 is important at my height), female, collegiate student-athlete on an NCAA division one rifle team. Continue reading →

It all seems simple enough. Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire, keep the gun unloaded until ready to shoot and know your target and what lies beyond. There are other rules, but follow these four and you’ll enjoy a 99.9 percent chance of never being responsible for an accidental discharge (AD) or worse, errantly shooting another person. Perhaps that’s why shooting remains one of the safest recreational activities there is. Continue reading →