BB Gun Merit Question

OK, so for the first Merit our group decided that we want to do the BB Gun merit. We have both the Discovery and Adventure Rangers working together on this one because both groups need them. I am hoping to break off with the Adventure Rangers for their Advanced Marksmanship, BB Gun and Air Rifle merits while the Discovery Rangers work on finishing their BB Gun merit. For the Firearm Safety and Marksmanship merits, we began working through the Daisy 10 Lesson Curriculum. I just wanted to find out how everyone else handles these. For my Adventure Rangers, they have to get both the Firearm Safety and Marksmanship merits even though they are blue merits. Do lessons 1-6(or 7) count as the Firearm Safety Merit and Lessons 8-10 count as the Marksmanship or ...?

We use the Daisy Avanti Course Materials (free download from Daisy  https://www.daisy.com/education ).  The requirements say that the Firearms Safety Merit needs to be an "Approved Course", and the Avanti Materials meet that requirement.  I find the Firearms Merit Materials from GPH to be rather cumbersome, and not as smooth-flowing.  (Also, I am an NRA Certified Instructor, so Headquarters can't really argue with my credentials.)

Last part of your question (I am going from memory, as my lesson materials are in the Ranger Room); the Firearms Safety Class only fulfills the requirements of the Firearms Safety Merit.  A student can do the requirements of all the lessons, and not have the Marksmanship Merit.

However, you CAN use the targets and scores shot during the Firearms Safety Course toward the Marksmanship Merit. We save and document all of the boys' shooting scores.  You can download free score sheets at:  https://mqp.nra.org/media/4239/score_sheet.pdf

We also allow the boys to earn their NRA Shooting Medals (very affordable, about $4.50 each).  A boy can earn his first medal with shooting only 10 good 5-shot targets.

The boys CAN use the same shooting scores in earning their NRA Medals and Marksmanship Merit at the same time.  Once they have earned their Marksmanship Merit, the boys can continue to work toward their BB-Gun Merit, and continue to use those scores toward their NRA Medals.

According to the rules, targets do NOT have to be fired in a particular order, so you can mix-up shooting positions, so that the boys can have some variety.

Also, do not forget to register for the Royal Range Postal Matches.  The targets must be completed by October 31, so you have plenty of time.

Info about the matches is here:
http://postalmatches.nra.org/documents/pdf/compete/Postals/RR-all-postals.pdf

By the way, while you have to be an NRA Instructor in order to purchase their Course Materials, ANYONE can purchase the Medals, Patches, and Awards for the NRA Shooting Program. It is run under the Honor System, with the presumption that it is administered according to the rules.

The link to purchase the awards is here:
https://materials.nrahq.org/qualificationawards.html

Thanks! The Avanti course is the 10 Lesson Curriculum I was referring to. So that satisfies the Firearm Safety merit and then we use the Royal Rangers Marksmanship from TracClub for the Marksmanship Merit I would guess.

Thanks for all of your help. We are still looking at how to best run our meetings and how we want to break up our group. We are having a Commander meeting this evening, so I have been working on compiling as much info as I can.

Do you have plans to go onto smallbore rifle, shotgun, and black powder?  

Correct me Claymore if I’m wrong doesn’t the state approved hunting class fullfill blue firearms safety merit too? I would believe the Hunter Safety silver merit would knockout both birds at once.

With the Discovery Rangers, I am not entirely sure. With the Adventure Rangers, we intend to go on to the small bore and potentially black powder, yes. I have been looking at the Hunter Safety merit as well, but we have several under the age required by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, so not all of them are able to take it. Since we are a small group for now, we are looking to do several of these together. Soon, we will be moving apart for our Adventure and Discovery Rangers' merits.

RRCmdrBennett wrote:  

Correct me Claymore if I’m wrong doesn’t the state approved hunting class fullfill blue firearms safety merit too?  I would believe the Hunter Safety silver merit would knockout both birds at once.

I do not believe so.  

The Hunter Safety Merit is a  Silver Merit, and in a class unto itself.

Even though, Silver Merits are primarily considered as Expedition Ranger-Level Awards, I have no problems in issuing the Hunter Safety Merit to an Adventure Ranger who has completed the course.

If you REALLY WANTED to use it to fulfil the requirements for the Firearms Safety Merit, I suppose that you could, but then you are really downgrading the award.

Also, there is no requirement for "Live Fire" in the Hunter Safety Program of Instruction. In Wisconsin, we DID have a .22 Live-Fire on night 3 of 5 nights. However, we were able to do that, because our Police Department sponsored the class, and we used the Police Range for .22 Live-Fire.

The club that I teach with in Alabama only has a Practical Test & Firearms Handling Day.

So, Long Story Short, Hunter Safety is really a Different Bird. If HQ wanted the Hunter Safety Merit to fulfil requirements for both, I think that they would have said so.

I talked to my boys and the other two commanders last Wednesday and the olders are excited about taking the small bore merit. In March, my son will turn 9, so all except for the Ranger Kids will be able to take Hunter Safety. I was talking to an old trainer friend of mine and he said he still has contacts at AZGFD, so we may take that merit as a group as well.

Tim, please contact me. Love to help ya out. I’m the Shooting Sports Coordinator for AZ. And I’ve got B.B. guns, shooting ranges, targets etc.

602-332-4919
Mherzog@thenssp.org