Yesterday, I continued a tradition in my family's line that goes a long, long way back. You see, my father has been putting together a turkey shoot for his church, and it's been a few months in the making, but next weekend is the turkey shoot.

My son has been chattering non-stop about the turkey shoot, and every day, he tells me a story of what he will do "one day, when I'm your age, and I go to a turkey shoot..."

I have been thinking that maybe he is a bit too young to shoot yet, but he knows not to touch guns unless mommy or daddy say it's okay, and he has been talking about the turkey shoot constantly. I realized that I wasn't much older than him when I shot a gun for the first time, so I asked him.

"Son, do you want to learn to shoot?"

" yes, daddy."

We went out back and posted targets. We went over the 4 rules. I showed him how to hold the gun (a .410 H&R) and told him how to look down the barrel and place the bead on the target.

He dry fired twice, so I could make sure he was being safe, and I had to help him hold it because even a youth model H&R is still a little long for him, then we loaded a round. I only had 2 .410 rounds in my ammo can, and they were both buckshot.

The target was a standard 8.5x11 sheet of paper with a one inch green dot sticker in the middle. His first shot, he hit the paper.

The second shot went high, but hey, that's how it goes sometimes.

I made a deal with him. If he can repeat the 4 rules by Saturday, and Paw-Paw will let him, he can take a shot at the turkey shoot, but he HAS to know the 4 rules.

He agreed. You should have seen the happiness on his face upon seeing his target. I'll never forget that look, and the high pitched voice filled with excitement. "I did it! I did it dad, I shot the gun!"

I took my son shooting yesterday.

I took my son shooting yesterday, and made memories not to be forgotten by me. And probably not by him.