How to Boy Scouts Get Rifle Merit Badge?

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

For those of you whose kids are in, or recently were into Scouting, how do the Boy Scouts get the training required from NRA-certified instructors, and what kind of facility hosts the shooting to actually put .22 bullets through paper? I was looking at this recently with the intention of maybe inviting a local Boy Scout troop to my hunting property to use my little deer rifle sight-in-range (I've got a great backstop; a 10-foot high wall of dirt, also 10 feet wide). But the Boy Scout's rules seem engineered to rule-out any private shooting areas that aren't full-time professionally staffed and managed ranges, complete with bathrooms with running water. I'm surprised they don't mandate air conditioning and free WiFi, too.

Yet, it seems that every year some 40,000 Scouts get their rifle merit badges, and another 20,000 get one for shotgun shooting.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2...veiled-these-were-the-most-and-least-popular/

So the Scouts ARE getting their training, and doing their shooting, somewhere. How are they accomplishing this?

 

[GaMudd]

My son got his at summer camp.

 

[the_great_white]

I got mine with a pellet rifle and trap behind the church our troop was based at......a long time ago.....decades.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

My son got his at summer camp.

Umm... okay, but what does that MEAN?
Is this a summer camp run by BSA just for Scouts?
Is this a private for-profit summer camp that includes rifle shooting as one of the activities, and they make sure they have the NRA-certified staff and have their range inspected by BSA liability / loss prevention geeks to make sure it's approved for the rifle merit badge program?

Did your son shoot .22 rifles or .177 pellet guns or a smoothbore BB gun?
( I think the BB gun program is a lot easier, with less rules and regulations).

 

[Ringleader]

For those of you whose kids are in, or recently were into Scouting, how do the Boy Scouts get the training required from NRA-certified instructors, and what kind of facility hosts the shooting to actually put .22 bullets through paper? I was looking at this recently with the intention of maybe inviting a local Boy Scout troop to my hunting property to use my little deer rifle sight-in-range (I've got a great backstop; a 10-foot high wall of dirt, also 10 feet wide). But the Boy Scout's rules seem engineered to rule-out any private shooting areas that aren't full-time professionally staffed and managed ranges, complete with bathrooms with running water. I'm surprised they don't mandate air conditioning and free WiFi, too.

Yet, it seems that every year some 40,000 Scouts get their rifle merit badges, and another 20,000 get one for shotgun shooting.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2...veiled-these-were-the-most-and-least-popular/

So the Scouts ARE getting their training, and doing their shooting, somewhere. How are they accomplishing this?

Great question. BSA requires Scouters (adults) to be NRA range certified instructors. Costs an adult about $1,000 to go through all of the training. At camps however, the instructors (young adults) work under the auspices of the NRA range certified instructor. At the camps is where you see these merit badge numbers jump because so many scouts (500 per week at some camps) apply for the merit badge(s). With simultaneous camps going on all over the country you can see where the numbers can grow. The catch is.....Councils and District training locations are the only authorized location for a scout to attain the MB.
Wither or not they have A/C, free Wi/Fi (I know, tongue in cheek) I'm not sure of, but National has not allowed Rifle or Shotgun MB outside of a Council or District event.
To make it worse, as a Cubmaster, I can't have my boys shoot BB guns at a Cub event unless it's sanctioned by Council or District. My boys shoot every day, but, no can do on awarding them the MBs.

 

[richs]

My troop has an NRA certified range instructors as an ASM, we take the boys to a certain range every other year where they can qualify for rifle and shotgun.

 

[kdonnel]

Umm... okay, but what does that MEAN?
Is this a summer camp run by BSA just for Scouts?

They own and operate many camps, just for scouts.

Camp Rainey Mountain has a rifle and shotgun range.

The scouts get to decide what merit badges they want to pursue at summer camp.

 

[CBH13]

while it was a good number of years ago i got both my shotgun and rifle at rainey mountain. shotgun was a single shot 20 gauge and rifle was a single shot 22lr. range was ran by an older scout (in his early 20's at the max)

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I was looking up the Scouting regulations, and it seems way too restrictive.
Scout leaders can't take the kids shooting like they take them camping-- every shooting spot has to be submitted for pre-approval, inspected, with improved facilities like a real firing line and a bathroom and hand-washing station.

Those things are nice, but they shouldn't be a requirement. Any Scout leader that knows of a safe and legal place to shoot, the farmland or mountain estate of some boy's grandfather or uncle, ought to be able to take the group there for a shooting event. Even if they don't have a bathroom with hot and cold running water.

And, the types of rifles Scouts are allowed to shoot as part of any Scouting activity appear to be limited to single-shot .22 rifles. Not even bolt-action or pump action or lever-action !!! That's absurd. How does this timid pansy attitude toward guns help turn these boys into men? Men with skill, with judgment, with self-confidence.
Scouting is basically telling them:
"Guns are dangerous. We'll let you shoot a BB gun or single-shot .22 under tightly controlled conditions, just once in your life, so you can check the box for "Been There, Done That." And that's it. Don't ask to shoot more interesting types of guns. Any gun that uses a magazine to hold multiple cartridges is like a machinegun, a weapon of war, and we don't want any part of that.
Don't ask to go shooting multiple times in a year. It's not like camping and building a campfire, that we get to do with some regularity."

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

It looks like Scouts do have the opportunity to get the merit badge easy enough, but want I want to see the Boy Scouts improve is to have more frequent outings where shooting is part of the activities that they do in the woods. Or, schedule a couple of range trips a year on private property, where the Scouts who ALREADY got their merit badge and practice some more, and get better. The scouts who DON'T have their badges can get a safety lesson, get taught the fundamentals, and try some shooting, so that they won't be totally unfamiliar with guns and aiming iron sights when they get their chance to earn the badge later at one of the summer camps that has a professional range.