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Locally this isn’t at all unique to the mall ninja crowd... this time of year they all show up, its the black powder crowds turn at the benches right this month.As a certified muzzleloading instructor here's a couple of my observations-
Girls/women are much easier in general to work with. They listen and improve quickly. Best student I had last summer was a 12yo girl. After about 30min of instruction, she got to the point she was intentionally cutting the wires holding the targets with a Civil War musket. Not that she had any encouragement to do so
Guys can be problematic. I had one who insisted he was right eye dominant but was actually cross dominant and refused to admit it. They often bring seriously bad habits/form with them. I had another who talked smack from the moment we started shooting about how he was going to be the best, yadayada. Wouldn't listen, couldn't hit a cracker on the wire when we had other kids doing it. In frustration, he dared my other instructor and me to do it, wrong thing to do pal. My other instructor took out half the cracker with his shot and mine reduced the rest to tiny crumbs. At that point, he started to listen. Sometimes a cold reality bath works wonders.
At the range, you'll see lots of folks who have never had any form of instruction and they shoot horribly and think they need the next great shooting gadget cause that's what some gun rag author said. In reality, they need to get back to basics and eliminate poor habits and technique. It's very prevalent in the pew pew crowd. Some of them are so into themselves that when they see me pull my competition Enfield Musketoon out of the bag, they do a bad job of hiding the sneers. I love to con those types into an impromptu match with an 8in gong at 200, offhand only. The Schadenfreude flows strong on those days when I point out that all pew pew does for the poor shot is allow him to miss at a much faster rate.
Generally at our range, I don't tell anyone I'm an instructor. Only a very few know. If somebody asks for help, I'll do what I can. Most of the time, I'm just shooting my stuff and observing and enjoying the day.
When I see these types at our range I may try to place my targets close to theirs... hell, I have a competitive streak so often I will do this whenever I spot anyone who looks like they may be a professional, no matter what it is they or I happen to be shooting that day. Steel hones steel so it keeps me sharp. We used to have the local LEO community using our range (back when I was one too.) honestly, the good ones can shoot, but many, most really, are not shooters and it shows. I have never understood this mindset among people who carry a firearm professionally.