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My son wants both of the shooting badges and has been practising. It's hard to find MBCs who will do them outside of a camp setting though. I think he is going to have to wait until summer camp to begin them, and hopefully his practise time now will pay off.

He is on a kick now where he says you can do older, retired merit badges. He wants to do one from the early 1900's! And find someone to make a badge for him to wear.

I take the scouts at church to the range to give them some "hands on". I usually bring the Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger MKII .22LR pistol for pure marksmanship. They like a little kaboom in the trip and that brings out the Ruger .454 Casull, S&W 500 Magnum and Magnum Research BFR 45-70 revolvers. I also bring out an S&W 686+ with many boxes of 38SPL ammo that gives them a chance to fire a centerfire revolver with enough recoil to be realistic, but not enough to knock them over.

If you don't have anything around the house, a Ruger 10/22 is a great starting point. Leave the iron sights on it as the merit badge requires shooting with the stock open sights. A box of 500 rounds will cost you about $10 at most stores. Don't forget shooting glasses and ear protection. Even the lowly .22LR produces enough of a supersonic "crack" to damage hearing over a prolonged period.

See if you have an indoor range in your area. The required distance for the merit badget is 50 feet. Most indoor ranges are set up with 15 or 25 yard lanes with a target trolley to carry the target downrange. The 15 yard is just short of the requirement. Take a measuring tape and have the range officer call a halt so you can put some masking tape on the floor at the 50 foot point in the 25 yard lane.