Hallman sells life insurance, and it was through his contacts that he met the guys at Keystone Sporting Arms in Milton.

Hallman has been a hunter since he was old enough to hunt, and he was looking for a way to get Caleb involved.

He often spends time at a shooting range dialing in his guns, and Caleb tags along. Although his son did not like the noise, the 6-year-old showed enough interest that his father talked to Keystone about what the company could do for Caleb.

What they came up with was a chair-mounted rifle that Caleb could fire with a jerk of his arm.

“We got to talking, and the idea sort of popped up,” Hallman said. “The guys over there are very open, and they just took off with it.”

It was something new for the Keystone, which has turned out more than 350,000 custom-made products during its 14 years in business. Workers had to find a way to mount the rifle on the wheelchair and create a firing mechanism because Caleb could not pull the trigger with his finger.

Steve McNeal, the vice president of Keystone, said it took two employees nearly 80 hours at a cost of $2,000 to tackle the task. It was the first time the company had attempted something like it. Employees came to the Hallman’s house near the Montour Preserve to make sure everything fit before they took Caleb to a range to try it out.

“Caleb was kind of shy around Steve and the guys, but when they put the rifle on there and showed him how to do it, he was hooked,” said Nate Hallman.

Joining in

It did not take long for Colling to realize if his grandson could do it, so could he. Although he had rarely shot a gun in his life (“I had to qualify in the Navy, but that was about it,” he said), Colling was certainly interested.

It was back to work for the guys at Keystone, this time with a different challenge.

While the mounting systems are similar, the trigger mechanisms are different. Caleb hooks a plate and pulls it back with his hand to fire, while Colling sets his hand on a steel plate and curls his wrist and fingers.

On the day he got his gun fitted to his chair, it took a handful of shots before Colling was popping holes in a cardboard target.

“A couple of shots, and we had that target filling up with holes,” said Colling, who won a gold medal in the Veteran’s Games in air rifle about a decade ago. “It is very rewarding and fulfilling. He and I both being disabled, this is something we can do together.”

For Nate and his wife, Jacinta, one of Hank and Mary Colling’s five adopted children, just watching the two of them together, with common interests, was more than they could ask for.