[modbuilder]

I have 4 grandkids that turn 9 yrs old shortly (one set of triplets and a singlet), and I'd like to start taking them with me to the local indoor range and introduce them to safe handgun use. I'm a CWP holder and carry a H&K subcompact .40SW. I also have an old Smith's J-frame snubbie, but both handguns are way too much for a kid and starter. I've briefly searched the site for posts on these questions, but decided I'd better just ask:

1. Is 9-yrs old too young (obviously their parents have the first right of approval). These are pretty responsible kids, but they are kids.

2. I'm planning to get a .22 target pistol, primarily for training with the kids. I don't have a clue what gun would be best for training with small hands. It needs to be resonably reliable, but occasional failures are OK for teaching how to handle FTF/FTE drills. Take down and cleaning need to be easy for small hands that are still developing strength and small motor skills.

Apologies for the long post. TIA for any help you can offer.

[pax]

One. At. A. Time.

Don't do it in a herd.

Are they too young? See here: http://www.corneredcat.com/Kids/rangeready.aspx

pax
who has five closely-spaced sons

[mavracer]

ruger mkII or mkIII are hard to beat,only thing hard to tear down ovcourse small hands may help.LOL you might think about witness with 22 conv. I have seen them for ~$550 or 1911 with conversion I have a charles daly 1911 45 and ceiner conv. have ~$700 in the package both shoot very well and 45 makes great HD gun to boot.
ps. had my daughters shooting at age 5 but +1 one at a time

[Brian Williams]

Ruger bearcat

[modbuilder]

BTW -- I definitely will have only one kid at a time at the range. Also have yet to check the range rules on age. Already getting useful input. Great forum. thanks.........

[Trebor]

I agree. One at a time and stick with a .22. Make sure you stress the basic NRA safety rules heavily. I'd add in the Eddie Eagle "Leave the room - Tell an adult" for if they run across an unsecured gun at someone else's house. You don't want them to think it's ok to try to unload it or something.

Personally, I'd use either a single shot bolt action .22 rifle (or a repeater with the mag out) or a single-action revolver with kids that young.

[MikePGS]

I'm not sure what the law is in South Carolina, but in Michigan you have to be 18 to use a gun at my local range. That may or may not be law, but it seems to be pretty common practice, so you might want to look into that to. If all else fails, hopefully you can find someone with some private land, a good backstop and a firearm friendly attitude:)

[Pitmaster]

Pistol or rifle? One bullet at a time.

[mnrivrat]

Personally, I'd use either a single shot bolt action .22 rifle

+ 1 , but I would skip the pistol for a starter gun.

No, 9 is not too young in IMO . I started shooting at 7 and took a rifle to the woods by myself by the age of 9 or 10. Different times then I know, but with supervision there is no reason not to start the learning process at 9.

[kennyboy]

9 years is not too young. For a .22 pistol, I would recommend a Ruger.

[skinnyguy]

I don't remember when I started shooting, but I do remember the Glenfield Model 60 my Dad gave me on my 9th birthday.

So, No, 9 isn't too early to start them. Just remember patience is a virtue, and if handling a bad incident, you can easily turn the youth against guns just as easy as educate them about proper handling by the way you handle yourself.

[Furncliff]

.22 rifle first...JMHO. Something light and small. Cz makes a youth model. The browning bl22. I bought one for my wife, it would be a good kid starter and have the cool factor of lever action.

[5Wire]

...I would skip the pistol for a starter gun.Me, too. Go for the youth rifle. Muzzle control is a LOT easier to supervise.

[461]

Ruger Bearcat, my daughter got hers when she was nine and has done great. She's 15 now and doesn't shoot much but her brother is now 12 and shoots it all the time. The Bearcat is more "Kid Sized" than a MKIII or any other auto, the Single-Six is even too big for proper use by a 9 year old.

On the rifle front, my son got his Chipmunk when he was 7 and still loves shooting it. I like it a lot too.

[modbuilder]

Most excellent comments and suggestions. You've convinced me to start them with a good .22 rifle (which is what I started with and loved it), and see if any of them take to shooting with a passion. If they do, then I can always step them through revolvers, pistols, and larger calibers. Also great suggestions on brands to get a closer look. "I love it when a plan comes together" . Much Thanks............

[pax]

modbuilder ~

One more bit of advice: http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2006/12/meditations-on-shooting.html

The link goes to LawDog's blog. He has a great piece there about having fun with new shooters, especially kids.

pax

[The Lone Haranguer]

Originally posted by modbuilder:
2. I'm planning to get a .22 target pistol, primarily for training with the kids. I don't have a clue what gun would be best for training with small hands. It needs to be resonably reliable, but occasional failures are OK for teaching how to handle FTF/FTE drills. Take down and cleaning need to be easy for small hands that are still developing strength and small motor skills.


I think that's something you can work them into later, especially the malfunction drills. (This statement also implies that you would want a pistol that malfunctions.) While naturally you need to stress safety, concentrate at first on making it fun. And grown men have been unable to reassemble the Ruger pistols - I can't imagine a kid doing it.;) You can break it down and have them do simpler tasks like running the cleaning rod through the bore, etc.


As far as the age, that's not too early at all, provided they're reasonably well-behaved and responsible to start with.

[modbuilder]

That lawdog piece is super. I was planning on paper targets at the indoor range. Now I'm looking for an outdoor spot that I can set up a variety of fun targets. Geez, I'm already liking this more and more for myself. Thanks all.........

[Hardtarget]

When my sons first started to shoot, I took cans, balloons, and clay targets. They did have lots of fun with thostbut, we had already done the home work well before the real gun time.

We started with the air rifles on paper at 20 feet. I explained the paper was the best way for them to see how their aim/sight alignment would determine bullet impact. A one inch black dot on white paper...they picked it up QUICK!

Then,(still with air rifles), I put out the reduced size chicken, turkey, pig silhouetts.

When the day came for .22s...they were very ready! They were out shooting me soon ( most of the time now ). Now I've got two grandchildren to see go through this same process. Too much fun!

Keep it safe...you'll have as much fun as the kids.

Mark.

[ArchAngelCD]

modbuilder,
You've gotten some good advice on which guns to use while training the grandchildren but make sure to go to Pax's site and read what she linked to. It is very valuable information that will help you a lot.

I like the idea of a .22 single shot rifle as a starter since it's safe and will probably allow them to be successful fast. As we all know children soon become dis-interested in things they don't do well.

If a handgun is what you want a .22 revolver would probably be best because it’s simpler than a semi-auto for a young child to work and a good gun to teach trigger control. Even though Ruger .22 revolvers are good they are single action and won’t allow you to teach them double action trigger control. I suggest you look around for an older double action S&W revolver like the Model 17, Model 18 or Model 34 Gun Kit.

[yhtomit]

I agree with the posters who've recommended a Bearcat -- the grip is as close to kid-sized as guns tend to get. I like the look of the Beretta 21A (and the Taurus which closely resembles it, model now forgotten), but a) by reputation at least, those might have more reliability issues than you want just for training /plinking / fun and b) I like the visibility of parts on a revolver -- gives a clearer idea of just what is going on with the gun (cylinder revolves, hammer falls, bullet emerges ...). Not that 9 years old is "too young" to learn the tap-rack-bang drill (wish I'd been shooting at that age!), but for all their virtues, autopistols IMO have some drawbacks as first guns, esp. if you want easy takedown in a .22 -- because my favorite .22 (a Ruger 22/45) has been languishing uncleaned for lo these several years, because the breakdown seems too annoying to be worth it. One day, one day ...

And buying a rifle, well, that's an even better choice :) I have a bolt-action Savage .22 rifle (my only rifle, thus far) that I bought 5 or 6 years ago, and has been used only for plinking. I know lots of people like ruger 10/22s and other autoloaders, but I really enjoy the tactile feel of a bolt action, and I did when I was a kid, too -- it helps make shooting the gun more than lining up sights and pulling the trigger.

timothy

[Flame Red]

I would suggest a Bolt action 22 rifle.

[colt1911fan]

if you want a pistol to fit their small hands get a walther p22 they are fairly accurate and reliable, the ruger's grips are fairly large and hard to hold for smaller hands the walther is small and you can adjust the grips to fit better with the interchangable backstraps and it is also cheap to shoot, i bought one even after all the bad things i heard about them i love mine and wouldn't trade it for anything, but for bigger hands the ruger is very good also, the walther is cheaper too i think, if youre going to get a rifle, get a ruger 10/22 carbine i have one and it's perfect in size and weight for kids and you can get a lot of extras too, a bolt action youth model made by marlin will do well also, good luck choosing its a hard choice

[Joe the Redneck]

Consider an airsoft spring action pistol to teach them how to aim. Much safer, no loud bang, no recoil at all. You can get one for about 30 bucks so it's not a huge investment. Get them started with that.

After a few weekends of that, get the repro of the stevens crackshot. Single shot, small, but classy enough that they can use it when they get all grown up.

Joe

[CWL]

I'd also lean towards a .22lr rifle, followed by a .22lr revolver as starter firearms for children.

[modbuilder]

After all this great input, I bought a single shot .22 rifle today. I'm almost ashamed to say how little I spent, 'cause I wasn't out to low-ball the cost. The local gun shop was selling a new-in-box Rossi single shot rifle with dual barrels, one for .22 and one for 410 shotgun. It's light weight for juveniles, simple action to avoid malfunctions, single shot for good control of the training situation, a hammer-drop safety, nice sights on the .22 barrel, a built-in growth path to shotguns when the kids are ready, and only $129 for an almost no-way-to-regret purchase. Unless this thing just won't fire the round, it's got to be a good choice for finding out whether kids will have a sustained interest in firearms. The shop owner says he bought one for his son about a year ago and they've had a ball with it with no problems. I've also found an outdoor public range about 30 minutes away that we'll be starting out with. It'll be a while before I get it to the range, but I'll report results for anyone that's interested. THANKS a ton for all the good comments. It's helped a bunch!

[pax]

Excellent! :D

Have fun with the kids & we do want a full range report after you go out!

pax

[G95]

bolt action .22 rifle or .22 revolver

[miko]

My son was 4.5 when he started shooting a single-shot .22 rifle last summer.

At the same time, I let him shoot my J-frame with paraffine bullets (primer+paraffine plug, no powder). He could not pull the trigger in DA and could barely cock the hammer with both thumbs.

It was not too productive in terms of accuracy, but he has the "swing out the cylinder" and "drop the mag, rack the slide" safety routines down pat - even does that on toy and solid replica guns whenever he picks up one.
Not that we have toy guns in the house, of course.

miko

[Koos Custodiet]

Pax : five, eh? *whistle* *grin*

My 2c : get a Winchester boy's rifle. Single shot, short stock, should be quite inexpensive too (Idunno, but around here I can get them cheaply).

Agreed on the Bearcat. But I have a Llama XV which is a half-scale or two-thirds scale 1911, also very good for small hands.

Then move on to a Henry or even the Norinco JW-21 lever 22 :-)

Hey, I'm a lever nut. Take kids, add cowboy movies, and you're there.

Oh yes, the gurlfriend's 8 year old bought herself a pump suction dart rifle (g/f's family's mostly anti, although I've made massive inroads there. G/f was anti until I explained things to her, she's a bright gal, realised that the facts were and are on my side). So I found a Daisy (hey, I always wanted one) for the kid (yea, yea, insert favourite story about train sets for 1 year old boys and the like). Waiting for her to come visit :-) We'll end up p*ssing granny off but tough cheese.