I've been introducing a couple of boys a little bit older to 6.5 Grendel, which is a little closer to 7.62x39 than 5.56, but still an AR15 type cartridge. It's also their first centerfire rifle cartridge. One of them is 11 and small for his age too.
I started them with loads made up with Hodgdon Trail Boss. The rifle is bolt-action so it doesn't have to cycle. They shot a couple of range sessions, maybe 20 or 30 rounds each and then I introduced cartridges with a starting load of H335. Back-to-back, they liked Trail Boss better. One of the boys had really psyched himself out about recoil, but his marksmanship is good, he wants to shoot longer range and we have a goal to get ready for deer season so I got him off the Trail Boss. We went out one afternoon and he was shooting full-power loads and knocking out 12 oz soda cans at 200 yards. He came back and is totally over his fear of recoil and telling his little brother it's no big deal (even though his brother was never worried about it the way he was).
Trail Boss was very helpful for us. It allowed us to get out of the .22LR which I sold (I hate .22LR, especially cheap rimfire guns) and still shoot with similarly low recoil, but more capability as we became ready.
The other boy's marksmanship is not as excellent yet, and he seems less interested in shooting. Kids might tend to get more excited about something they find themselves good at. But then they also tend to get good at what they're interested in. The key thing is keeping their interest until their skills catch up. I try to do this by giving them the right equipment to succeed (like having the right length of pull and good sights or optics), but also not being critical or condescending. I encourage them as much as I can, but they're aware of their own performance level even if I don't grade or score them, especially when there's another kid to compare themselves to. Competition can be both an encouragement and discouragement depending on a kid's results and how they respond to them. Sometimes they need to be redirected from competition or their performance and just find enjoyment. An easy way to do that is to shorten distances to make most of the shots successful.
Having fun targets is important. Shooting paper isn't fun unless you're slaying four other bench rest shooters. Blowing up ice blocks, soda cans, 2 liters, pinging steel poppers, or shooting tannerite is fun. We save all our drink containers (like milk jugs and stuff) and refill them with water. If they're clear, a couple drops food dye makes them colorful too. So a .22LR blows up a 12 oz soda can pretty decent, but what will a 5.56 do to it? The .22LR pokes a hole in the milk jug and it kind of spurts out, but what will a 5.56 do to it? I mean, why should I shoot a 5.56 if there's nothing more fun about it?
So this less interested boy -- I was in the city with him the other day for a Dr. appointment and we stopped at the range on the way home. We live rural so our range is just out in the country, but here in the city we could rent guns. I rented a few and handed him a VP9. I thought it was pretty tame, but he shot it once and handed it back to me with the slide locked back. I could tell he wasn't into it. I tried a couple of automatics I might have bought, and then I got an MPX with a mini red dot sight. I put 30 rounds in the magazine and handed it to him. Even though we could only shoot paper targets, he had a blast. He's ready for an MPX. This wasn't his first semi-automatic either. His first rifle was a semi-auto .22LR with detachable magazines too, and he shot it with irons, red dot and scope at different times. But the combination of 9mm tameness in that heavier gun (it was the 8" version), the red dot, and the higher capacity semi-auto action and the short LOP maximized what was fun for him. It was good for me to see that too because I was going to buy him an AR pistol chambered in Grendel and now I know he's not ready for that.
Takeaways:
- If he needs to shoot longer range and power because of his interest or goals, start on Trail Boss or light loads before stepping up to the power factor needed for long range or hunting.
- If it's just for fun and distance or power don't matter, give him a reason why he should shoot 5.56 instead of .22LR. Make the targets fun and reactive to the additional energy.
- If you can't shoot fun targets, consider a 9mm AR instead of 5.56.
