Buying a pellet gun for a 10 year old boy.

[Jericho 941]

Alright, a lot of quality information here and I won't be able to get to it all before I go to work this morning.

Thanks so much for everyone who responded. That is why I love the High Road. Lots of good people on here who really take your questions seriously. A lot of knowledge and emphasis on safety. That is exactly why I opened this thread.

-buck460XVR
With that in mind I will see if they have a hunter safety course that will take the both of us. I haven't done anything like that in a few years. Oddly enough, working at the range for my department I actually do not have to do a lot of safety courses...

-To lots of folks
He has a pair of sunglasses that my brother gave him somewhere along the way and he insisted they were impact resistant. Said he wore them overseas and that was good enough for me. I wear Bushnell shooting glasses myself, and I try to push them on my nephew even though he looks kind of silly in a pair of adult sized aviators.

-hermannr
All of the recommendations for air rifles have given me a much better idea of what I want for him. It never occurred to me how dangerous a hopper was on a gun and the potential for an AD is huge there. I will be looking for something that has a clip or a single pellet. That is one of the things that drew me to the break-open in the first place, but the magazine would probably be more fun. That is not something I want to lose sight of here, but at the same time I do not want him to be taking shots at road signs.

-Smaug
My price range is not exactly narrow. I have no kids of my own and I live a pretty low-key lifestyle. I do not want to go overboard though, so $200 is probably my maximum. I liked the three options that you gave me, and I especially like the $30 Bugbuster scope that you recommended.

-Jeff56
I don't know where you live, but I would probably arrest you if you had shot that boy. Even though you might get off for shooting a person who was aiming an air-rifle directly at you it would be hard to find a jury sympathetic towards you in this case. Sorry you had such an intense experience though, and good for you not plugging that little boy.

 

[Sav .250]

Many a guy posting on here has started his early years learning about the facts of shooting,handling,etc ..........using a BB gun.

 

[BADUNAME37]

I didn't have time to read every post, all I can say is that you most likely want it to be "good-enough" to last a long time, and good enough that he won't ever want to part with it! I am thinking wood stock, something that is designed to take many years of shooting and not wear out on him.

After all, he could be passing this gun on to his ten-year-old down the road!

One thing I really miss in life is having kids - even just one!
I really would have liked to have a boy (or even a girl) to teach everything I know to, but I guess it was not meant to be.

I started with a Daisy BB-Gun I earned from selling Christmas Cards through my old neighborhood! I would have been about 7 or 8 years old.

 

[lizziedog1]

When I was ten and my father was thinking of getting me a gun he gave me a lesson on deadliness.

We lived on small, four acre farm. My dad raised a few cows for personal consumption. One day it was butchering time. The butcher showed up and proceeded to place a bucket of grain on the ground. He grabbed an old, beat up twenty two rifle. He aimed it between the cows eyes and pulled the trigger. The animal dropped like a sack of potatoes.

That image is as fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. That showed me what harm even a little rimfire can do. When I finally did get my gun, you better believe I was safe.

My first gun was a Benjamin, 22 caliber pump pellet gun. The first "real" gun I was allowed to have was a shotgun. My dad resoned that with birdshot, a shotgun has a rather limited deadly range. A little more forgiving if you will.

 

[roadchoad]

Crosman 760 on the cheep end or a Benjamin 397 on teh higher end. The newer crosmans have smooth bores and aren't all that accurate with pellets past a few yards out. The Benji's are nice, and you can pick up a refurb from airgunsdaily for under $100 bucks at times. Can't shoot BBs in them though.

I'd stay away from break barrels. While they shoot hard, all the ones I've had have been a pain to shoot accurately, and have needed new seals or springs to shoot well. A single dry-fire can kill a seal, and leaving the gun cocked accidentally will kill the spring, unless you go nitro piston.

 

[Mike1234567]

RE Safety: FWIW, I had a BB gun that I shot without adult supervision when I was 11 years old. A friend was handling it pretty safely but then set it down butt first to the concrete just a little too hard. This fired a BB that hit my eyebrow only an inch or so from my left eye. It hurt like heck and there was little blood but I still have my eye. The point is stuff can and does happen. Oh... and I didn't tell my parents!!

 

[Bobson]

.177 Caliber pellets shooting 900-1200 are pretty much the standard for average-quality pellet guns, and it's what I was shooting when I got my first "gun" at age 9 (I'm 26 now, and that day feels like it was yesterday, literally). Mine was powered by those little 12-gram CO2 cartridges (like these: http://www.airgundepot.com/231b.html). They're usually good for around 40-60 shots if memory serves me correctly. Then again, it is another thing to spend money on (as opposed to a pump-style pellet gun).

Later he can move up to a .20 Cal pellet gun at a bit higher FPS (1500 or so), or up to a .22 LR; whatever his dad thinks is best.

I think a .177 pellet gun is a great choice. Keep him supervised for a few weeks while shooting, and then let him loose. *nostalgia*