Starting the youngins

[Gouranga]

k, for a background, I live in a suburban setting with 2 or 3 ranges within reasonable driving distance (<45 mins). Shooting outside, not a legal option.

I have 4 kids all girls. My oldest, 8, is showing interest in learning to shoot. i want to take her to the range to get her started with my 22. Couple of things with it though, the 22 I got, is small, but it is really not a great size for her. She cannot hold it up herself for long and could not aim it.

I saw at Gander they got those little 22's, look like toys almost, I am reluctant to buy a weapon I cannot use with no idea if they will even like it. Course I have 4 so chances are at least 1 of them will.

Any thoughts, opinions, pointers for a guy in getting his little ones started?

 

[Carter]

Well if you go to any outdoor ranges reactive targets are always best (IMO) to keep kids interesting. Lets face it, sitting at a bench all day shooting at a piece of paper then looking through a scope gets boring. Balloons and spinners are great targets to use. Water balloons are nice as well. If they have a favorite cartoon with an evil character use a print out of that cartoon character as a target (I've done it with the pedophile from family guy).

 

[hardluk1]

Your talking about the Cricket 22 rifles. Good shooting little rifles and are light enough for the littleones. You may have to pull the cocker on the back of the bolt for some of them but great starter guns. For a pistol maybe a Ruger Bearcat. Cricket makes a single shot bolt pistol just for you to play with,HEHE. I have one, it will shot 1/4 inch at 25 yards or less. Hard to be able to do anything on a range thats fun for kids and some adults like shooting soda cans or ballons. Range rules??

 

[emercer4]

I have one of the crickets that I bought for my nephews to start out with (they have outgrown it now), but I still take the little gun out and shoot it on occasion, it seems to be a pretty good gun for the money (I bought this one at WalMart). I agree with Carter, if you can do something besides punch holes in paper, the kids are more likely to stay interested, I have a nephew who is 13 and I bought one of the Steel Round up targets from Cabelas that we use quite often, we also use one of the Ferris Wheel targets that is really fun.

 

[Carter]

Meant to add this earlier but was in a rush...

Cricket's are great starter rifles. My friend's son has one and he loves shooting it. They are pretty cheap and you can use it for your other kids when your oldest out grows it.
What kind of .22 do you have right now?
Pretty much any of the cheap skinny .22's from walmart would be a great fit for your daughters.

If you have the time, or the money, you could join the Rowan wildlife range. They have camping, fishing, skeet, 8-10 25 yard ranges, and a long 100 and 200 yard range. They also host cowboy action shooting as well. The ranges give you a little more freedom in how you choose to shoot and what to shoot, just no fruit I believe.

It'd be a bit far away for where you are, about an hour and a half probably, but if you make a day out of it with the kid(s) and possibly the wife it would probably be worth it. Its around $600 dollars to join though...which is why I take advantage of my friend who is a member.

 

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

For handguns you can't beat the ruger bearcat or single six

 

[Ky Larry]

I'm glad you folks are getting the youngsters started shooting. Kids who shoot grow up to be adults who shoot and vote.

 

[Rembrandt]

Have six grandkids under 8 years old.....four are girls. Went with the Marlin youth .22 single shot, later added a red dot. Iron sight acquisition was a little hard for them, red dot and reactive targets really got their interest.

 

[Mudinyeri]

AR's are a great place to start.

 

[docnyt]

My 2 girls aged 11 and 9 love shooting the Browning Buckmark I got specifically to get them started. The GSG-5 and GSG-AK in 22 LR are simply too heavy for them and they get tired after a few shots.

 

[postalnut25]

My sons started with Glocks because that is what I had at the time. We put soup cans and pop cans out so they had fun, reactive targets. Now that they are (very large) teenagers, they have adult sized long guns. My daugther's first experience was with my Colt Trooper Mk III, just to see if she liked shooting. She got a kick out of it, so I got her the Crickett from Gander Mountain. It's small enough for her and she's good about following all the rules. She even helps clean it.