youth .22lr rifle?

[dadman]

Any suggestions for a youth .22lr rifle? A past topic suggested the CZ 452 Youth. Any other youth sized rifles? My 10 yr. old son did well in a hunter safety course, and I was thinking of a gift for the occasion. Something to call his own.
I don't feel he's ready for a shotgun or larger caliber rifle.
He currently has to endure the agony of using our Remington Viper .22lr, with it's too long length of pull, crappy trigger, and finicky ammo tastes.
He's left handed. I'm considering a bolt gun for him to discourage pray and spray.

 

[OEF_VET]

Keystone Arms out fo PA makes a small, single-shot bolt action called the Cricket. Wal-Mart sells them for just under $100. The Romanian .22 trainers are fairly inexpensive and with a 5 round magazine he's not going to be doing too much spraying.

Frank

 

[Master Blaster]

I have done a bit of research on this question.

Before you buy one make sure it fits your son. In my search for a youth rifle for my daughter and son I found thet some of the youth rifles are as big almost as the full size adult ones (too big). The cricket is the smallest and fits my children fine, but the striker takes about 25 lbs to pull back to cock it, more than my children can manage.

I finally settled on a savage cub, unfortunately the trigger stinks on this one.

I could not find a CZ to try but the Length of pull is larger than the cub, which just fits my 7 yo daughter.

 

[son of a gun]

http://www.henryrepeating.com/minibolt.cfm

 

[Richardson]

I've been looking for a youth rifle to get my kids into shooting. Besides weight, length of pull seems to be the most limiting factor for shootability. Here's a summary of what I found:

Maker Model, lbs, length of pull, capacity, msrp:

Rogue Chipmunk, 2.50#, 11.50", 1, $194
Henry Mini Bolt, 3.25#, 11.50", 1, $199
Charles Daly, Field True Youth, 3.50#, 11.75", 1, $155
Marlin 15YN, 4.25#, 12.00", 1, $???
Henry Lever Youth, 4.50#, 13.00", 12,$260
Charles Daly, Field Youth Repeater, 4.75#, ??.??", 6, $149
CZ Scout Youth Rifle, 4.00#, ??.??", 10, $???

For my kids (6 & 7 yo) who will begin shooting next summer (actually will begin this winter with a Daisy Buck BB gun), length of pull & weight are the critical issues. The Henry Mini Bolt comes in Synthetic & Stainless, so I'm probably going with that (http://www.henryrepeating.com/minibolt.cfm).

I hope this helps.

Richardson

 

[Okiecruffler]

My brother started with a Marlin 15YN, it got passed down to my son, then passed down to my nephew. And it's still just as accurate as any bolt action 22 I've ever fired. I had even been known to put my mod15 full sized stock on it and take it out squirrrel hunting. Made a dandy little carbine. Not sure about the others mentioned, but you can't go wrong with the Marlin.

 

[dadman]

Thanks all for the suggestions and info.
Richardson, found your length of pull info useful. It seems younger, smaller shooters enjoy shooting if the rifle fits and has a trigger thats easy for them to pull.

 

[larryw]

I started my son out with a Mini-Bolt. Great starter gun for a 5-7 year old. But he outgrew it and was getting frustrated by the poor sights. We sold the Henry and got him a CZ 452 Scout. This gun has about 1" more length of pull, has a crisp, adjustable trigger and is much better made; same price new as the Henry. For a 10 year old, I think the CZ is the preferred 22LR bolt gun as the others will be a bit on the small size. Another option is a 10/22 and lop off the stock butt to fit.

 

[swingset]

The Savage Cub is what I went with for my 6 year old daughter.

Light, accurate, has Peep Sights (the only kid's rifle that does I think), and is cheap at $125.00. The trigger is very bad from the factory, but a stone polish on bearing surfaces and cutting one coil off the made it much, much better. I highly recommend this gun, it's a great rifle for first time shooters. The peep sight is much more intuitive for a new shooter, IMHO.

 

[Kernel]

I like the looks of the Henry Mini-Bolt but IMO the safety arraignment is worse than awful. I don't like the fact that the safety can be engage only after the gun has been cocked. To make a loaded "cocked & locked" Mini-Bolt safe the safety must be disengaged (!!), the trigger pulled (!!!), and the striker lowered by hand over the loaded chamber (!!!!). This is an AD waiting to happen.

This Christmas I plan to get my 8 y.o. a Marlin 15YN. It has a proper safety that can be left engaged while the gun is loaded and unloaded. It's very well made, stainless like the Henry and half the price. --- Kernel

 

[hksw]

When I went to get a rifle to teach my (then) 7 or 8 y.o niece I settled on the Marlin 15YN. The only problem with the gun was the bolt. It was quite stiff, easy to handle for me but a real bear for my niece (and a friend's 1 year younger daughter who was along for the intro to firearms). I had also brought my dad's 25N just in case the 15 was too small (which it wasn't). It's bolt, too, was very stiff for them to shoot. Also along was an Anschütz 1451D. They worked to bolt like it was nothing. Both like the 10/22s also along the best (of course).

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have bought a CZ 452 Scout. The bolt I tried at the shows seemed more easier than the 15YN which I purchased before even lookind at the 452. Plus, it's mag fed. If you want to shoot one at a time, don't load the mag, if you want a repeating bolt, load it up. Also, it seemed of higher quality build.

 

[pbr46]

I just bought a Thompson Classic .22LR for my 12 Y/0 son. Really nice!!

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

My mother loves her Henry youth model lever action.