With all the time we have had available due to the covid shutdown, I decided that it would be a good time to teach my 8 year old grandson how to shoot. He has wanted to do that for a time but I told him him he had to be 8 and have his parent's permission. Having cleared those hurdles, I bought a Cricket .22 at Wal Mart. This little made in PA rifle ($114) has a short plastic stock that can be extended with plastic spacers and longer screws so as the child grows, the stock can be lengthened. It is a very accurate little rifle right out of the box. It is a bolt action single shot but even after the bolt is closed, the shooter has to pull back the firing spring mechanism to fully cock the gun so it will fire. That is a nice safety feature.
We started at hunting camp where there is a sighting in range by learning the rules of gun safety, how to hold a gun and how to aim it. Turns out, like me, he is right handed but has a dominant left eye so he shoots rifle off of his left shoulder. He quickly learned to use the ghost ring sights and after several boxes of ammo, I bought an inexpensive scope for it which he loves. After mastering this, we moved on to my Ruger 10 shot single action .22 revolver which of cousre has to be cocked for each round. He now does that well and is hitting targets consistently.
Today we went out to the hunting camp with the Ruger but as a "treat", I left him fire one round from a 9mm pistol (only one round in the pistol!) as he wanted to experience recoil. He handled it well but showed maturity when he said that he ought to grow a little bit more before he fired it again!
I have also had him to a local gun range to shoot his rifle so he could observe others shooting and learn the rules of range safety. He enjoyed that and picked up the rules fairly quickly.
I personally believe every child should learn to handle firearms and learn gun safety. He now knows how they work and to NEVER pick up and handle a gun he finds somewhere.
The five year old grandson is next but that won't be for three more years.
We started at hunting camp where there is a sighting in range by learning the rules of gun safety, how to hold a gun and how to aim it. Turns out, like me, he is right handed but has a dominant left eye so he shoots rifle off of his left shoulder. He quickly learned to use the ghost ring sights and after several boxes of ammo, I bought an inexpensive scope for it which he loves. After mastering this, we moved on to my Ruger 10 shot single action .22 revolver which of cousre has to be cocked for each round. He now does that well and is hitting targets consistently.
Today we went out to the hunting camp with the Ruger but as a "treat", I left him fire one round from a 9mm pistol (only one round in the pistol!) as he wanted to experience recoil. He handled it well but showed maturity when he said that he ought to grow a little bit more before he fired it again!
I have also had him to a local gun range to shoot his rifle so he could observe others shooting and learn the rules of range safety. He enjoyed that and picked up the rules fairly quickly.
I personally believe every child should learn to handle firearms and learn gun safety. He now knows how they work and to NEVER pick up and handle a gun he finds somewhere.
The five year old grandson is next but that won't be for three more years.