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Age To Start Young Shooters
- Thread Starter whatzhizname
- Start date
I started at age 12 - a little late by some of your experiences, but I was in England.
My first experience was as an army cadet, using a Lee Enfield No.4 (.303 British) and No.8 (.22).
That same year I was also trained with the .303 Bren Mk IV and L4, 7.62mm L7A2 GPMG (FN MAG) and the L1A1 (FN FAL). The following year the L98A1, L2A3 (Sterling SMG) and Browning HiPower.
I continued to use service weapons (L1A1,L85A1, L86A1) throughout my time in the cadet force and regular military service as an infantry officer.
I may not have been trained young, but I was trained well, and right from the start. Rules for the safe handling of weapons were drilled into us. It's instinctive.
You can spot an untrained shooter in the first 2 seconds they handle a weapon.
Their finger always goes to the trigger!
I use that as a guide to how much supervision I have to give to someone I'm shooting with.
My son is 4 and I hope to begin working with him soon on the rules for the safe handling of weapons.
My first experience was as an army cadet, using a Lee Enfield No.4 (.303 British) and No.8 (.22).
That same year I was also trained with the .303 Bren Mk IV and L4, 7.62mm L7A2 GPMG (FN MAG) and the L1A1 (FN FAL). The following year the L98A1, L2A3 (Sterling SMG) and Browning HiPower.
I continued to use service weapons (L1A1,L85A1, L86A1) throughout my time in the cadet force and regular military service as an infantry officer.
I may not have been trained young, but I was trained well, and right from the start. Rules for the safe handling of weapons were drilled into us. It's instinctive.
You can spot an untrained shooter in the first 2 seconds they handle a weapon.
Their finger always goes to the trigger!
I use that as a guide to how much supervision I have to give to someone I'm shooting with.
My son is 4 and I hope to begin working with him soon on the rules for the safe handling of weapons.
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- Thread Starter
- #23
That's really interesting ORBRIT. Thanks for sharing your unique experience growing up in the UK. I always think of Great Britain as anti-firearms and never really thought of young shooters there, but it's nice to know that's not the case. Although with the more repressive laws of today's UK, I guess kids have to be taken to the "knife range" instead? 
I just took my 7 year old son and my 9 year old little girl out this last weekend, they were thrilled. I have been going over gun safety with them for years. They have seen all of dads guns. They have been able to hold them and ask questions. But for the first time they actually got to go out and shoot with dad. I have to say, I was very proud of them, they followed all the rules that I have taught them and I think they did great.
