Teaching younger kids to shoot, what to start out with?

[bsa1917hunter]

When I was a kid, I could shoot for days on a end with a single shot bolt action 22lr...... and enjoy the heck out of it. Now days, everyone wants to start youngsters and new shooters off with a 10-22 or AR???? Start with the basics, guys... Teach them proper gun safety and marksmanship. With an emphasis on BOTH....

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I still like my Remington 33 single shot .22 rifle....Not sure how many cans , clay birds , spent shells or grouse it has gotten.

Nothing really against a 10/22 or AR in .22 ( other than everyone has one , it seems like )
I just like the easy carrying and clean lines of .22 single shot.
Andy

 

[SIG34]

Ruger 10/22 !! Best starter gun

 

[SIG34]

$230 big 5 can't go wrong

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Ruger 10/22 !! Best starter gun

Yep, I see a lot of spray and pray shooters at the range and even on the field. Saw a few during elk season 2 years ago too. What ever floats your boat. It takes all types...

 

[RVTECH]

Started my daughter with my Marlin Golden 39 - it was too heavy for her to hold it so we bench rested it with her and those little .22 holes just kept enlarging the previous one at 25 yards! She was a natural and had no bad habits to break.

 

[ma96782]

Since you mentioned the 22LR as a transition to a .223.....I'll say, YES. It'll be cheaper on your budget and you can also see what's happening with their marksmanship skills and make corrections (if needed). The sudden and loud, "ka-pow" (even a 22LR) can be startling since they're coming from an airsoft platform. I guess now is a good time to mention, eye and ear protection. And, watch their gun safety/handling. I've seen many an airsoft person(s) sweep others with the muzzle of their weapons.

A lot of them have a crappy attitude. "Awww, it's only an airsoft gun."

My response, "You'll shoot your eye out kid." And. alot more. OK, Ok, ok.......some are teachable/quick learners. Others......hummm. Anyway, back to it......

STORY TIME
So then.....when I started at the PD, some of the recruits had never fired a firearm before. The first gun that the class was introduced to was the S&W M18 (22LR, 6 shot, 4", blue steel revolver). It was a copy (only larger caliber) of the duty weapon that we later carried (S&W M15 .38 Special, 6 shot, 4" blue steel revolver). We learned not only marksmanship but, how to draw from a holster. Little things like that was very helpful in getting some of us up to speed.

Aloha, Mark

 

[PDXKevin]

Start with the basics. Go over safety, safety, safety. To bring home the point, have a different adult go teach the safety. No matter how much a parent tells a child, when it comes from someone else, they just pick it up faster.

Get a single shot BB gun so that they focus on the mechanics each and every time. once they are dialed on safety, shooting from prone, sitting, standing, and kneeling move up to a 22lr.

 

[HB of CJ]

Respectfully ...

Different point of view. Strongly consider farming out ALL the firearm training. Consider spending the big bucks and have the kid taught by professionals. An example of an Old Coot teaching young kids today the basics would be ME doing the teaching. A bad idea for sure.

I am left handed. Over the 60+ years or so of firearm shooting I have developed bad habits. These bad habits will never be changed by me. If I tried to teach 6 young people today the basic stuff it would scare them half to death. Some kids are not ready for gun school.

In an ideal alternate reality, our public schools would be teaching the responsibilities of proper citizenship. This would also include martial arts training. All martial arts. Including the ability to pick up a weapon of whatever type and use it efficiently. This is very scary for some.

But we do not live in a perfect society. Firearm training right now is right up again the most evil thing a person can learn. My failed feeble point is that professional firearm training is still necessary ... but is very difficult today to do. Lets the pros teach your kids right. Just me.

Respectfully.

 

[cigars]

When my daughter was 10 I started her out on the 10/22 and SR22. Then she asked if she could try my 1911. She loved it.

 

[tac]

 

[tallfoo]

I'm planning on starting them out with BB guns. Once they can demonstrate good gun safety, they can move up to 22lr. Once they show the desire to move up in caliber, let them.

 

[tac]

View attachment 445393

Want to see more of this poor old fusil? If so, I'll post it on 'show us your guns. It's pretty sad, though.

tac

 

[FriendOfEvanWilliams]

I still shoot my first gun all the time, single shot bolt action Remington 514 .22 S,L,LR. Adjustable iron sights, accurate, durable, and nothing is safer than a gun you have to load each time you shoot. Single shot .22s are like the penny slots of shooting...a couple hours at the range will cost maybe $20.

 

[tac]

That's a PROPER gun to learn on - nothing fancy to it, the way they all used to be. I learned on my dad's Walther Model 2 - the odd-action rifle that's a single-shot, or magazine-fed bolt-action OR semi. Start with one at a time, work up to five, get good and then progress to the semi - all in one little rifle.

tac

 

[DirectDrive]

Single shot .22 bolt rifle is by far the best starter rifle.
It seems like some of today's parents don't know they exist.

Start a kid out with a 10/22 and he/she just might grow up to be a dirt shooter.
Start a kid out with a .22 single shot and he/she might grow up to be a rifleman.

 

[mkwerx]

I just bought my kiddo his first BB gun today - he's had some chances to shoot .22's, but for his real deal beginning, I'm starting him like I did on a pump action BB gun. It'll get the fundamentals down, while being super cheap to shoot. I got him the Daisy BSA model gun - shoots BB's or .177 pellets, it's a single pump gun, 320 FPS advertised. Next gun for him will be a single shot .22 - I really like the Marlin youth model - I bought one for my step daughter years ago, my first marriage go-round. She was a natural with it - and learned judicious marksmanship. I really liked that youth model, even fun to shoot as an adult. It was as short as you could get without an SBR, stainless hardware, laminate stock, high visibility fiberoptic sights, red dot up front, green in the rear to let 'em differentiate easily. It was able to mount a scope, but I never did. Taught open sights first, before relying on glass.

I sold that gun to a friend of mine (well, former friend now, but that's beside the point) - he used it to teach his son, and I'm assuming now his daughter to shoot with it.

Slow and steady is the way to really get new shooters to learn the fundamentals. Semi autos are fun, but it quickly devolves into mag dumps, and with kids, there is a safety aspect to a bolt action single shot vs a 10 or 20 shot semi auto.

 

[DirectDrive]

I shot a lot of stuff that I shouldn't have with my BB gun. (birds etc)
I still regret it to this very day.

I wish that my father had instilled in me to not shoot anything that was illegal (ie. song birds) and/or something that I had no intention of eating.

 

[mkwerx]

I shot a lot of stuff that I shouldn't have with my BB gun. (birds etc)
I still regret it to this very day.

I wish that my father had instilled in me to not shoot anything that was illegal (ie. song birds) and/or something that I had no intention of eating.

I grew up out on the country. I was told I could shoot cans, paper, cardboard or plywood (scrap, not the good stuff) to my hearts content. Starlings were fair game (I learned as an adult, they are actually protected) because they ate the tops out of our veggies in the garden. Neighbor's chickens were fair game in the bounds of the garden as well, but was told to aim for their arse, not the body or head. I could also shoot moles, gophers, rats, and mice as rodent control. Was told if I shot anything else, I'd have my arse beat red till I couldn't sit down. Double if I shot at any houses, cars, or people.

I stuck to approved targets. One time I had neighbor boys over with their Bb guns. One shot a Robin. I about lost it, afraid of the trouble *I* would get in. They didn't come over to shoot bb guns after that.

I hate being in an urban area now. I can't just take the kid into the back yard like I could growing up. We will have to drive somewhere like Wolf Creek just to shoot BB guns

 

[Andy54Hawken]

A neighbor bought his son a rifle to teach him how to shoot...
The rifle was a 10/22...to keep things simple...we had him load only one round at a time in the magazine until he proved to be a good shot.

I really have nothing against repeating firearms...but it seems that with some kids and some new adult shooters...the idea of "Well I have x number of shots left in the magazine" ...can take the place of learning marksmanship.

Good marksmanship is a challenge and shows many different kinds of discipline.
In my experience knowing that I only have one shot..has made me into a better shot and hunter.

A excellent and challenging one shot , is to take one shot and one shot only at that odd little bit of leftover clay bird , with your favorite gun or hunting rifle...at a decent hunting range , offhand...
Andy