Teaching Kids

[TBT]

I’m not really sure what forum to put this in so I’m guessing that it would fit here. At what age should one start teaching his son gun safety and marksmanship? My son is five years old and his sixth birthday is coming up and I was thinking about getting him a air rifle that I could use to teach him the basics.

He’s a big kid for his age. Very tall and stocky. Looks like a second grader (my daughter is in the third grade and he is bigger than a few of the boys in her class lol) but alas, he is just going to be six years old. Is this too young?

My dad was never into guns so I don’t have anything to go off of with passing it on. He seems like he would be ready to learn under my close supervision.

What do you guys think?

[tony pasley]

I started teaching safety about 3, then BB gun at 6, then rimfire, shotgun, then centerfire, then handgun.

[TBT]

I've been teaching safety for a few years as well. So you don't think that it's too early to go to an air rifle at sis then?

Can you recommend a good accurate air gun for the boy? I'm thinking somewhere around $100?

[armedandsafe]

I started with a BB (Red Ryder) at 5, after being able to recite the 12 commandments of hunting. Used to take the dog out to the edge of town, fix a little dinner and roll out the sleeping bag. Dog on one side, gun on the other, stars overhead. 'Twas a bummer when school started and I had to spend day times in the schoolroom. :(

Pops

[TBT]

I'm liking the looks of the Winchester 800x as far as air rifles go.

[tony pasley]

Start him out right with an offical Red Rider BB gun and a Roy Rogers pocket Knife. It worked for me ( a couple of years ago).

[Mr Beta]

I'm still young but my dad got me a BB gun when I was about 7. A Daisy 880. I loved that rifle. He got me a 10/22 a couple years later.
I remember I used to sit in his lap at age 6 and "shoot" the 22. More of him holding the rifle and me pulling the trigger.:D He hammered safety in my head constantly and I can say he did good job. I still have scars from the trigger guard.;)
I'd start teaching safety and gun control as early as possible.

[Edward429451]

My kids were gunproof by age 6, could recite the 4 safety rules, were shooting Mini-14's full prone off a rest, 22 pistols unassissted, etc..

6 is good for marksmanship instruction. You're falling behind on the safety instruction.:D

From what the psyche books say, the first 6 years are the most important. Kids at that age just soak up information like a sponge. Don't forget the pics dad.

[WhiteFeather93]

I cannot applaude you enough for starting you son off the right way.

Quick story: When I was a lad of 8 my parents bought me a daisy airgun and I loved it. I had a great time with that gun until two months later when I shot out some windows while trying to get rid of some pigeons. It was quite a laugh when I read a books later in life and found out that happens more often than I thought.

But after a very long firearmless summer I got my rifle back and my father went over the basics again. Later on I got involved with Scouting and that is when my passion for firearms really took off.

I would seriously consider Scouting for you son. At age six he should be able to join a Tigger cub or Bear cub? (Can't remember) and many troops go to a day camp and get many chances to learn about air rifles and .22's. As well as learning to develop many other skills that he will find very useful in life. I am now an Eagle Scout and look back with pride all of my acomplishments. And have a good store of knowledge thanks to the experience.

[Link]

I'm going to be a new father later on this year, and already can't wait to take my son shooting. My wife will probably have a little input on the appropriate age to start. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I think the key (after safety of course) is to make it fun for them.

[Skunk]

TBT,

Here is a link to some good ideas about teaching the kids. It was written by one of the forum moderators (Pax) and comes from her "Cornered Cat" website. It was an excellent resource for me, especially the article about disarming the child's curiosity about guns (good article for those with very young children). I used Pax's techniques with my three year old daughter and it worked perfectly.

Thank you Pax.

http://www.corneredcat.com/TOC.aspx#Kids

Skunk

[Lavid2002]

Im 16, I started with a bb gun at age 6 with little safety lessons besides dont shoot at or near someone, I as never taught the dont load until ready, finger up action not on trigger, or safety etc.... The I took lessons and classes because im the first person to shoot in my family. Then I got my first shotgun at 15, I soon after bought a 10/22, and am currently not buying a centerfire rifle because I live in NJ and i cannot hunt with it, or shoot with it. Same with pistol. I would love tos hoot more centerfire. But If I could do it all again i would go bb,.22,shotgun,centerfire,.22 handgun, hangdun. : D

[allenomics]

I doesn't really matter how big your child is. Maturity is key and that comes with age and experience. I'd say age seven is a good age to start teaching gun safety and target shooting.

[TBT]

When you are trying to figure out what weapon and means would best suit him in marksmanship training, size does matter. Maturity is by far the deciding factor though regarding whether one should even go down that road.

7 to start teaching gun safety ... hmm. I started him on gun safety the minute he showed the slightest interest in my guns. About 2 years ago when he was 3. He's helped me clean the guns since then.

----

Thanks for the corneredcat link from Pax too!

----

Anyone have any experience with modern air rifles? Some of these things are fast as hell. 1000fps and what not. My main concern would be to find him something that isn't too big and is accurate. For about $100? Any suggestions?

[fixboot]

Took my 4 year old daughter shootng last weekend. She was all smiles! I taught her first that they are not toys. Then she learned about everything else a 4 year old possibly can. Im excited for the day shes old enough to get her own BB gun. Thats probably still a few years away though. Great fun! :)

(yes, mama grabbed our saftey glasses out of the car before we started shooting!)

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/2563/s5031700aq6.jpg

[threegun]

He hammered safety in my head constantly and I can say he did good job.

I have been teaching my boys since age 3 give or take. We started by playing with daddy's guns (the ones they could hold). I always enforced proper gun handling with ending the play session being the penalty for a violation. At age 4ish we would shoot a mini daisy red rider style rifle I bought for less than 30 dollars from Wally world. Our target was super close and consisted of a paper plate taped to a comforter hanging in the closet. The comforter would stop the BB and never ricochet. We could shoot anytime because it was in the house. I enforced safety and made a big deal out of every close shot to keep them excited. I swear we wore that bb gun out (between both boys). The BB's would fall to the floor and get reused.

My boys now ages 8 and 11 have the muzzel awareness of competent adults. They keep their fingers outside the trigger guard, check guns for loaded or unloaded status prior to handling them, and even keep the muzzel down range when reloading (something a surprising amount of adults ignore). We shoot a host of guns. My big boy shoots his Bushmaster superlite, beretta PX4 storm, along with his brothers walther p-22 and others in Dads collection. The important thing is make it fun and make them safe everytime. At somepoint they will just click.

BTW my 7 year old can outshoot many adults with a handgun and with a rifle he is incredible. My 11 year old is just plain sick good. Once we were shooting water bottles to simulate bowling pins. He shot them so fast with a springfield XD compact that my wife caught me saying holy s#@t into the camcorder as we watched the tape at home. Truely awesome and so much a pleasure to see folks faces at the sight of safe kids who can flat out shoot.

[fixboot]

threegun, that is a wonderful story and really gives me inspiration to work more with my daughter! Fun times dads!

[TBT]

Yeah. Thanks for all the advise and all the shared stories. I was excited about doing this before this thread, now I can hardly wait. This is what it's all about, being a dad.

fixboot - what kind of gun is that you are letting your daughter check out?

[fixboot]

fixboot - what kind of gun is that you are letting your daughter check out?


Just your basic 10/22 with a cheapy Bushnell on top. The trigger is pretty heavy and she kind of has a rough time with it, but that trigger group is going the way of disco and Perry Mason. I'm thinking a 3 or 4 Pound pull would help things along. I wish I had the see thru scope rings though, we cant get the relief right for her eye and I wish I could start teaching her the iron sights.

[Black Adder LXX]

My oldest is now 8 and I'm starting him on a BB gun. I would have started him younger but he is a little immature for his age. For months before we started I ran him through the paces from Pax's website on kids and guns, then the 4 rules. +1 on cornered cat. It really helped me a lot to hear form someone who had systematically thought through and lived through the entire process. He loves the BB gun, and didn't do too bad on his first outing.

[dbgun]

I gave my daughter a Red Rider BB gun on her sixth birthday. Started teaching her about safety, the next day. She's eight now and I've been trying to get her to the deer lease, so she can start shooting a .22 rifle. She's been pretty good about handling the BB gun safely. She knows as soon as she's not being safe, I'll put the BB gun away. She hates that, so she really try's to stay focused on safety. All kids mature differently. Your the best judge on whether or not your kid is mature enough to handle this responsibility. Just make sure he has fun. Just my 2 cents.

[threegun]

Guys with my kids I learned that you must stand behind them and enforce safe gun handling at every outing especially in the beginning. Don't allow even the slightest seemingly harmless violation to go un challenged. The results are children who rarely break the rules and when they do they know it immediately.

If they tried to move the rifle sideways perhaps while turning to speak I would stop the movement and explain why they can't do that. If they have their finger in the trigger guard before getting sights on target explain why it isn't right and thell them to correct it. The key is consistency. My boys have heard it so much and they still hear it despite being really good with handling.

Example at the range I stand behind the son that is shooting and whisper things like "watch you finger" if they have put it in the guard early. "Keep that barrel pointed down range" after they fired the last shot. "check to see if its loaded" to the next son up prior to loading. Followed by tons of "awesomes" and "excellents".

You daddy's who are training them youngsters be prepared to put certain adults in their place. Many folks both in and out of the family will look at you like you are crazy. Be ready to explain just how ignorant they are........in a nice way of course.

[SeanShot]

If you start too early, he's gonna be obsessed with 'em or overly bored. I'd wait until he was seven at least.
Just be sure to hammer all the good habits in. A nice way to start would be giving him a cheap airsoft rifle. That way you'll be sure he won't kill any of his friends -- you never know.

[threegun]

Sean, You don't have to force them. My boys started super early and neither are bored or obsessed with guns. Make it fun and make it safe and stop when the want to stop.

[Edward429451]

My kids started super early and neither are obsessed or bored with guns. They will let you know when they want to shoot and let you know when they're done. They will let you know when they want to shoot your bigger guns. I can remember a few times while camping the shooting stopped because they wanted to go on a hike or dig up a prairie dog hole or whatnot.

I remember one time on a camping/small gaming trip, they were to wake me early so we could go small gaming and their shots woke me up! They were coming back into camp with 3 squirrels by the time I made it out of my tent.:eek::D