There are so many affordably priced youth rifles theese days it is hard not to buy one for a young'un. If it is for .22 lr buy a cricket and do not think twice about it. I bought my nephew one when my brother and I started him. He has grown and now has a Rossi .223 single shot youth model. The good part of those is that the barrels are interchangable, so when it is time we will get him a .243 for deer, and hogs. (He got his first coyote with it last week
). As for the Cricket my 5 year old neice is now shooting it. She happens to be a crack shot with it too I might add
.
For me my first ceter fire was Grampa's 1903 Springfield Star Barrel with the factory peep sight. The first time I shot it I dropped my first deer. 26 years later I still hunt with that tack driver.