[globemaster3]

I've been down this path twice now, with a few more times to go!

My oldest was 4 when she started scouting with me. About the time I should have been shooting air rifles with her, along came 9/11 and I was gone too much for years. At the next assignment, where I was training folks and not gone much, I kicked into high gear getting her trained to shoot/hunt. Here's some things I learned along the way.

Getting started on .22lr is the best thing to do with older kids. For younger ones, its amazing what a Red Rider or pump air rifle will do for their fundamentals. Either route, you can focus on basic gun handling and get a lot of trigger time practicing fundamentals for little cost. At least the cost was little pre-panic, and will be again in a few months in the case of .22lr.

From there, I decided on .243. For deer and hogs, as well as light recoiling, it works, and works well. There are a number of youth rifles out there, with Weatherby Vanguard Youth, Remington 700 Youth, and Savage Youth models being modest in price, but big on capabilities. I chose the Weatherby because it came with both a youth and adult stock and was very mildly priced. In addition, the 3-shot test target that came with it showed a dime sized grouping.

From there, I added a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 with bases and rings and had the perfect little setup.

First season with it, she managed to take a 250# sow and a spike. It was after that first season I recognized a problem. She did not enjoy shooting the rifle. I talked to her about it. She HATED shooting it because of the recoil. @ 4'10 and 85lbs, it was just too much for her WRT perceived recoil. Back to the drawing board, because if she didn't like to shoot it, keeping her on it would be self-defeating.

After much research, and getting opinions on here, I went with an AR-15 from Olympic Arms in 6.8 SPC. With an adjustable stock, length of pull is not a problem. They are naturally light unless you load them down, and recoil is practically nil. I took her to the range the first time and the smile after shooting it spoke volumes. Since then, she's taken 3 deer with that rifle. The .243 is back in the safe awaiting the next kid in line. With another upper in 5.56, I have a cheap practice option as well as a deer/hog option.

There are a few calibers to consider. .243, .260, 6.5 Creedmore, .257 Roberts, 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, .250 Savage, 7mm-08, are all choices to consider with some of them being easier to find ammo for than others.

If you decide to go on a bolt gun, my advice is to steer away from Remington's 710 or 770 youth models. With the others, getting aftermarket stock to fit LOP, get a particular color, swap triggers, re barrel down the road, etc is possible, making it a better investment.

Bottom line, they have to enjoy shooting for it to be a long term shared event, which is the goal. At 13, you only have a handful of years left. Make them count!