[Jeff Higgins]

At 7 years old, she is probably way too small for a full size or even "youth" size .22. I started both of my boys when they were 6 years old with the Chipmunk rifle from Oregon Arms. It's the only .22 made for kids that age. It is a single shot .22, and it requires pulling back a cocking piece in addition to cycling the bolt, but you will come to appreciate that. I found I could keep much better control over the situation if the little fellers couldn't cock their own rifles. By the time they were strong enough to do so, they were veteran shooters and could actually be trusted to do so.

The single shot loading will also teach her to actually aim and shoot, rather than rely upon volume of fire to hit her target. Kids can be quite undisciplined shooters and can burn through a surprising amount of ammo, even with a single shot. It was not uncommon for the boys to go through a brick a day apiece at that age. They sounded like machine gun operators even with the single shots.

When they finally got "big enough" to use my 10/22 the volume of ammo went up and the quality of shooting went down. Now they both have bolt action and single shot rifles (rimfire and centerfire), and they have learned to shoot again. Keep the autoloaders away from the kids until they gain some skill; they teach very bad habits that kids are prone to use anyway.