Quote:
Originally Posted by Seahawk
Just a thought...kids love semi-autos but a nice bolt action or lever action are better at this age to teach them a bit of fire discipline. They are also, in my mind, safer for young shooters.
I started my son on a lever action Marlin.
There are a ton of used guns on the market for nearly nothing.
Pistols? I bought a Ruger Single Six .22 used and it is every bit as enjoyable as my MKII.
Also, paper targets are great but they sell cheap spinner targets that seem to make young shooters happy.
Enjoy. Great start.
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Best advice on this entire thread.
Semi-autos can be great for older, more disciplined shooters. They are a lot of fun. The problem is, they encourage a lack of discipline. That's the last thing a young shooter needs (or for that matter, most older shooters). The habits they develop at a young age will stick with them for life, for better or for worse. Poor shooting disciplin, deeply ingrained, is one hell of a tough thing to break later in life. I see far, far too many shooters who seem to feel they can make up for poor shooting through sheer volume.
A single shot bolt action is the rifle to start with for young shooters. There is a very real psychology at play here; if they really want to hit something, they really have to pay attention and get good. The notion in the back of your mind that there is always another try just a trigger pull away leads to sloppiness and laziness. I see it in adults all of the time - adults who should know better. But, shooting a lot is "fun", hitting is
hard. Kids are particularly susceptable to this.
Don't think for a minute that you will maintain the discipline to "load just one or two" in that magazine for long, or that the kids would be happy with that for long. The only way to really stick with it, learning proper technique and discipline, is to have that one shot in the chamber the
only shot. The only one available, the only one that matters - the one that
has to hit. It's when that notion gets ingrained in the psyche that the real shooting begins. There are no shortcuts.