[Jeff Higgins]

I don't actually remember the first time I went shooting. All I know is I was not yet in kindergarten. I got my own gun on my sixth birthday, a Daisy .177 pump up air rifle. My dad's reasoning for that was that I was simply unable to pump it without him.

Both of my sons were given Chipmunk single shot .22's for their sixth birthdays, although both had been shooting .22's for a couple of years by then already. My reasoning was that living in suburbia, I didn't want young boys with air rifles. Things have changed too much since I was that age. So, straight to .22's. The beauty of the Chipmunk rifle is that their little fingers were not strong enough to pull back the cocking piece until they were eight or nine, so while they could cycle the bolt themselves, I had to cock the rifles for them. Worked out pretty good.