good shooting with that 410.....charlie

Lots of bad habits begin by starting to young that they will spend thousands of dollars later in life trying to fix. Flinching, canting, dads that are right handed teaching a kid left handed to shoot right. As a waterfowl guide and avid sporting clays shooter I see it all. But like others say “ they are ready to shoot when they are ready to shoot” that said I think the 28 is hands down the best to start on and the 410 or 20 is the worst.

I'm likely far less experienced than you, but I'd argue that a 20 in a gas gun is the best way to start as long as the gun fits. The reason is that the kid, with #9 shot and open chokes, has a far better chance of success at breaking a target and that's when the magic starts. 28 is so hard to hit and punchy, and a .410 forget it, no chance to hit anything.

Problem with a 20 is most youth models stocks just put massive recoil on the shoulder, and most dads are way to cheap to buy a youth auto, but then again those same dads would also be to cheap to buy 28 shells:rotf: so it boils down to two types of dads.
Dads that buy auto loaders or dads that are from the get tough or die school of thought.

Jeff makes a good point. The youth pump I have for the younguns weighs a little over 5 pounds and a standard 20 load of 7/8 oz at 1200 fps is way too much in it. That, I feel, is mitigated by the 3/4 oz at 1075 fps and offers little punishment.

When I was teaching Hunter Ed, my experience was that you should have the heaviest small bore you can find. We couldn't tailor loads, so weight was the answer. For that matter, (I'm a recoil hater myself) a round of skeet with my CSMC RBL 20 gauge and factory loads is as much as I want

We started all the 4-H Shooting Sports kids on Beretta 391 Reduced Length gas operated semi auto 20 gauge with standard 7/8 oz.

Those guns all have shortened LOP and 24" barrels. If they were strong enough to mount the gun properly, they were able to withstand the recoil without much problem.

Put the kids on Stations 1 and 7 with cylinder choke and let them have fun.

After a few years of Savage Cub model .22 squirrel hunts, I started my daughter with a Benelli montefeltro in 20 gauge. It came with a short “youth/ladies” stock and a “normal” length stock. I also used light RST shells. I feel like this was a good route to go even though it was a pretty expensive first gun for a kid. she’s 21 now, still has the gun in near new condition and probably will have it forever. I always figured if it didn’t work out a quality gun like that could be sold fairly easily since I could never find one used when I was looking.

Bottom line - you gotta go with what works for your kid. Keep it fun!

:rotf::rotf::rotf:

"Negatives are normally the easiest thing to disprove because you just need one single counter-example and that disproves it."

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More can be provided upon request ..........

Stan, we're talking about KID and NEW SHOOTER. I'll guarantee more success with a 20g and open choke than a .410.