Too Young To Start Shooting

[Harry Collins]

We sold the farms two years ago and purchased a house next door to your youngest. They have two dwarfs, girl and boy, now five and eight respectively. The boy, Webb, has been dying to shoot shotguns with us. I wanted to wait until he was ten. His father and I were going to Elk Creek in Owenton, Kentucky to shoot in a monthly vintage shoot and I had invited Webb to come along as our push the button trapper. Last fall's dove hunts were shot using my fathers 20 Trojan with 3/4 oz of 8's @ 1075 fps, a very effective load. I took a hand full of these shells along with a Mossberg Youth 20 pump and hid them from Webb. We came to a station Webb could stand behind the trap with a straight away. I had been harping about pulling the trigger as soon as you are on the target. JTPFT! Just Pull The F'n Trigger. His first shot was filled with trepidation as his mother had tried to deter him with tails of recoil. He broke the target as he did the next three times I let him shoot. The fifth bird he missed. He remained avid, but I feared recoil might be a factor. Sadly the video's are an invalid file.

[Andy]

Harry, our youngest shot a Mossberg youth pump 20g and it pummeled her even with light reloads. I got her a Stevens O/U 28g youth, that was as bad if not worse. I do find 28g to be a sharp recoil. She's a tiny thing. Finally I got the Weatherby 20g semi auto youth gun SA08 and she can shoot and shoot and shoot and recoil isn't an issue. The best $600 I ever spent to get her to shoot with me. Plus, she loves telling the old men, "Don't know if you noticed, but you just got beat on that station by a little girl..."

[Mills]

They all get ready on their own time. Some are ready at 8. Some are not ready at age 60 and after 50 years of miraculously accident free experience. I've seen both types.

[Mike Poindexter]

The sharpest kicking gun I ever shot was a Stevens 20ga with a Tenite stock. I second the semi-auto route to minimize recoil, although by age ten Webb should be able to handle your Trojan 20. My ten year old cut his teeth on an 0 frame 16 with light loads. Have fun!

[John Davis]

I ruined my oldest daughter for shooting by starting her too young. Fortunately she took to fly fishing.

[Mills]

Harry was almost ruined by starting too early, but he came back. Don't give up, but don't force it and let it happen. That worked for Harry. When he was ready to try again, we started with a .22 and moved up from there and that proved a good system

[6pt-Sika]

I got a 22 at 7 and a 12 gauge single barrel at 8 . I never shot a shotgun smaller than a 12 until I was maybe 16 . That old H&R 12 32” full choke single barrel would thump the tar out of you but after awhile my pop and grand pop could not get a clay target out far enough where I couldn’t get it and that was by the time I was 10 . But in hindsight in the late 60’s early 70’s a kid had nowhere near the stuff to take his attention as they do now . This may sound absurd but I actually looked forward to the bruise that gun would give me after shooting 30-50 clay targets .

[Ed Blake]

I started my son Edward on an H&R 410 at nine. He never looked back and is still shooting

[Andy]

I gave her a long break then after getting the gas gun let her shoot one or two rounds was all. After loading a dummy round the second time and not seeing a flinch when she pulled the trigger I quit again for a week. Then slowly got it to where she can now shoot 50 rounds of skeet before she gets tired. She's 14 years old and 65lbs so she's a waif.

[Stan Hoover]

I believe if I remember correctly,
I started Shane around 9 or 10 with a bolt action rifle in 17 Mach II, then shortly there after started him with an A grade 20 gauge Lefever.

He dealt with some bruises on his shoulder, but I left him tell me when he had enough, never tried to push him further than he was comfortable.

Of course he now enjoys shooting the 14 lb 8 gauge when we attend the shoots, but at 17 he's growing way faster than his dad was ready for