I got all choked up. :)

[blindfire]

So, I'm sitting in my chair today watching Top Shot. My 6 yr old daughter wanted to watch a cartoon. So, I told her, eat your dinner and I'll watch this until you are done.

She finishes her dinner and says to me, "Dad, I don't want to watch a cartoon anymore, I want to finish watching this."

That's not the part that 'choked me up'. At one point I asked her, "Isn't it really neat how they can shoot the targets and hit what the are aiming at?" She replied, "Yeah. I want to do that when I get older. I want to be a gun kid".

<sniffle sniffle>

Hold on...I'll be right back...



OK..I'm composed now.

So, if I want to get my girl going on this, what is the best way to start her out. BB-Gun (Daisy air gun type of thing)?

I'm new to guns as well and am working on getting my Class A LTC. I want to encourage my daughter, what is the best safest way?

Thanks in advance for the suggestions

Craig

 

[wahsben]

A BB/pellet gun or a single shot 22 rifle would be fine as long as she knows all the safe handling and firing rules. It is great that she is expressing interest. Let her learn at the rate she feels comfortable.

 

[CRSIII]

http://www.crickett.com/shop_by_brand.php?manufacturers_id=27

 

[jasons]

For us it was cheapo airsoft, then BB gun, then .22 Cricket, and just recently a Spike's .22 dedicated AR upper. She's not a bad shot either.

 

[KBCraig]

http://www.crickett.com/shop_by_brand.php?manufacturers_id=27

Seconded.

Most affordable kid-sized air guns have horrible heavy triggers. A single shot .22 is much better. My 7 year old has a Crickett that he got for Christmas when he was 4.

 

[Sprocket]

Even more basic - no gun shaped object is a toy, no pointing at people, muzzle sweeping, etc.

I don't have kids but we took my buddy's son out with his "o/u" - safe handling every step of the way even while climbing rock walls, etc. I was very impressed and told him so - He'll be five come fall

 

[vicpinto]

I almost bought a Cricket for my 6 year old last weekend from Dicks. Between them trying to find the box for said rifle (almost 20 minutes) and then finding their stash of 4473's (almost 30 minutes) I had to leave as I have more important things to do - like watching paint dry.

[SARCASM]I'll go back when I have 4 or 5 hours with nothing else to do.[/SARCASM]

 

[Arto]

The Henry Mini-Bolt is similar - great for Munchkins - Made in the USA Too - It has a cocking knob & "Fire Sights" really easy for a kid to understand (green-red-green in a row & red where you want the bullet to go) - they're on the paper in 10 shots (much easier to understand than traditional iron sights) http://www.henryrepeating.com/h005_minibolt.cfm

 

[mass]

When I've asked my kids if they want to hold my guns after I've cleaned them and they say "would you open the action first?" and they actually check, I know I started them off right.

They're mostly grown now and have used everything from my 22 Bobcat to my 308. They all started with a Red Ryder. No eyes were shot out

 

[Titan]

I've got grandkids that I'm thinking about getting started this summer. A girl age 5 and a boy age 7. They're both very bright, obedient, and 'together' for their ages, so I'm confident they'll handle it well.

 

[JoeT]

I have 2 daughters, age 7 and 8, and have a "shared" red ryder BB gun they've owned for 2 years. They can only use it when daddy is with them. We have watched the Eddie Eagle video about 100 times, and always start our "shooting" with a discussion of safety.

My 7 year old is a pretty good shot, my 8 year old really wants to be good, but isn't. She has a hard time positioning the gun correctly, and dispite all efforts to get correct grip and position, she's not ready. . .

 

[Pilgrim]

http://www.crickett.com/shop_by_brand.php?manufacturers_id=27

add me to the + list. This is what I started out my 5 yo grandaughters with.

 

[Sibb]

My 2 cents

The NRA has some good stuff for kids. Check out the link.

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/

After the video and some question and answer to make sure your daughter gets it, then it's some in the home gun handling with what ever you are going to start her off with, air soft or what have you. Then you can move us to something like a 22 rifle. I started with a 22 rifle.

 

[ShadeWPI]

I think a single shot .22 rifle is a better place to start than a BB gun.

When I was assisting a firearms safety course, we demonstrated a .22 rifle on a football helmet to show kids (and adults) that a .22 was very dangerous and capable of real damage. A watermellon or two shot with hollow points also helped send the message home.

My son is 2 1/2 and already learning trigger discipline and target awareness (we're traveling and he was just telling his uncles (ages 12 and 9) "We only shoot at targets!" when they started shooting their nerf guns at one another. He even knows not to shoot his pop gun (which has a stopper on a cord) at people, only targets. You can start teaching them the basics well before they're ready for a real firearm.

 

[blindfire]

Wow...thanks for all of the great feedback. I am still new to all of this. I am a pretty liberal minded person and have had my eyes opened by SIBB and some of the other posters here with regard to how draconian a lot of the gun laws are...especially here in MA.

My old mindset would have been utterly shocked by seeing comments about a 2 yr old being trained on safe handling of guns...but I am realizing that the best way to keep a child safe is to start teaching them safety at a young age...things like look both ways before crossing the street, don't talk to strangers, etc...gun safety is just another thing that will be added to my list. After all, even if I secure my guns at home to the best of my ability...why run the risk of her seeing guns in other places and not knowing how to react.

Again..thank you all and thanks to NES for such a great place to ask questions.

Craig

 

[ShadeWPI]

After all, even if I secure my guns at home to the best of my ability...why run the risk of her seeing guns in other places and not knowing how to react.

That is the exact reason why I have started teaching gun safety to my two year old. He doesn't get the chance to handle real guns. He has a few toys, perticularly NERF launchers, that he has been taught "We only shoot at targets" and "We don't put our finger into the trigger guard until we're ready to fire" Now that we're visiting his uncles, he's scolding them when they break the rules. There will always be guns in our house, but even if I carefully lock everything up and keep them out of his reach, He could always encounter a firearm at someone else's house who isn't so careful and with friends who haven't been taught proper safety. I want him to be the voice or reason if that does happen. Also, using NERF launchers allows me to evaluate when he is responsible enough to handle a real firearm.

 

[jasons]

I do have a slight issue with realistic toy guns, but Nerf??? Come on, let the kid do a little Nerf force on force. Toy guns are toys - if the kid is too young (or too dense) to tell the difference they're not ready for the real thing.

 

[ShadeWPI]

I do have a slight issue with realistic toy guns, but Nerf??? Come on, let the kid do a little Nerf force on force. Toy guns are toys - if the kid is too young (or too dense) to tell the difference they're not ready for the real thing.

My choice has been to start off teaching him the rules for all guns and when he is ready to understand the exceptions, to begin allowing exceptions. When he's older and ready to handle real firearms, we might start allowing force on force practice with NERF guns. Right now he's 2 and doesn't understand exceptions, so we treat all guns the same.

 

[smokey-seven]

Dominant Eye

JoeT said:

My 7 year old is a pretty good shot, my 8 year old really wants to be good, but isn't. She has a hard time positioning the gun correctly, and dispite all efforts to get correct grip and position, she's not ready. . .

Joe, do a little testing for dominant eye. I've taught many kids and the most problems in hitting what they aim at are from being wrong eye dominant.

If their left eye is taking over and they are shooting righty, then the heads crawl all over the stock attempting to compensate.

Best... Smokey

 

[ShadeWPI]

JoeT said:

Joe, do a little testing for dominant eye. I've taught many kids and the most problems in hitting what they aim at are from being wrong eye dominant.

If their left eye is taking over and they are shooting righty, then the heads crawl all over the stock attempting to compensate.

Best... Smokey

I can attest to this. My father is right hand dominant, but due to an accident when he was younger that required an eye patch on his right eye for almost 8 months, he is left eye dominant. He frequently leaned over rifle stocks in order to shoot right-handed because he lacked the left-hand coordination to shoot left handed.

It caused him no end of problems shooting off irons, but he was able to shoot scoped rifles well, expecially left-hand offset scopes for older military rifles.

Best test is have them line up to distant objects like a fence post and a telephone pole.
Have them close their left eye and realign the objects
Now open both eyes and align the two objects again.

Did they move their head? If not, they're right eye dominant (Right Eye looks straight and Left Eye "hooks" in for binocular vision)
If they moved their head to align the objects when they closed their left eye and then again when they opened both eyes, they are left eye dominant.

It is easier to each a right handed person proper trigger control with their LEFT hand than teach proper sighting with the left eye on a right handed grip.