what age to start teaching to shoot

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There is a family that comes into the indoor range where I shoot. They have a 7 year old daughter that has her own air rifle and dad sets her up on a bench with sand bags and then supervises her shooting. She is quite good. They told me she had started shooting air guns not too long before I met her. I cannot remember the exact time frame. But she is very good for her age and will shot at that bench for over an hour.
I taught my daughters to shoot at Avery early age. They were shooting my 1911’s by the time they were 11 under strict supervision. Best advice I can give you is to remember when they are young they have very short attention spans. Do not over extend your sessions by force. They will lose interest and come to resent the activity if you do.
 
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I got most of my 11 grandkids started by the time they were six years old. I bought a couple Stoeger S3(?) break barrels from Midway for something like $30 each. Those little rifles have had at least 5000 rounds thru them and required just enough cocking effort that it was “doable” but was sometimes a struggle. This made them develop good break barrel cocking techniques and that made it even more exciting for them when they could operate a couple of Benjamin NP guns as they got older. I did some leg work finding accurate pellets so if they did their part they would “hit the bullseye” often. As you know, kids can have pretty short attention spans, so ANYTHING you can do which will keep them engaged is a great thing. We shot A LOT of clay pigeons seton edge at 15 to 20 yards. Balloons at 30 yards are good too. Punching targets like the reactive Battleship targets or the Cowboy saloon targets were always favored over a regular old paper target. It wasn’t until they were about ten years old that they were interested in “shooting a tight group”, they just wanted to see the result of each shot for the first few years.
Those little youth guns don’t pack much of a wallop, but they will take a sparrow out at 25 yards. Then of course the obvious question: “Grandpa can we have grandma cook it for dinner?” “No!” LOL
I don’t know if those little Stoegers are still made, but there are some other models out there like the Ruger Explorer or the Crosman Tyro which packs a little more punch than the Stoeger that wont break the bank. Start ‘em young and make it FUN!
 
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Chukar60 said:
There is a family that comes into the indoor range where I shoot. They have a 7 year old daughter that has her own air rifle and dad sets her up on a bench with sand bags and then supervises her shooting. She is quite good. They told me she had started shooting air guns not too long before I met her. I cannot remember the exact time frame. But she is very good for her age and will shot at that bench for over an hour.
I taught my daughters to shoot at Avery early age. They were shooting my 1911’s by the time they were 11 under strict supervision. Best advice I can give you is to remember when they are young they have very short attention spans. Do not over extend your sessions by force. They will lose interest and come to resent the activity if you do.
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LOL. We are on the same page with the attention span issue. We had to be typing that about the same time!
 
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Personally, I think it depends on the child but the earlier the better. Especially with boys, get the curiosity out of them and get them well grounded. Girls make excellent shooters.

And yes, she's covering the trigger, got that. She was 8 when this was taken. She's now a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo. Forgot to add, she's my Granddaughter. I built up that AR for her, she wanted purple furniture but...it wasn't available at that time.

IMG_1795.jpeg
 
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My oldest grandson who is now 6, almost 7, shot my Prod when he was 3 or maybe 4. He wasn't really aiming it but he pulled the trigger and throughly enjoyed it. He was sitting in my lap at the time. I hope to get to spend some more time with him this summer when they visit. He's old enough to hold the gun himself now but will still get close supervision. I think 3 could be old enough if they are interested and under your control. But at that point all they are learning is how to pull the trigger and how to keep the gun pointed in the right direction.
 
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