what age to start teaching to shoot

[Ezana4CE]

If you have guns in the house, gun safety begins at day one. Similar to how we teach children to not play with fire, they are to be taught not to play with guns. When they are old enough to not plug forks into sockets, not run out into the middle of the street without looking both ways, not put their face, hands or feet in front of a spinning weed eater, they can learn not to play with guns.

As for learning to shoot, I think that depends upon the parent’s assessment of their child’s level of responsibility, comprehension, and the parent’s (or teacher’s) ability to communicate effectively with that child. Above all, I think knowing gun safety yourself as a parent (or teacher) is important as are having a foundation of shooting fundamentals and instilling discipline within the child. When those things are in place, it’s go time if the child expresses interest in shooting or learning to shoot.

@couture Are you her guardian? If not, what do your niece’s parents think about you teaching their child to shoot?

 

[stoti]

Start Young! Go slow, let them dictate how much time they want to spend doing it. If they get distracted and want to play with frogs or in the creek, just go with it. Don’t push. Safety first. I started mine shooting regularly at 7 and 5 years old. They’ve now been at it for 7 years and it’s our favorite thing to do together.
Stoti

 

[oldsparky]

I started my oldest son from day 1. We talked about gun safety, how to shoot and the responsibility of having the opportunity of shooting / hunting. I bought him a cricket 22 way before he could handle it. He knew it would be his one day. I even bought him a nice 870 ringmaster by the time he was 4-5 but he didnt shoot it till around 8. I think about 3 I let him shoot the cricket from a bench I am not sure when he could handle it safely to shoot off hand. The thing is the firearms were a great instrument to teach him responsibility. Today he is about 40 and may be the finest shot I have been around. He has no interest in targets but lives to hunt with his wife. So I suggest to start them early. I also let him see things like the devastation guns can do to objects like ice blocks and such. He saw deer with their legs blown off by someone taking bad shots. That was a great opportunity to talk about how you see someone get shot in the arm or leg on tv and they go on to save the day. Start them young and like was mentioned above go slow. We have the freedom today that may be gone tomorrow. I hope you have fun with them cherish the time.
I better shut up now

 

[RickH]

I started my nephews out at about age 6. I bought them Marlin single shot youth rifles and still have one. CB caps for ammo. It was perfect and two of them shoot bigger rifles still.

Rick H.

 

[MikeVV]

Depends on the kid.
"Mental" age or growth means much more than chronological age. I've seen a couple of very ugly things with parents and kids with firearms.

Mike

 

[Ozark]

Ozark, that's an awesome story about your childhood and now you with your own daughter thanks for sharing. And btw if you haven't watched autumns armory on Youtube you should check it out. You and the daughter will enjoy her! She handles a firearm better than most adults and she's started when she was very young.

Appreciate the kind words! We watched some videos of Autums Armory (really shows the potential of younger kids)

 

[Simplemann]

Appreciate the kind words! We watched some videos of Autums Armory (really shows the potential of younger kids)

That Autumn is something else with a firearm She could teach firearm safety. She handles a firearm safer than most adults I've seen at the gun range..

 

[Loff]

Started last summer, when He turned 7 and started to show interest in shooting airgun. Gun safety has been talked over and over way before that. And lot of explaining how things work and what could happen etc.

First shots with my FX Dreamline GRS last summer.

And today He came to me with questions how many airguns do I have and which of them is my favorite, which is the lightest and can He shoot with it (Snowpeak P35).
Then we gathered targets, set them up, put up shooting table, took tin of pellets and started to shoot. with lot of explaining and advising.

At first He shot some targets at 31m/34yd. Then He wanted to set up some empty tin cans, wooden stick and some ice and shoot those. These were at 20m/22yd.

Todays "session" was about an hour.

20m/22yd targets.

31m/34yd targets:

 

[R.Ramjet]

I was shooting dart guns at 2.

 

[Nippernut]

6 or over is fine I think

 

[rats25]

Our kids and grandkids started in the 7-8 yr old range. Kids went through hunter safety at 10-11