Thread: First rifle for daughter

The good thing about a Savage Rascal is they are so narrow through the wrist for their little hands.
The fore-end is is also narrow and light. It’s not all just about length of pull.
I put a little plastic suppressor on our one to take the bark out of it. I liked the fact they cock lifting the bolt, the muscle memory and operation doesn’t have to change when migrating to a larger rifle. Most other single shots seem require manually pulling the hammer back separately.

Originally Posted by Hermitage

An air rifle is not a "waste of time". At 8 years old I used to practice on my own in town for hours until I could hit the red tip off a match stick at 10 yards.

Also when I was 8 years old there is no way I would have been ready for the 'power' of a .22LR. I remember shooting my friend's prize bull in the testicles with my air rifle at 100 yards (he ran through two fences....shit I got a hiding for that )

Actually, now that I think about it. We had a couple of phone books as a back stop and used to shoot down the hall for hours.
Must have never missed the backstop as we never got in trouble for it.

we use the air rifle inside occasionally for fly swatting.....just for a laugh.
tear some small squares out of a handy towel kitchen roll around 20mm square and throw em in your mouth and chew em up a wee bit and make them into a slightly wet wad.
pop em in the air rifle and blast away at flies sitting on a hard surface at close range.
end up with a tissue wad with 6 little legs poking out the sides if you are a good enough shot .....
hours of fun until the missus walks in .....

I used to shoot the flies on the lounge wall when the parents were wallpapering it.

A .177 pellet through the fly, through the gib-board, through the installation, and stopped by the weather-board on the outside of the house.

heaps of great answers there thanks.. i might head down this weekend and get her to try and hold a few different air rifles and see if she can get her hand round the stock.

i also learnt on air rifles first and used to shoot mice on the rafters of the shed with teatree seeds haha then we moved on to shooting each other with the seeds..... good old days

i found that gluing small rifle primers on the front of 22cal pellets makes rats die instantly (and stink)

you can have this one if you can get it to you. its a diana model 16 air rifle small and light large foot for scale
cheers john

Originally Posted by gonetropo

i found that gluing small rifle primers on the front of 22cal pellets makes rats die instantly (and stink)

is this a real thing cos im so keen to try lol.. i just use the vaso on the back of the pellet for instant ignition.

Greetings All,
My first rifle was a Daisy BB gun (actually a smoothbore) that a neighbor rescued from the tip. It had to be loaded from the muzzle with a knitting needle. It shot pellets ok at close range but I found that bottle brush seeds of about the same size just as well especially green. I was in heaven my own gun and an endless supply of ammo. My next rifle was a .303. When the kids were small I sandbagged my son behind my 10-22 for a few shots to get over the wonder stage. Next the stock of a Gecado single shot was cut down and fitted with an aperture sight. He and occasionally his sister used it from about age 6 on fixed targets and also running boar target shoots until he was able to use a Winchester Model 69 with its short stock. The purpose built youth rifles were not available then but are still worth getting. Once they are grown out of they can go in the cupboard for the next generation.
Regards Grandpamac.

Pleas dont burn me for saying this but at 5 years old and in town , a bolt action airsoft rifle could be an option. You could shoot it at home,learn the basics and the consequences of getting it wrong are minimal.

Originally Posted by Nathanfish

Pleas dont burn me for saying this but at 5 years old and in town , a bolt action airsoft rifle could be an option. You could shoot it at home,learn the basics and the consequences of getting it wrong are minimal.

Yea thats actually a really good idea mate, ive always wandered about airsoft rifles, what are they realy? I thought they were just fancy bb guns

Im no pro on airsoft but this is my take on it. They are weak air guns that use a peice of rubber to apply backspin on a bb to keep it flying straight and in a slightly upward curve to fight gravity. I have done a bit of research as I have 4 year old twin boys and want a soft introduction to firearms and a Tokyo marui vsr10 looks like a good option. 270ish fps with a 0.2gram plastic bb accurate out of the box to about 30m. Not cheap!! Maybe pick up two Jw15's for the price.

Got my daughter a rascal for her 4th bday.
Put a scope on it and sighted it in myself. Went through a few different types of ammo to find the one with less noise, but still accurate. (ended up being that dirty as shit remington green stuff)

Anyway, always have her shooting off a bag, and she shoots OK at targets. (10-15 shots into 50mm ish at @Rushy 's range, thanks for that again, was the last outing) Need to get her out for a hunt.....
The boy got a rascal a bit after 5, as I didn't think he was ready at 4. He's also not to bad of a shot.

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule on what kids should start with. I think it's more about knowing them, and what they can do/handle.

The rascals are great for ergonomics and surprisingly both are very accurate

Beaker you are in jeopardy of becoming the forums second Dundee with you range estimation.