Thread: How young is to young?

With three boys I started them with the Minties(lollies) shoot ( get a bag of minties and share them out equally, set up some targets and help them to shot a group. Being the best group win's. it is amazing the value of the old Mintie. they have a heap of fun and hone their skills and at the same time learn the right way to safely use a rifle.

Cheers Rob

As far as safety is concerned , there is no too young ( these are the theory , mainly , and not the actual shooting ) , their is a gun safety program run in the USA , and its aimed real young , and it is like the fire ads we have , basically , donot touch if they find a gun , and report to an adult etc .

As to actual shooting , I think 4-5yrs , under strict supervision etc , I would use a 22lr , suppressed & with bipod , shortened stock etc , donot want any heavy recoiling guns to hamper the enjoyment .
Also as they get older , again taylor the cal/recoil/rifle weight to them , and not you .
So they need to be ABLE to handle the weight of the rifle/shotgun etc , and the recoil .

They had a case in the USA , of a guy letting his very young son fire a full auto mini uzi , maybe just so the father could brag on youtube etc , it ended very badly , the boy could not handle the weapon properly , he squeezed the trigger , kept it down , and the SMG , flipped up , and the last shots went thru the boys chin , killing him .

All the shooting kids do , should be enjoyable , just like it is for us .

I would say get him a nice air rifle when he is a teenager , they can shoot alot of slugs cheaply .

Later Chris

Originally Posted by Pointer

I'm going to go against the grain here, and say too young.

At four, he is not going to remember much in 6 years time. He will have a limited attention span and energy level for big walks.

By all means take him, but involve him in the other side of hunting, the things that are arguably more important than the shooting part. Things like picking up decoys, plucking ducks, looking for possum eyes in the light, carrying the rabbit in his special "hunting' pack. Teach him about the animals you hunt, the weather etc. Equip him with a usable skillset so when the time comes for him to shoot he will be keen as mustard, and the actual act of learning to shoot at the age of 7-8 is a formality because he has been technically 'hunting' since he could walk.

Totally understand your point Pointer.We do go tramping with them but they are short walks, may be an hour of actual walking on a good day then its on the shoulders. I would not dream of taking the 4 year old hunting i was just seeking advice on the age to take him to the range and introduce him to firearms. But thanks anyway for your opinion. I am new to firearms myself and value all advice from those with far more knowledge and experience than myself.

Thanks for all your advice and comments. I have a bit of thinking to do . May even have to seek the advice of the misses.

Good thread Pome, I have two young buggers that are keen.

My eldest son 13 got me to buy a 20guage from his own money.

But the laws are they can't go hunting on there own untill they have a FAL.

My boys are responsible and safety contious but looks like they will have to follow me for a few years yet. Before I let them loose


I think I was hunting on my own with the old mans .22 at eleven or twelve....times have changed

But back to the original question,get them out there early and teach the safety from the day the handle a weopon.Good on ya POME

Originally Posted by POME

Thanks for all your advice and comments. I have a bit of thinking to do . May even have to seek the advice of the misses.

Oh don't do that POME. A woman will just confuse your thought process

Originally Posted by Pointer

I'm going to go against the grain here, and say too young.

At four, he is not going to remember much in 6 years time. He will have a limited attention span and energy level for big walks.

We took our 4.5 year old skiing he was still talking about it at 10. I took him 308 FTR shooting for his 14th, I think he was old enough then to be responsible...and understand guns are dangerious...now he shoots almost as well as me...not that that is saying much LOL.

regards

Originally Posted by Rushy

Oh don't do that POME. A woman will just confuse your thought process

I have asked her if she thinks it is a good idea to start him shooting. The reply was "hummm". Anyone know what this means?

What did I say? Told ya

Mostly, I think that kids are introduced to firearms too young. It encourages a familiarity like they have for their favourite toy. No matter what safety instruction you give or drum into them, like their toys, firearms become part of their fantasied narratives that have no connect with reality.

And on the one hand we try to instill safe practice, and on the other allow them to play on vicious rifle and killing based vid games. Whats that about?

But more importantly, I believe that children should't be allowed to shoot any live animal until they are old enough to appreciate how respectful we should be of our prey and what a privilege it is to be a hunter and to take an animals life. Dead (and alive) animals should be treated with respect. If the child is not old enough to appreciate this, they are doing no more that than participating in a live video game.

I've made some sweeping generalities here, but to me these basic principles hold true.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Mostly, I think that kids are introduced to firearms too young. It encourages a familiarity like they have for their favourite toy. No matter what safety instruction you give or drum into them, like their toys, firearms become part of their fantasied narratives that have no connect with reality.

And on the one hand we try to instill safe practice, and on the other allow them to play on vicious rifle and killing based vid games. Whats that about?

But more importantly, I believe that children should't be allowed to shoot any live animal until they are old enough to appreciate how respectful we should be of our prey and what a privilege it is to be a hunter and to take an animals life. Dead (and alive) animals should be treated with respect. If the child is not old enough to appreciate this, they are doing no more that than participating in a live video game.

I've made some sweeping generalities here, but to me these basic principles hold true.

Some very good points. I have always made a strong point, even before i let my son handle a rifle that they are not toys and not to be played with. To the extreme that i do not let both my boys play with toy guns as i have known that they will be introduced to them at some time early in their life. And playing with toy guns may instill some complacency with them. Right or wrong i am not sure. As for respect of animals and the hunting of them i also believe that the utmost respect should be put on all life. I understand your comment about kids not comprehending pain and death that leads to meat on our plates but i firmly believe that they must be introduced to this reality from the onset if we are to eat meat.

Interesting. Yet to me, it depends on the kid and how they are brought up.
My kids grew up on a farm till recently.
They have seen and eaten enough animals that were shot to know firearms are definitely not toys.
Ethics and respect for animals come with experience imo. I admit to having little of either when I was younger, because nearly every animal I shot was for money. Only numbers mattered.
It was only later in my life that I developed the the ethics that I now abide.
I trust my kids, if they carry on to be regular hunters will develop their own, as time goes by.
I think something has rubbed off on my son as he has already turned down a shot I doubt most people would, on his first big game animal he had lined up.
He thrashes my ass at any shoot em up games on his PS3 as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

In saying all that I do worry about complacency. Yet, I think we all have a touch of it, in things we think we do well.

Those kids rifles I've seen in the shops would be just the berries, cutting the stock makes a std rifle to nose heavy to use, I'll teach my grand kids by taking them to the indoor range, mainly to give the an insight into firearms and how they work. My kids were introduced at an early age and my son love shooting if he gets the opporturnity but it doesn't burn him and he has never got an FAL. My daughter has no interest, but they understand the basics and are relaxed around firearms, my wife doesn't like them but has no problem with my hobby. She used to enjoy pistol shooting.
I don't believe ignorance is bliss with firearms, I like my kids to have an understanding of them for their own safety and that of others

Here's a thing about complacency. If you go to a target shoot, listen to the range officer give the officious spiel about safety and how it will be enforced.
And then observe what actually happens. Guns get waved around, they aren't checked, and bolts are closed when they should be open. This isn't the range officer's fault, its simply our complacency.

Maybe it starts when we let our young ones use slug guns unsupervised, and the habits start from there?

Or maybe I'm just a silly old fart, worrying about nothing.