Good first gun for teenage son?

ThePythonicCow ^ | June 25, 2006 | ThePythonicCow

[guitar4jesus]

"They're just fun."
I agree.

[cbkaty]

Stalked and droped off-hand with a Ruger 22-250...12 years old....My son Ben refuses to hunt from a blind.....

[Michael Goldsberry]

Not a good first gun.

Why not? For a young man this age, taught proper range rules, I don't see a problem with the selection.

[tacticalogic]

Another vote for the bolt action .22. Ammo is cheap, unintentional consequences minimized, and the more work it is to reload the more likely they are to concentrate on making the shot count. IMHO.

[humblegunner]

Uvalde is a good choice....for a hunter's town..can't make money there...but...

These past few years we have been hunting the Menard / Junction area.

My most youthful picture was taken just West of Alpine.

Uvalde I have passed through and heard it is a good hunting place
but opportunity never arose. Got a lease or some property? ;-)

[ThePythonicCow]

Good points - thanks!

[garyhope]

"3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud"

What are you doing running down Mr. Senator Kerry by disparaging his Purple Heart count?

I did the math on this and it's only one Purple Heart every 40 days or every 5.3 weeks! I can do that. You're average Freeper can do that in their sleep.

But wait, wasn't he actually "in country" in "combat" 3 months? Wasn't one month in training in some beach resort?

He was the hardest working soldier in Nam. What a guy! What a "hero".

[KimaraChan]

If your son has never touched a gun (and it sounds like you are a little bit out of practice too), you might want to try a BB gun at first and have him plink at some soda cans or targets, just to get him used to the feel of it. It may also be helpful to start on the BB if your wife is nervous about having a firearm in the house. After he's got the hang of it, move to a .22 rifle. And up from there.

Personally, my dad started me out on a BB gun at 8. He moved me to a .22 semi-auto rifle when I was about 10. By 12-13 I was using the 12ga for skeet shooting. I have not used a handgun too much, but I'm pushing my husband to buy me this beautiful little .45 So hopefully the pistol fairy will leave a present under my pillow soon :-)

I'm assuming your local range offers a hunter's safety course. The hunters safety course offers a wealth of safety information and I would definitely recommend it.

As for your potential move to Texas...we left the horrid North-East for the North Dallas suburbs in December, and haven't looked back since. Our familys keep dropping the hint that they want us to move back...to which I give them a polite 'no thank-you' while thinking to myself 'sure, when hell freezes over'. If you are fed up with rude and obnoxious liberal idiots who want to mind everyone else's business...well depending on which area of TX you go, you may just find yourself in heaven.

[gotribe]

I love my Remington 10/22. Put a small scope on it and he'll have a blast.

[ThePythonicCow]

it sounds like you are a little bit out of practice too

just a tad ;).

North Dallas

Yeah - some town outside Dallas or Fort Worth may well be it. I'm looking forward to it. Just got to get this son of mine through one more year of High School before I can move.

[Zeppo]

The Ruger 10/22 is a good platform if you (or your son) want to get into "modding" - customizing the gun by adding aftermarket parts such as stocks, barrels, trigger upgrades, mags, scopes, bipods, and the like. That can be a good antidote to boredom. Take a look at the forums at Rimfire Central for info on Ultimate 10/22 modifications, as well as info on other .22 rifles and pistols.

(BTW, I have heard many folks recommend the CZ452 instead of the Ruger 10/22 as a first rifle because of the better accuracy that it offers out-of-the-box, and the discipline and marksmanship skills that it teaches the user by forcing concentration with every shot, but my preference was for the 10/22 for plinking because I'm impatient and it has a semi-automatic action that can hold a magazine with 10 or 25 rounds, as opposed to the single-shot bolt action of the CZ452).

[tacticalogic]

One more thing that I think recommends the bolt action for a first gun is the relative mechanical simplicity makes regular maintenance (cleaning and oiling) greatly simplified, and (hopefully) more likely to get done. If nothing else, it makes it easy to drop the bolt out and do a quick bore check to see if they really did.

[PeteB570]

Any of the AR16 versions in the flat top M4 configuration. Put on an EO Tech sight and have fun.

My girls find the longer AR16 a little heavy for off hand shooting at 100 yards or greater. They like M4s, SKSs and .30 Cal Carbines. Me, I like 'um all.

[Fenris6]

He was the hardest working soldier in Nam. What a guy! What a "hero".

John Kerry served in Nam? Who woulda thought? :P

[IMTOFT]

Good advice.

[IMTOFT]

Gun safety training is number one. We had safety training in the Boy Scouts starting at age 12 working on our Marksman badges.

One thing that has stayed with me these many years was the concept of BRASS: breath, relax, aim, sight, squeeze.

[OkieDoke]

"Gun safety training . ."
Exactly. The NRA has good firearms/hunter safety courses. Do that before handing over any gun to him.
We used bolt .22s in the course; my Dad then gave me a Browning semi-auto .22; there are a lot of good, cheap ones out there.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

.22 bolt action or semi auto rifle - used, from a good dealer.

I've never been to the range in Livermore but the range in Castro Valley is well managed and places great emphasis on the enforcement of safety rules. If Livermore doesn't work out, I'd recommend it.

I think you'll find that people at shooting ranges are some of the friendliest, most courteous folks you'll find anywhere.

Also, check out your local gun club (800) NRA-CLUB and the NRA's Eddie Eagle youth gun safety program - 800-231-0752.

[garyhope]

"John Kerry served in Nam? Who woulda thought?"

I know, hard to believe.

[El Gato]

In a year or so, he may be a Marine.

Then an AR-15 clone would be an excellent choice. More powerfull than a .22 rimfire, but still a .22, and still not much recoil.

Sort of expensive though.

A semi-auto would be fine for a 17 year old. Just make him load single rounds at first, and I mean the very first. If you could find one, a Remington Nylon 66 would be cool, it also happens to be the first .22 rifle I ever shot, back in the darks ages of the early '60s. My 3rd cousins, who I fell between in age, had matching ones. Standard color was Mohawk Brown, but Seneca Green was, IMHO the coolest looking, followed by Apache Black.

There was a Brazilian copy made in the 90s, which was imported by a couple of different companies.

By all reports the decedent of the Nylon 66, the Remington 597 is not bad, and the prices is under $200. The Ruger is likely a bit more, while the Marlin is a bit less.

Still the best advice would probably be to find a used .22 autoloader. Let him shoot that, and if he's still interested, get him the AR Clone. (Or by that time, he might want to let the Army or Marines supply him with an FN manufactured full auto version)