It is still teaching kids to shoot.
The rifle standing against the chunk of Maple is my .45cal deer buster, built around an original lockplate.
Posted on 05/03/2013 8:10:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I stared shooting at age 9. I think 5 is too young. Kids that age have not reached the age of reason.
I feel sorry for the 5 year old kid. A 5 year old doesn’t have the capability of understanding the dangers oh handling a firearm. I really can’t understand why the parents would store a firearm where a child could find it and use it without adult supervision.
There is no “too young”, question of supervision.
1st Shot a 22 in my father’s lap with the barrel out the window of the pickup. I was very young.
Then my own BB guns and pellet guns.
First shotgun at 13. My brother and I were deadly on quail and dove with them. Better than many of my father’s friends. Some complained about not getting a shot when my brother and I were at the tank waiting for dove.
Great memories.
I have taught as young as 6. No problems. She shot a bipod 22lr rifle from prone and was safer than many 40 years old I have taught.
David Crockett got his first rifle at 8.
It depends on the child. My daughter started shooting at 4 or 5. She never worried me. My son on the other hand was constantly badgering me to take him shooting. He worried me a bit so I did not take him shooting until he was 10.
...and kept in a corner, and the family did not realize a shell was in the chamber...
It's not hard to understand a five-year-old child's ignorance of basic firearms safety—but were no adults in the household?
Incorrect.
I learned to shoot at 5. I was not allowed to touch the .22 rifle without parents present. By the third or forth lesson we went rabbit hunting. I learned then what firearms did. In 55 years, I’ve had 1 negligent discharge and that was at about 8 years old.
As for storage, it was next to each door in the house...
When her brother is playing shooting games on the TV, even my 18 month old grand-daughter understands "GET BEHIND THE FIRING LINE" when she wanders up toward the TV..
You can't childproof the world. You can worldproof the child.
/johnny
The Savage Rascal is a better first rifle for a child than a Chipmunk. Safer. Better sights and trigger, too. You still have to secure it around five-year-olds, though.
They let me take my Hoban to the woods by myself when I was about 12 or 13, but gun/shooting safety had been pounded into my head for several years first.
I think I turned out OK. The folks in that story were fools for leaving a gun where a 5 year old could just get it from the corner. They were especially stupid for leaving it that way loaded.
There was never any mystery about firearms in my house. My kids know what they can do. They have seen deer, birds and coyote that I have shot. They have watched me butcher deer and birds since they were very young. They know the damage a firearm can do. That was also a part of their learning to respect firearms.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
A 5 year old most certainly does have the capability of understanding the dangers of mishandling a firearm. It’s a parent thing.
It is still teaching kids to shoot.
The rifle standing against the chunk of Maple is my .45cal deer buster, built around an original lockplate.
I took the cheap spare walnut stock, cut about half of it off, and proceeded with a rasp and sander to shape that into the perfect shape for her.
30 hours in the garage doing that, fitting, checking, rasping, sanding, rasping, rasping, sanding, scraping, sanding... finally... finishing with a rubbed oil finish.
First time she took it shooting, I zero'ed it for her and she said she couldn't see through the scope.
An hour later... she was working on cheek weld and breathing.
"Dad? There's a butterfly that landed on the red dot on the target? What do I do?"
I told her to plink it. I'm insensitive that way.
She did. She looked through the scope, laid down the rifle and went to the spotting scope.
Then she said: "I think it got stuck behind the paper"
That was 50 meters. With a .22.
Yeah... I had a daddy moment.
We stopped for ice-cream on the way home.
/johnny
I got my first rifle at 5 or 6. It was a bolt action 22. The only action the bolt saw was for an hour at a time with my father at the range. Aside from that, it was never in the rifle (which I kept on a rack on the wall).
Like Ralphie in the Christmas special, I got my first Daisy BB gun at age 9. Shot my first “real” gun at about age 10.
With responsible parents and shooters, that seems like a prefect age to start kids.
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