At what age do you take your children to the range?

[speedsix]

...I had my three boys(now 25, 23, and 18) out shooting .45 ACP and .38 at age 8...and enjoying it...I'd had them handle real guns at 5 to learn the difference between real and toy in appearance(harder these days) and feel...
...by the time they'd shot 3-4 occasions, they could shoot as well as I...all can out-shoot me now, with their young eagles' eyes...as I taught the mechanics, I taught the when and when not and how and how not and how to defend the home and handle intruders...all I could teach them...result of being trained and prepared=much less fear and more confidence...my youngest has had his own .38 3" in his room since 12...they could have protected Mama back when she was totally against guns in the home...and she never knew it till last year...nothing would have been served by rubbing it in her face...

...at 15, my youngest fired a .357 and didn't like it any better than I do...before that, he'd fired a .40 Glock and did well until the unsupported barrel let a shell blow and spattered his hand...then he was done with that one...
... don't think the youngest fired a .22 handgun till 16...don't remember the other two having at all...they both own .45s now...

[karb0n]

Thank you for all the replies and advice. This has been a great help.

I think it's time to bring my 7yo daughter with me to the range. She has expressed interest in going with me. I just will need to spend some time with her on rules and safety around guns and at the range.

[v-rog]

My youngest was 8 years old when he began.

[Dusty Harry]

Bought my daughter a Chipmunk when she was 6, and we've been shooting together ever since. She's 20 now, and even though only 5'1" and maybe 100 lbs soaking wet, she handles a 45 better than most people I see shooting at the range. Unfortunately, she elected to return the Peoples Republic of Illinois for college, in downtown Chicago no less! Obviously, I have failed as a parent...

[speedsix]

...not necessarily...the first rule of war is to know your enemy...think of her as spying!!! she'll do fine...

[The Annoyed Man]

I started my son shooting at age 6. He's an NRA pistol instructor now.

[strider67]

Santa just brought my 6 yo daughter a pink, .22 Crickett...we shot it for the first time last weekend at a friends homemade range, along with his 8 yo daughter. My daughter had a ball! Especially when she got to empty my Marlin a few times! Then they went and looked at the horses... She had fun and learned about safety and I will continue to teach her a little more with each trip. No pressure, just making sure she is enjoying it!

[C-dub]

Took my now 10y daughter over to the Bullet trap to check on some night sights and look at some .22 handguns. They didn't have the sights I wanted, but will call around and let me know tomorrow. Daughter and I go over to look at the handguns and she walks down the line of 9mm and .45's saying, "Ooh, I like this one and this one and this one." When she got to the little pocket .380's and a couple .32's she yells out, "Hey Dad! I found the sissy guns."

I've been thinking about getting a .22LR around $300 or less and told her if she was good for the next couple of weeks at school we would come back and rent one or two of the .22's to see what she thinks of a larger framed gun. She's pretty strong and could probably handle a .380, so if she's doing really well with the .22's and would like to try one I might let her. If we get to that point I might let her try that and just load one round at a time.

[GTRich94]

I have two young kids, a daughter who just turned 8 and a son who just turned 6. I took my daughter to PSC when she was almost 6 and we shot my NEOS and my Ruger 10/22 on the 22LR range. Since his older sister got to go shooting, my son wanted to shoot something better than the Nerf guns or the cap guns we had in the house. So I picked up an air-soft pistol when he was about 4 and we shoot coke cans, milk jugs and other recyclable in the garage. We moved onto the 22's when he was about 5.5. They both shot my MM and my daughter thinks it's fun and wants to shoot it every time we go to the range. My son tried it once and didn't like it. However, I think that was more because we were at an indoor range and it was loud and crowded.

Since your daughter is 7, she should have a pretty good attention span. For me, I could get 20 to 30 minutes tops with my kids when they were 5. Now that my daughter is a little older, she can last about 45 minutes at the range before she gets bored. So I would plan for your first range trip to last less than an hour. I also printed out pictures of Sponge Bob and we used them as targets. For some reason, the kids get a kick out of blowing Sponge Bob to bits.

[03Lightningrocks]

My daughter was maybe five or six and my son fired his first deer rifle at 3...LOL. Big mistake on my part. That 30.06 knocked the crap out of him. What can I say... I was 26 and stupid! He started shooting regular with me and his sister at about four. I still have the .22 revolver he learned on and the marlin .22 was a youth model of some sort. it was short. I am not sure where it is at... now that I am thinking about it...I hope it is in the back of the gun safe. My daughter was firing my .357 magnum with .38 +P loads at six or so. About the same age she was also shooting my ruger redhawk with .44 special loads in it. I was only 21 or 22 at that time and wanted my daughter to be able to outshoot and outfish any boy out there...LOL.


LOL... I just remembered a story that made me laugh. One christmas I decided to buy my daughter a BB gun. She was six. She had told Santa she wanted a pink bicycle. I made the BB gun from me and we had the bike hidden in the garage. Being dumb I thought it would be fun to surprise her so I didn't show her the bike at first. I handed her the last package and it was a Daisy BB gun. When she saw what it was I could see the disapointment in her eyes but she was trying to pretend she liked it, so "daddy would be proud of her". Gawd... I feel like a jerk all over again...LOL. Dumb, dumb, dumb! Anyway... her mom and I then told her to go in the garage and get a screw driver. The Bike was sitting by the door just outside. She saw it and gave it a good looking over but went ahead and got me my screw driver... I laughed and told her I didn't really need the screw driver but did she see anything out there she liked. Hahaha...her day was made. The other day she told me she wanted her BB gun because a possum was harrassing her dog...LOL. She is 32 and finally said she wanted the BB gun. It took awhile for her to admit it, but I knew she wanted it more than that bike all along...

[healedknee]

My opinion...

If they are interested and can comfortably shoot a pellet/BB gun, it's time to introduce them to the Cricket.

[Divided Attention]

"Hey Dad! I found the sissy guns."

This is a riot! Gotta love kids!

She's pretty strong and could probably handle a .380, so if she's doing really well with the .22's and would like to try one I might let her. If we get to that point I might let her try that and just load one round at a time.

I find my 9mm easier to handle than my .380 simply because the weight makes up for the recoil... jmpho. Both of my daughters would rather shoot my 9mm than my .380 as well, and I love shooting my Sig .380, however, my 9c and fullsized 9 are easier as far as recoil.