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cheezit wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I was 4 when I fired my first live round, after having shot arcade games. Both of my sons started handling guns at 4, but started live fire around 5ish. Because they could handle the guns anytime Dad was around, it was no big deal to them and the "lure of the forbidden fruit" element was gone.

Chas.

pretty much my story as well. I stated out with a 10/22 and mkII at the age of 5. This was while growing up in sunny S.Ca.

I started when I was 4. I was given a BB gun first. Once I developed safety skills with it, I progressed to a .22. I killed my deer when I was 6.

I have already started training my oldest two girls (5 & 3). My oldest has her on BB gun. She will probably get a cricket .22 for Christmas or her 6th Birthday. My girls have been raised around guns and they will not mess with them, but the are sure proud of their daddy's guns and they might give me away when I carry if they knew.

Took my son shooting at 12. (I didn't feel he was ready to take it seriously until then).

Since then we go shooting together fairly regularly. He's 18 now and knows how to safely handle a gun because I've drilled that into his head over time. Like others have mentioned, you take the "coolness" factor out of the equation by teaching and letting them shoot and handle firearms safely and regularly.

I don't hesitate to leave a firearm accessible to my son because I have given him the tools he needs to respect them and he has proven to me that he is responsible with them.

BTW..he's a pretty good shot.

8y/o after many years of spring-air BB's, I was taught the 4-rules earlier.

Setting: Outdoor range in Dallas, sunny day, calm.
Weapon: Pre-war Browning Hi-Power, 1 round in the mag
Target: 8 ft away

I pulled the trigger, and was not prepared for the recoil nor the slide bite, wacked myself in the face and tore open my thumb. I put the gun down and my mother walks up and the first thing she says to me is "If that's what it feels like on this side, inagine the damage it can cause on the other side" I've always respected them since.

I don't even remember if I hit the target

My two daughters started at 8 & 10 yrs of age witha Davey Cricket single shot .22 and it took very little time to have them shooting quite well. They are now 15 & 17 and the older one has not shown any interest in it now (though she is the better shot of the two). The younger hunts deer with me and this will be her 3rd year. She said she wants to give duck hunting a try this year too. Daddy is happy!

For the record I took her out to the range today...she shot a lot better than I thought she would and for the first time I can remember in awhile, listened to every word her old man taught her. She shot 100 rounds and only had four shots that made it outside the 7 ring on the target she was on. Not one off the green and had a nice little grouping in the 9 ring when she got comfortable. In fact, her target looked better than some of the ladies that were in my CHL course during the proficiency portion. Not a bad day...Dad is proud.

I started teaching my twin boys gun safety using "toy" guns at the earliest age. They started shooting .22 when they were about 6. That's about they time they got their first BB guns. They are now 12 and both have very good safety habits and are both good shots with pistol and rifle. One of them is quite good for his age and shoots my 1911 very well. (Don't let anyone tell you a 1911 is difficult to master.) My shotguns are still a bit large for them. I intend to purchase them each a youth shotgun in 20 ga.

I started my son a few weeks ago at age 8 going on 9 in a month. We used the range and he seemed to take to it like a duck in water. He wasn't nervous, followed the rules, and was calm, cool, and collected. He was shooting my .22 Marlin Glensfield model 20.

I started my daughter at 8, which was also about the time I started getting my CHL. We followed the advice on the cornered cat website and allowed her to handle the gun in a safe, controlled manner any time she asked. That was fairly frequent at first, but it's been a long time now since she last asked. She's also been to the range and IDPA matches with me on several occasions. It's now been about a year later and she fired her first live rounds on my AR-15 a couple of weeks ago. The .223 is still a bit much for her so she didn't shoot very many rounds. I need to pick up something in .22 caliber for her.

remember you start cub scouts in the 1st grade, they would star with a bb gun at that age. but i started sooner then that, as i expect my boy will too. he is 4, very interested, but such a short attention span, i think I'll wait a few more months, let it cool off.

it will be a while before i take him anything but bird hunting. lots a blood and guts for a little guy, once you get into deer and pigs.

I was taught to shoot in my 30s by a couple of friends who were California Nat'l Guard NCOs, after I inherited my dad's 1911 when he died.

I gave my son a used single shot bolt action .22 in a youth size and taught him to shoot with it when he was 6 years old. I gave him my Ruger Model 77 MkII All Weather bolt rifle in .308 Winchester when he was 15. He is now 20 years old, and the guns in our safe which belong to him are:

• the above mentioned Ruger .308
• a Rock River Arms 24" Stainless Bull Barreled AR15 varminter (with which he can put 5 rounds into 1/4" at 100 yards all day long)
• a Savage 10FP-HS Precision heavy barreled bolt rifle in .308 Winchester
• a really sweet customized AR15 Carbine he built from scratch
• an M1A Loaded Stainless in a Sage EBR stock (which he custom-fitted to accommodate the slightly larger than normal diameter medium weight national match barrel that comes on the loaded models)
• a Mossberg 500 12 Gauge Tactical
• a Kimber Pro Raptor
• a Taurus PT1911
• and a S&W Model 22A .22 cal. target pistol

In addition to being a really good shot with both rifle and pistol, my son has gotten interested in the internal workings of pistols and has ordered himself some gunsmithing tools, particularly for the 1911 platform. He has done trigger jobs on both his Taurus PT1911 and my Springfield Loaded, and improved them spectacularly. He took two years off from school after graduating from high school in 2008, and he is going back this fall and will declare a mechanical engineering major with an eye toward getting into the firearms design industry. He has been working on his own, from the ground up completely new, design for a gas-piston operated battle rifle of interchangeable caliber. He is an extraordinarily focused individual, and I believe that he will someday pull it off.

OH, and by the way, his girlfriend taught him - over the Skype phone network no less (she's in California) - how to knit two weeks ago. He's already learned 2 or 3 different kinds of stitches, and a few days ago, he finished a VERY nice scarf for her to wear when she returns to college in Rhode Island in the fall. He likes to cook, he's a student of history and politics, and he's a passing good poet who enjoys writing poetry. He has lately taken up an interest in Christian apologetics.... ....and he likes EOTWAWKI zombie novels.

I think he is on his way to becoming a renaissance man, and I couldn't be more proud of him. But it really all started with his learning to shoot an old beat up .22 youth rifle, from which he learned about ballistics, and hence physics; and history, and hence politics, etc., etc.

That's why I think it is important to start your kids shooting at as early an age as possible.