Ideal Shooting Age?

[AdamM]

I was 11 when i first shot a live round. It was a .22lr. before that it was all BB's and pellets

[5968]

I started shooting when I was 5 with my father. I started my daughter at 7. I don't think it matters so much how old a kid is, as much as how responsible they are and how good they listen. Heck, I go to range and see 40 year olds that I don't think are responsible enough to be shooting.

[jumbopanda]

A couple months before I turned 17, I went to the LAX range with my dad and shot a SW 1911 and a Glock 17. I didn't own any guns then, but shortly after I bought a Mosin M44, which I didn't shoot until almost a year later I believe.

[sorensen440]

I was probably 8
I think alot depends on the child
dont start till you can hold there attention

[cactus]

Ah now this is a thread I can relate to. My earliest childhood memory is me sitting on a abandoned rail road bridge with my dad at 3 years old shooting his colt woodsman; Acording to him I was 2. Thanks to the all the great guys here at Calguns at the Area 52 shoot my 6 year old son got to shoot a f/a mp-5 and he is still talking about it! In my opinion it all depends on there maturity not so much the age. At age 3 I gave my son a visual example of what guns can do alla a 10 gauge versus a pumpkin; the lesson stuck. Im proud to hear him yell "finger off the trigger" prior to him touching any gun im allowing him to shoot. We started him with a Ithica single shot lever action 22 at age 4. It taught him to open the breach load a round cock the hammer turn off the safety and safely shoot it. Ive bee transitioning him to a Walther G-22 with extremely close supervision im always his shadow. Now my daughter I love her fire cracker spirit but at 3 shes not ready. I teach her gun safety but we havent shot yet. My avatar is me and my son son shooting a 22 luger I think he was 5 and each round was loaded individually. Personally the best memories I have of my dad are hunting or shooting with him, I hope to do the same with all my kids. It puts the biggest smile on my face when my boy says " dad do you remember when we went camping and I got to shoot that MP-5? It was AWSOME!". By the way in case I didnt get to say this before a personal thank you to all the guys at the Area -52 shoot for being so great to my boy! PS had to add this pic. I was taking a picture of the gun table and he put his head in the picture with that huge smile he wore all weekend!

[KimoBBZ]

...We were resting the rifle across the hood of our Olds Delta 88....I ended shooting into the hood. Oops...

What was that a V8 305 ? I bet you tell that story a lot!!

... After I got good at it he graduated me to shooting the feral cats that always came around his chicken coups...

I don't have chicken coups, but the cats around here LOVE chiling out in my back yard/hillside hunting small birds, leaving nasty cat sh*t all over. I spank 'em with my airsoft rifle -when lit up by a dozen or so pellets, they tend to stay away for awhile.

... my 6 year old son got to shoot a f/a mp-5 and he is still talking about it...

SWEET!!! I BET he'll be talking about that for years... until he finds girls anyway. Camping with a nearby place to shoot sounds like another winner, and more intimate that the range... Will have to reserch that.

[slick_711]

I started at 4, my grandfather had me shooting .22lr shot shells at soda cans on his ranch. It progressed from there. Good memories.

[AJAX22]

I started with match grade pellet guns around age 6 or so

first actual firearm was in boyscouts with a single shot .22LR around 11 ish... followed by some trap shooting with a 20 gauge and a 12 gauge. (maby 100-200 rounds, it was .50 cents a shell for the shotgun, and you had to wait in a long line for the .22) and at my age it was alot of money for the shotgun)

then I fired about 5 shotgun shells over the years (my family never had guns, but my dad would take me to the range sometimes so I could see the other guys shooting... and once in a while someone would let me shoot a round... He even took me shopping for a trap gun when he found out that I had scored a perfect on my boy scout merit badge test) But between my dad being one of the cheapest people on the planet and my mom not allowing guns in the house I never was able to actually get one or shoot one at length.

Then about 16 or so I got to shoot about 15 .22LR rounds through my buddies rifle at some milk jugs in the creek behind his grandparents house....

And at 19 I bought my first firearm, a J.C. higgans .22LR single shot bolt action rifle.... and burned through maby 10K or so rounds in the first year. and shortly afterwards bought a Ithaca 37 and an M1 carbine.

I had wanted to buy a gun ever since I first shot one, but my parents stuck to the 'not under our roof' line so I would go to gun shows and gun stores and swap meets and buy accessories, but I wasn't able to get a firearm until I was out of my parents house and out of the dorms at school...

The number years between when I first started wanting a gun and when I finally got one I stockpiled everything gun related that they would sell me... which really amounted to magazines, scopes, cleaning kit stuff and other misc parts.

To this day I've only gone shooting with my dad once and it was with my first rifle..

[gcvt]

What was that a V8 305 ? I bet you tell that story a lot!!

Nope...it was the big block 455! We ended up putting that motor in our jet boat It wasn't my fault though...Oldsmobile didn't have to put a raised lip on the front quarter panels. Damn them! LOL. Tough cars back then...the bullet barely made a dent. They sure don't make 'em like they used to.