Kids and Shooting

I was recently asked about when and how to introduce kids to shooting, and with limited experience of my own, here goes.

If they aren’t interested in shooting, then don’t push it. If they are interested, are they mature enough to follow directions and safety protocols? If not, then I set a rifle up in a tripod rest and let them try the gun out that way. They don’t have to hold it up, they can’t point it at you, and all they need to do is look through the sights and pull the trigger. I use one of my rifle tripods, but if you don’t have one and won’t buy one, you can rig something similar up on a bench with sandbags, or a bipod on the ground if you have to. The tripod is the safest, easiest way to go though.

When my kids were 5 or so, they wanted to shoot, so we did the tripod thing. They enjoyed it, my wife and I enjoyed it and that was that. My oldest was not interested in shooting again until she was about 11 and wanted to come hunt with us. By that time, she was mature enough and big enough that we got her a youth-sized .243 and taught her to shoot and hunt. In the years since, she has dropped every deer, pronghorn, and elk she has shot with one round. To this day, she doesn’t care much about shooting, but she’s an excellent shot and likes to hunt very much.

My youngest also became interested in shooting again when she was 11, so I took her to the Appleseed shoot that I talked about here. She wants to follow that up with some practice at home and then an introduction to pistol shooting. She hopes to start shooting Action Pistol with us next year, and I think she will be able to.

Irons or optic? I am a fan of starting kids with a red dot sight. It simplifies everything for them and they can concentrate on their trigger control if using a tripod, and their other fundamentals as well if they are not using a tripod. It is far better to introduce fewer new skills at a time, and the vast majority of shooters struggle to learn proper iron sight use. If you want your kids to enjoy it and continue shooting, you have to give them early easy wins. Make them smile with success and they will continue. Wear them out with endless rules and difficult tasks to accomplish and they will probably give up.

As far as guns go, you don’t need to buy anything special if you don’t want to, but who doesn’t like buying new guns? I have found that a .22lr AR is the best rifle to teach kids with. We use the M&P 15-22’s and have been very happy with them. The ergonomic advantages of the AR are not just for adults, as the stock collapses nicely for smaller shooters. The pistol grip contributes to easy trigger reach. Red dots are easily mounted to the pic rail and the gun is lightweight for when it is time to take it off the tripod. The final advantage is that they are learning to shoot our country’s fighting rifle.

Julie Golob wrote an excellent kid’s firearm safety book that I highly recommend for the little ones. At the same time, parents should read Massad Ayoob’s classic, Handgun Primer, how to gun-proof your kids. These books combined will do a good job of educating everyone in the family. Just remember to have fun and not get frustrated with your kids when they don’t do as well as you might hope.