A Good Plinking Pistol?

+1 more for the Ruger I learned with a MKII that I still have and still shoot. I have shot it with my niece, and nepehw. Both loved it. My brother ended up buying a used MKII for them to shoot. It is great for teaching young and old alike, my girlfriend loves shooting it also.
 
I have to chime in on the Ruger Mark ***. My daughter shot it along with the 10/22. I purchased her a Mark II on her 14th birthday. Revolvers are an alternative, but I found trying to teach her with one, she had difficulty with handling the grip and trigger.
 
The Browning Buckmark is my only "target/plinking" 22, but my 13 year old daughter (11 when I first started taking her to the range with me) has pretty much taken it over. It's a high quality, dependable, accurate pistol that I enjoy shooting, as well.
She considers it "hers", though, of course, I keep it under lock and key at home.
 
I'd suggest a Ruger Bearcat. It's small and light enough for young hands; single action, so unlikely to lead to the tendency to rapid fire; and very well made, so it'll last a lifetime with reasonable care. Easy to disassemble and clean, too.
 
My wife and oldest daughter like the Hi Standard my dad left me (Supermatic). You can pick them up used for ~ $400 for the Flite King model. These are beautifully made pistols that you can count on being able to pass on.
 
Just make sure that you daughter is able to work the slide/bolt.

If she is unable to, that would make the pistol significantly less fun to shoot.
 
Good plinking pistol

I know padrejay asked specifically about a semi, but my $0.02 would be to start a newbie, especially for a kid, with a SA revolver. I have a Ruger Single Six .22 / .22M that I love to shoot cans with. I plan to teach my daughter, who is now 13, how to shoot with this pistol in the next year or so. Absolutely love the pics of the Ruger Mark II! I may need to purchase one soon and teach her how to shoot that one as well. Could even be the same lesson, but I just think the SA revolver is easier to "understand" to start off.
I appreciate the "cowboy" characteristics and still love to shoot it.

Padrejay, how old is your kid? I sometimes wonder if I'm waiting too long to teach number one daughter to shoot. Number two daughter is 11, and in some ways may be as ready as #1 (was blessed with athletic ability / hand-eye coordination, whereas first daughter was not). Both thankfully have common sense which may have more to do with it than anything...

I learned to shoot as a kid with an old gun from Sears that was a double barrel .22 on top and .410 on the bottom. I think I was about 10. I never really learned to shoot a pistol until I was an adult and it was with that Ruger SS.
 
I have to go with the Ruger Mark II. I've had mine since 1979 and it still shoots perfect. I recently bought an extra magazine for it. The mags hold 10 rounds.

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For a pure fun revolver for youth, try a Ruger Single Six.

If you want a semi-auto pistol, any of the Ruger Mark III models would be fine for youth use.

Some one mentioned a S&W 17 (S&W 617 now). While this is a fun gun for an adult, it is a fairly large revolver, probably too large for a youth to handle comfortably.
 
Get an inexpensive Ruger 22/45, four to five inch barrel, fixed sites. I bought one NIB for $199. I think a revolver may bore your child in about an hour; low cartridge capacity and more difficult trigger pull.
 
Look no further friend, you've found it.

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Ruger 22/45. One outstanding plinking pistol.

Tricky to reassemble till you know how to hold your mouth right. (just follow the directions)
 
so I am open to suggestion as to which brand/model will give me the best bang for my buck.
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The Rugers are certainly good guns,but for the money there simply isn't a gun made that equals the Beretta Neos for quality of construction,ease of disassembly and absolute reliability with a wide range of ammunition both inexpensive bulk & otherwise.Please do not overpay for an inferior quality gun such as the Walther P22 or Sig Mosquito no matter how appealing they may seem!
 
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Yeah, I'm a huge Neos lover, too. Maybe get the 4.5" variant to keep the weight down. Only real problems are the sights and trigger, and you can correct both of those pretty easily.
 
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