The kid can't start on a .22 like we all did?

J

joeranger

New member
I took a neighbor and his 15yo son shooting for the first time and the kid was a natural. Understood gun safety, really did well and we had a great time. The dad later applied for his FOID card and asked me about which gun to buy for him recently.
I said a nice .22 rifle. They both were really disappointed.
All of my guns are pretty interesting, many of them are really uber powerful. .444 marlin, 357 cowboy revolver, 44mag carbine, 12g magnum, 10g sxs.

OK, so I spoiled him a little. You should still start on a 22 right? They want something with a powerful kick that makes easy to see holes in the targets.

You know what? Not my problem right? I love shooting my 22s and my 17hmr.

I think I will tell him to buy a .458socom, but only if he really loves his son and thinks he deserves it. (I won't mention cost of ammo)
 
I've shot a lot of rifles and handguns, but my Henry lever action has to be one of the most entertaining guns to cross my hands. It goes with me every range trip, even more than my AR.:eek:
 
I got my .243 model 70 as my first gun. Now, it was more an investment in the future than something to learn to shoot with. When i was eleven I got a Marlin 25n bolt action .22LR to take an NRA safety course and qualify for our youth smallbore team.

I think a course like that is a good way to start shooting. I had been shooting air rifles and dad's 10/22 for years before i took that course but it taught me how to be a real marksman and while i was on the shooting team i was always the high-point shooter at every event.

Wish i would have stayed with smallbore competition given my 20/10 eyesight and early aptitude for it. Football, Wrestling and baseball took precedent over shooting for some reason. I did get bored and frustrated with hours and hours shooting at the same paper targets, like most 11-12 year-old kids would.

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I don't think anyone will ever look back on their life and think "gee I wish I'd never brought a 22lr, the price of ammo is just far to cheap".

Big guns might be fun to shoot, but the recoil, noise and feeding the beast can get old after a while. While I enjoy shooting bottles with an 8mm Mauser, I do begin to start counting how much money I'm spending on each shot.
So yes start on a 22lr I reckon, I did, and pretty much everyone I know did.

What other caliber can you buy 500rounds for under $20???
 
If you're really interested in TEACHING your youngster to shoot , start out with a 22 single shot with iron sights !
I was spoiled by starting out with a very fine rifle which I still use for small game ,plinking an target. Go big game hunting --put up animal crackers at 25 yds .As a kid I practiced by putting out , at 50 yds ,empty 6 oz frozen orange juice cans.Just lay them in the grass and if you hit them they bounce , presenting a different picture each time.
A single shot teaches the disipline of making each shot count , a great help when hunting.
 
Mete just voiced exactly what I am thinking. A first gun should always be a single shot - and I will add that it should be used to shoot animals.. My first rifle was my grandfather's St. Louis Arms 1930-35 .22 (Mossberg hybrid/mutt) single shot bolt action. I shot frogs and squirrels. Every shot hit its mark or we got nothing. Next I moved to a .410/.22 over and under, but on running rabbits and covey rises. First pistol was a .44 Magnum Thompson single shot. Same principal, every shot counts.

My little Marlin 795 will drive (big) tacks. But forty-cough-cough years later, if I'm not careful to stay disciplined then I find that I get a better score on ten shots with my grandfather's old .22 than I do with my Marlin.

Semi-autos are a bane to learning.

That's my 2¢,
Andrew

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I guess I'm odd because I didn't start out shooting a .22. The first firearm I ever shot was a Winchester single-shot .410 shotgun that my dad had gotten as a birthday present when he was about 10. In some ways, I'm not sure that a .410 or 28 gauge shotgun might not be just as good, or in some ways better, for a beginner since they're a bit easier to hit with and thus won't cause someone to get discouraged from missing too easily.

Now, in the case of the young man being described, he's apparently already shot and done reasonably well with bigger guns, so if he wants something more than a .22LR, there's really no reason he can't go a mite bigger. A nice bolt-action .223 might not be a bad idea since recoil is still very mild and ammunition is very affordable, at least compared to other centerfire rifle ammo. Another option might be a .22 Magnum as it will be more powerful, and more capable of taking somewhat larger game such as coyotes, but still have mild recoil and inexpensive ammunition.
 
My son started with a single shot .410 as well, and my younger brother (by 17 years) started with a single shot 20 ga. Both developed good shooting habits quickly. I don't think the size/caliber matters so much as the good habits fostered with the use of a single shot, bolt action, or lever action. Although I would hesitate to provide something with too much recoil.

Andrew
 
I hear this a lot,,,

"I'm afraid he'll get bored with a single-shot."

My take on that is if he's getting bored,,,
he doesn't really want to learn to shoot a rifle.

I have no desire to let a young lad just turn ammo into noise,,,
I see this a lot at the rifle & pistol club I belong to,,,
Dad brings the kids and a semi-automatic .22,,,
They burn through a bulk pack in an hour.

To them shooting seems to be about pulling the trigger and just making noise,
If they happen to hit something along the way that's okay,,,
But if they don't that's alright as well,,,
It's all about pulling the trigger.

There isn't anything inherently wrong with that,,,
But they sure are wasting a lot of coin.

I'm giving my 14 year old nephew a .22 rifle this summer,,,
I haven't made up my mind whether I'll give him one of mine or a new one,,,
But the one thing I do know for certain is that he will not be getting a semi-automatic rifle.

I'll either give him my venerable Henry Accu-Bolt single-shot,,,
Or buying him a magazine fed bolt-action of some ilk,,,
Later on he can get his own ammo waster. ;)

Aarond

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You can always try the single shot. You might be surprised. My son was as hyperactive as they come. With most things that required persistent attention he fared poorly. As a child, I'm not sure if he ever sat on my lap more than a minute. But at 3-1/2 he could watch a bobber for hours. When he was older, he was totally focused when shooting.

We never knew what it was, but outdoors hunting or fishing, he was totally focused.

You might be surprised (but then again, maybe not). :rolleyes:
 
I shoot my 270 and Mini 14 at 100 and 200 yard targets. Plenty of power to carry the bullet that far and well beyond. When I really want to test MY accuracy I shoot my Henry 22lr lever action at squirrel and rabbit targets at 100 yards. It is a very light bullet (36-40 grains) with a small powder charge. I go for head shots, so it as actually a target about the size of a tomato sauce can lid. This is a challenge and I get a hoot out of it when I can show my friends. I use the cheap bulk ammo, so it is not like I use a "special ammo or special gun". Also the squirrels and rabbits are on 8.5 X 11 inch paper so they are smaller than most actual animals at least in this area. I think this is more of a test than using a higher powered rifle. I grew up shooting and hunting small game with a 22 and didn't really shoot anything bigger until I went into the military and then only the M16 occasionally (twice a year). I have a 10/22 which I shoot also, but not as accurately due to the speed at which I tend to shoot it. I guess I still harbor in the back of my mind the thought that if I throw out enough lead I will hit the target. I traded a bolt action Savage in on the 10/22 because my wife didn't like having to load the thing everytime to shoot (work the bolt,it was magazine fed). I didn't really like the Savage either. I don't currently own a bolt action, but this thread has got me thinking of buying another one, a better one.

Everybody needs a 22lr rifle. You can always afford to shoot one.
 
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I was just thinking...
...getting the boy to an Appleseed weekend would be a very good idea.

Andrew

PS. Marlin has a bolt action target version of the 795. Once the budget allows, I'm going to get one.
 
I started with a 20g H&R single shot. As others said, it taught me that the first shot has to count. When I dove hunted with that gun, which is how I started out, it was the only shot I was going to get. Fast forward more years than I care to admit to now, and I still try to make sure that first shot gets the job done.

A .22 really does make a lot of sense. There's no substitute for trigger time, and you can get an awful lot of it for $20 with a .22LR. It's one of those guns that I consider a staple. Every shooter should have one.
 
Everybody needs a 22lr rifle. You can always afford to shoot one.
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Indeed, no matter how squeezed I get for cash, I can always roll some quarters for a box of .22s to get some stress relief. No, not as much fun as my "big boy" guns, but still makes for a good range day
 
There's no substitute for trigger time, and you can get an awful lot of it for $20 with a .22LR. It's one of those guns that I consider a staple. Every shooter should have one.
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Agreed.

There have been a couple of instances in my shooting history that I somehow became convinced that I had progressed beyond the need for a .22 and thus sold my .22 firearms, only to realize how essential a .22 can be and have to buy .22's again.
 
When my dad was ready to purchase my "first gun", it was going to be a single shot .22, or nothing. Boy was I insulted, afetr all I was going to be 12 years old and it was to be my birthday present...

Fast forward over 50+ year..and guess what? Dad was right. I learned to make every shot count with that little single shot..a really good lesson to learn. (especially when you hunting rifle costs $.$$ per shot.
 
hermannr said:
When my dad was ready to purchase my "first gun", it was going to be a single shot .22, or nothing. Boy was I insulted, afetr all I was going to be 12 years old and it was to be my birthday present...

Fast forward over 50+ year..and guess what? Dad was right. I learned to make every shot count with that little single shot..a really good lesson to learn. (especially when you hunting rifle costs $.$$ per shot.
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I can't speak for the masses, I guess, but if I would have been given something like a Cricket rifle when I was 10-11 I probably would have been less interested in shooting. Dad gave me the Marlin 25n which looked and felt like a "real" rifle. I only got to use the 7-shot magazine when I was shooting soda cans and such. Both my dad and our shooting instructor knew how to keep us interested in shooting and accuracy and the key component was competition. Obviously in shooting sports you're mainly competing against your own best effort and that's a good way to get kids to love the trigger time. Around the same time I loved to play Tetris on my Gameboy and try to beat my high score over and over again. I'm glad that shooting was provided to me because it's a lot funner than Tetris!

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I remember the first gun purchased for me. I was 5 years old. It was not a single shot. It was a semi auto. It was a Ruger 10-22 that I still have nearly 31 years later. I learned to hit fast, and shoot fast, also about recovery, and follow up shots as well. Never in my life have I missed on a shot while shooting at anything, I have also never had to track a wounded animal either.

If the shooter has the maturity level to understand, and apply basic marksmanship. They will do well.

By the way I can quickly walk a soda can from 50 to 100 yards, and never let it sit still for longer than it takes for it to hit the ground. I learned to not just shoot fast, but to hit fast.
 
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