I’m not a buy cheap and work up.
I prefer to see someone at mid range firearms that had better trigger's and more reliable functioning than cheap starter guns. I’ve seen too many kids ruined by someone that insisted they start with single shots after they have spent hours online shooting the top of the line firearms in video games. They hate old fudd single shots.
10-22’s fit the bill for starter rifles for most. Not the most accurate in stock condition, but they like shooting, not loading one round at a time. That’s boring to them and will quickly ruin a range day.
Get them interested in shooting fun stuff and then morph them into precision shooting as a competition or steel challenge matches where speed is king and pin point accuracy not so much. Just have to hit the plate, not the bullseye.
Kids love steel challenge because they are shooting and not laying prone loading one round at a time at some paper.
I realize this thread isn’t totally about kids but kids are the future of shooting.
For me personally, I started with a single shot shotgun in .410 that was my only firearm owned until the mid thirties. Killed everything thing I hunted snd saw no reason to have anything else.
In 1982 the ex said she was going to get a house cat. I hate cats. Told her if she did I was going to buy a center fire rifle and hunt deer. She got the cat and I got the 30-06. My hunting beagle killed the cat which I’d warned about but the bambi movie fan didn’t believe that would happen.
That started a lifetime collection.
I prefer to see someone at mid range firearms that had better trigger's and more reliable functioning than cheap starter guns. I’ve seen too many kids ruined by someone that insisted they start with single shots after they have spent hours online shooting the top of the line firearms in video games. They hate old fudd single shots.
10-22’s fit the bill for starter rifles for most. Not the most accurate in stock condition, but they like shooting, not loading one round at a time. That’s boring to them and will quickly ruin a range day.
Get them interested in shooting fun stuff and then morph them into precision shooting as a competition or steel challenge matches where speed is king and pin point accuracy not so much. Just have to hit the plate, not the bullseye.
Kids love steel challenge because they are shooting and not laying prone loading one round at a time at some paper.
I realize this thread isn’t totally about kids but kids are the future of shooting.
For me personally, I started with a single shot shotgun in .410 that was my only firearm owned until the mid thirties. Killed everything thing I hunted snd saw no reason to have anything else.
In 1982 the ex said she was going to get a house cat. I hate cats. Told her if she did I was going to buy a center fire rifle and hunt deer. She got the cat and I got the 30-06. My hunting beagle killed the cat which I’d warned about but the bambi movie fan didn’t believe that would happen.
That started a lifetime collection.