Right age for a boys first BB gun?

[Pat]

Eric, It wil also give you the opportunity to teach some physics and math. Consider the trajectory is a parabola and at the low muzzle velocitiy of the new BB guns it is a very noticible parabola. At a decent distance you are lobbing the BB toward a target. There is considerable rise, mid trajectory. The concept of "line of sight" versus the BB trajectory is a natural. Gravitational acceleration makes the BB fall faster and faster over time so the farther you shoot the more drop and the mmore need to aim higher in a non-linear fashion. Twice the distance is roughly 4 times the drop.

If you put up a target at 25 feet and another at 50 this will be easily shown.

By the way, when I was 6 I used to use the wooden clothes pins with metal springs as spinner targets on my mom's clothes line (early version of the solar powered clothes dryer) Sometimes they would split. I was requested to cease and desist. They work well to hold pieces of paper for BB targets.

When I was a kid I didn't have a super big allowance (I only got 1/2 of a penny for each night crawler I gathered) so I used to economize with my BB supply. I made bullet traps out of cardboard boxes so the BBs could be recovered and reused.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[robertn]

I never had one myself. My Dad never bought me a gun, even though my Grandfather got him a hi power pellet gun by about 7, and a .22 by the time he was 9 or so. Had a 12 gauge by the time he was 11. I, on the other hand, did not have my own gun till I bought my own at about 19.

I did though, learn to shoot at about 6. We used to shoot frequently. By the time I was 8, I had shot more black powder than anything else. 40gr of FF and a round ball in a Thompson Center Hawken makes a great starter/target load.

All through my life, I have used my Dad's guns. With him till I was older, and then on my own. Now, most of them are in my safe. He never uses them anymore. I use my stuff and his.

My son got a bbgun at about 6. He has used it, and a pellet gun a lot. We started out from the beginning treating it like a real gun. I have been tough on safety. He did two years of shooting in 4H. His instructor was very strict on safety.

I got my kid a 22 when he was 8(he's 12 now). It is an antique falling block kids rifle. I am contemplating getting him another, new rifle; there is a company that makes a break action youth tifle, with barrels in .22lr, .243, and 20 gauge. Until then, he uses his 22, and my Dad's original Mossberg bolt action from the '40's. He has shot my shotgun once, and a .22 pistol.

Of things you might notice, none of the guns I mention are semi-automatic. Most are single shot. I think it is important to start kids with a single shot for a cartridge gun; one shot at a time... Learn some basics, and then graduate up. One, it helps them concentrate on making the shot count. Two, if something does go wrong, there will not be additional shots...

My son shoots his archery and pellet gun on his own now; early on though, I accompanied him for every shot. He is a good shot, and is very safe. I still watch though...

I stress these two:

1. Treat EVERY gun as if it is ALWAYS loaded.
2. Only point a weapon at something you want to kill or destroy.

That's with a bb-gun, pellet gun, rifle pistol shotgun. And, bow/arrow.

After all that, it is a lot of fun to shoot with the kids. I have done archery range instruction for Cub Scouts. The bbgun range was right next to my range. The kids liked that part of the Day Camp better than anything else!