When did you start teaching your children to shoot?

[localbrew]

My Dad took my sister and up in the mountains in CA, I was 3 and my sister was 13. He was a LEO at the time and felt it was necessary for her and I to learn, I agreed. It was a .25 cal. semi automatic pistol, I can't remember the brand, but I know she still has it. I think he finally gave it to her a few years ago. I took her shooting about a year and a half ago when she visited us in OR. My Dad instilled firearm safety in me at a very young age. I got my hunting license when I was 10 or 11 I think; I've been shooting almost my entire life and absolutely love it. Shot archery competitively when I was 14, my Dad would take me around. to various competitions in CA. Ah those were the days...

 

[cabinguy]

I took hunter safety when I was 9, the age was supposed to be 10 but they let me in early. Shot first dear the following fall, a small spike horn. Hunted most of my life since then and now at 68 get to the range here weekly when weather permits. Most of the summer don't as it's just to HOT to be out there. Have a variety of rifles/handguns. Everyday carry is a hellcat with 15+1. We used to take 22's out all the time in the 60's and walk the railroad tracks hunting woodchucks, they used to come out and lay on the tracks soaking up the sun. Farmers hated them and were more than glad to let us hunt them all the time, cows would step in a woodchuck hole and break a leg, a costly thing for a farmer. Dad would take us out at night and just ride around the countryside looking for them, would rotate who got to shoot. Such fun we had riding around!
Anyhow.................

 

[nvshooter]

I have no kids. I fired my first round at about six years old. My dad had me sit on his lap, he held his Model 70 and I squeezed the trigger. That was around 1963 or '64. I bought my first rifle in April 1983; a used Colt AR-15 Sporter II. I was 25. I now own "a few" more firearms than I did forty years ago. Never had any formal training, schools or even ad hoc instruction. My dad told me when I was maybe seven or eight to "never point a gun at anything you do not intend to destroy." One time. That's all it took. I have never pointed a gun at anything I do not intend to destroy, such as an inanimate target. I have never pointed even an unloaded gun at another person. I don't know how Nicholas Cage and John Travolta did it in their movie, Face/Off. Pointing a gun at someone who is not threat to me is something my mind will not allow me to do. Pulp Fiction would be another movie with lots of guns pointed at other people.

In my forty years of owning guns, I have never had an inadvertent discharge. My finger is off the trigger and the safety is on until I'm at the line and ready to send lead downrange...

 

[jisandoval1881]

I started teaching my 2 girls at around 7. I made them read and use the NRA's 3 Eddie Eagle activity books for kids as soon as I felt they understood what I was talking about.

 

[coldsteel]

I started mine around 7 years old on a red rider and about 10 on a 22 rifle

 

[mntman2011]

Started with range commands and Nerf guns around 3, 22lr around 5, and 223 around 6 years.. Now she runs the 6.5 / 30-06 fine at 13, going to start running the 20ga this fall, but could use a few more cheeseburgers. Still not great with a glock 19 yet..

 

[GolfLima]

My wife and I argued over this very topic for quite a while, but my philosophy of "never to young to learn to shoot" prevailed…. although she complained about it the entire time.
















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As a soon expecting father I really appreciate this.

 

[DannoXYZ]

No kids. I do remember my dad training me on M16 at about 4-1/2. I need to find and scan photos. There's one with me holding it up, it's taller than me!

 

[uboatsailor]

I started my boys at 6 and 4 using a a pump-up .22 air rifle them on to a Stevens crack shot using just shorts. They are all grown now and both are veterans with extensive small arms experience.

 

[joesome4747]

I wasn't allowed to shoot a gun until I was 12. It's older than a lot of the comments I see here, but that was my dad's rule. I will say that the older the kid is, the more likely they are to truly understand the consequences of mishandling a gun.

 

[x5haDe]

Curious, has anyone taught their children to shoot?

I started each of my daughters out on BB guns when they were about 6, shooting pop cans (not gonna lie, there were some beer cans in there too.). They had to listen to the 4 Firearms Safety Rules discussion before each session. If they violated any of the safety rules, the BB guns went away until the next time. It seemed to show them that the rules were not flexible and neither was Dad.

Within a month of starting, each one could recite the safety rules by heart. They still got the speech on all of the rules though. One time a neighbor kid came over with his nerf guns and wanted to play with one of the girls. The daughter he came to over play with had no patience for his lack of attention to the safety rules. When he failed to listen, she about knocked him on his butt before I stepped in. I was a proud Papa!

What are your experiences?

I started my kids off at 5 with a Savage Rascal and eventually a 10/22.

 

[JBR270]

6 yoa with BB guns, 12 yoa with .22 rifle, 15 yoa with large bore hunting rifles/shotguns. They've always been safe, respectful and understand the 4 primary rules of firearm safety. Prior Military and retired LE. I wouldn't have taught them any other way. Even as 28/25 year old young men they still honor those rules.

 

[Rtech4]

Taught both of mine when they were 6 and 8. It was a family thing of us getting range time with my grandfather which was their great grandfather. They started off shooting rifles then when on to clay shooting. That was almost 40 year ago and they both have families and still shoot with me today. Great times good memories. Now my grand children shoot they started about 10 years old.

 

[crewsader]

All 6 of my girls have been taught to shoot starting around age 6.