"Daddy Gun" Recommendation

[gunsaholic]

How big are your kids? I have both the Mossberg and Schultz & Larsen rifles shown in the previous posts, and in my opinion, unless your kids are on the bigger side, those rifles are too long, too heavy and all around too big for small youngsters to learn on, especially if learning to shoot off hand.

 

[rws53]

The Savage Rascal is an excellent rifle to start kids on. My grandchildren love it and at 6'4" I shoot it too!

Savage has a $30 rebate on the Rascal till June 30 2017 Rebate link

available in hardwood and these colors in synthetic stocks...even a left hand model

The Savage Rascal is manufactured in Lakefield Ontario

 

[mikeystew]

My vote goes to an older mossberg. They're built really well, simple, and shoot exceptionally good considering their age and price point.

*Edit, gunsaholic brings up a good point though. They're more for teenager sized and up... A bit big for younger kids. With that said, a CZ Scout would be perfect for a young gun. If you can find one.

 

[RiMP9]

The safe and cheep way I learned about guns was in my friends basement with a .177 pellet gun. After mastering that we went to a family farm and shot cooey single shot .22
Oh to be that young again

 

[LarryG]

Of course the savage rascal is the best choice if the kids are little (6 and under). It is a brilliant kids rifle.
Another choice that has a much cooler "look" to it is the T/C hotshot. These guns have lots of fans too, a break action and an exposed hammer. They are very cute, and still are stocked in some stores for around $300.

I think a single shot cooey (etc) 410 shotgun is a great choice. I have seen kids as young as 6 love shooting these, especially if their older siblings are excelling with a .22 while they are struggling.

If the kids are bigger, you can look at other choices. I would consider getting a norinco jw-15 with the short barrel. This is a cz 452 knockoff with a synthetic stock. My Canadian Tire has it for around $200 right now. If you shorten the stock (with no regrets) and fashion a butt pad, this becomes an awesome CZ scout style rifle. It has open sights and can easily be scoped. Since they did a faithful copy of the cz, these are really nice as well, though the mags are not as good as the CZ ones, they are interchangeable.

 

[neos]

Savage Mark II G would be my recommendation. This however, would be based on the Savage Rascal being too small. Best advice I would honestly say would be to go look at a few of them and shoulder them to see how they fit.

 

[sillymike]

Daisy 853C
- Good enough for the cadets
- Accurate
- Backyard friendly, give you (them) more opportunity to shoot more often

If they are smaller/weaker and cannot work the pump, maybe look for a entry level PCP air rifle

 

[Forest1488]

Depending on the age, Savage Cub single shot for first outings has my vote.

 

[safehunter]

My boys like my little badger. Has all the criteria on your list. Perhaps the manual hammer is a bit of a drawback for very small children. Also doubles as a great pack rifle, so while the rascal may not make the cut on a trip, the lil badger always will.
I'm a cooey fan and collector, but can't recommend the pull bolts for kids. I tried, but too hard to pull back for little hands.

 

[bankshot]

i'm part of range committee that has a youth shooting program we have a couple rascals and a few mark 1's they served us well for quite a few years and thousands of rounds

 

[g-manz35]

The rascal is a great gun. My son is ten and loves his. I put a red dot on it and find it fun to shoot too and I'm 6'2.

Yep. Lots of votes for it already. I'll ad to it. The size and the rear peep site make it a great kids gun.

 

[GunCrazy762]

My 9 year old daughter withe rascal this weekend.



He also used the hipoint and some pistols. She liked the rascal and wrangler the best.

 

[turbo_bird]

Another good kid sized rifle is the Henry mini bolt. Single shot, pull the striker back to #### it, and it's got reasonably good fiber optic 3 dot sights. Trigger isn't bad and easy to polish up a little bit. I looked at the Savage rascal and the Thompson Center kids rifle at the same time, and figured the Henry was probably the best option then, almost 10 years later I don't regret it at all. It's maybe a tiny bit bigger than the other two, but it's also big enough that an adult can shoot it reasonably well. This was a couple years ago when my son was 8, and the picture makes the length of pull on the Henry look longer than it is. The other rifle is a Schultz and Larsen m70 that was recommended earlier, definitely a full size rifle.

Kristian