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 advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child 
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 Post subject: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:55 am 
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OK, I'm in my happy place right now. Took the oldest (6) out last night to run errands. Out to the Gun Club to clean a door, across the street to look at the horses, WW to go away empty handed, Gander to see how high he prices could be, and then Dick's who had the .38 I needed for the steel shoot. He was good company and we had a nice time.

While we were at Dick's:
S: Dad, That pink one is my size (Cricket) but I don't want a PINK one.
Me: They make them in black, see there ...
S: Look at that one, it's kinda green and kinda brown (Rossi 22/20)
Me: SMILE

So, now I need to ease into it. He has the Eddie Eagle rules down, can recite them and explain why. He's vaguely familiar with the 4 rules(has heard them, we've talked about them, but he's not reciting or explaining them yet).

I think it's time to make a shooting gallery in the garage and get him set up with a small BB gun / Pellet rifle ...
Then he can earn the privilege by learning and displaying the rules.

Anyone have a cut down Red Ryder or a suggestion on what to get / avoid for a young kid? suggestions on targets and etc?

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 Post subject: Re: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:05 am 
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Location: Young America
IMO perfect age. My boys both started about then (they are nearly 40 now). Only suggestion I have is make sure it is a gun that he can cock by himself (big part of the safety). Tried to get the boys into something semi decent like Crossman but they couldn't pump it by themselves.


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 Post subject: Re: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:01 am 
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Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:06 pm
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Location: White Bear Lake
How about something like these : http://www.speedytoys.com/shop/category.asp?catid=3
Air soft type rifles..
Or if you can find a CO2 type rifle that when your not home you could hide the CO2 cartridges for added safety?

Targets, a box filled with crumpled paper and cardboard should do, using some cheap targets like "dad" shoots.
Google CO2 air soft or BB guns for ideas.
Just some ideas.
CraigJS

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 Post subject: Re: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:20 am 
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Location: Northeast Minneapolis
For CO2 there is a very decent Chinese-made gun called a QB78. CO2 performance varies with temperature, so it might not work well outdoors in winter.

http://www.archerairguns.com/QB78-Chine ... p/qb78.htm

Keep in mind that CO2 needs gas cartridges.

ETA:
QB78 can be bulk-filled.


Last edited by White Horseradish on Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:22 am 
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Location: Savage, MN
Paper targets are boring for kid that age. A really nice way to set it up is to use a large box, fold the front flap down and tape the back and side flaps up. Then secure a few layers of cardboard pieces along the back. Finally take some large box head nails and poke them into the back with maybe a 1/2 inch protruding. The hang clay targets on the nails. My youngest son gets a kick out of shattering them with BBs. I can fit 3 clays across the back and when they shatter, they drop right in the box so cleanup is not a problem.

I'm sure this setup can be improved, but it works well for us. Sometimes a hit on one target will knock down all the targets, but that will get you a "COOL!" from your son. You will get an occasional BB bouncing back if it hits a nail, but that reinforces the need for safety glasses for everyone watching.

Another suggestion is to find out right now which is his dominant eye and get him started right. I tried to force my son to shoot right handed but he could not shut his left eye so he developed a goofy stance where he moves his head further over and uses his left eye to shoot right handed. It FINALLY dawned on me last month that he probably has left eye dominance and sure enough, he does. Now we're working on shooting left handed.

Finally, whatever you buy, make it short and light weight. To me that's more important than him being able to cock it himself. My son can cock his BB gun him self but it wouldn't bother me to do it for him until he's able. I'll try to remember to check what we have. I think it's pretty good size for a 6 year old.

Ok, this is really my final comment...some advice I got from my brother that makes sense (surprising, coming from him) is that later, when you're out shooting at the range, don't bring along anything he can't shoot. If he's shooting .22's while you're shooting .308, it's probably going to reduce the experience for him, being "stuck" with the small calibers. I saw this with my 11 year old a few weeks ago. He was excited about the new .22 I bought for him, a CZ 452 Scout, but when he saw how small it was, I could see the disappointment on his face. "What's wrong?" "Nuthin....it just looks like a kid's gun". I wanted to say, "You ARE a kid", but instead said, "I got you a lighter gun so you could shoot more. This way your arms won't get as tired as quick as they do with what you're shooting now". That seemed to satisfy him.


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 Post subject: Re: advice on BB/Pellet rifle for child
PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:15 pm 
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I bought my 6 yr. old a red ryder, but the stock cause the LOP to be kindof long and uncomfortable for him. I realized after some research that the cheaper Daisy -- the Buck Model 105_ -- has a shorter stock on it. I emailed Daisy to figure out how to buy just a Buck stock and they emailed me back that they would send me one for free. Showed up via the mail a few days later. I put it on the Ryder and it's the perfect LOP. However, I've now set my sights on something better, I think. . . .

Two years in a row now the kids at Cub Scout camp shoot a Daisy Model 845. See, e.g., here: http://airgunauction.com/detail.asp?id=810 The beauty of this rifle is that it comes with a rear adjustable peep sight and a front covered sight. It takes one moderate pump to cock as well. Most the kids at scouts, no matter their prior experience, seemed to be able to shoot this rifle accurately right from the start. Trigger pull was horrible but I suspect that could be tweaked if a person figured out how the internals work. The problem is that I can't find one of these rifles for sale at this time. The link above indicates they pop up from time to time. I assume because they are used for training groups of kids, any one I find will likely be worn, but I still want one. The rear peep sight is available from airgun online dealers, which would be another option, but the price of that sight alone is as much as the used guns I've found in closed online sales posts. I'm also not sure if I could mount the sight on the Grizzly or some other one-pump style Daisy or even a Crossman.

And as to other calibers, I've redone a cheap birch 1022 stock to shorten the LOP so that it's available when we need it for some range time as well. I've also found a couple used crickets over the past years that were pretty cheap because I think dads or granddads buy them sort of spur of the moment, later to realize that they mostly sit in the safe. (There are peep sights on the crickets as well. If you go the cricket route, there is a model with a trigger lock that is a complete pain in the ass because the spring is way to soft and the lock is constantly accidentally set by bumping it, requiring a barrel key to unlock it. There's a way to remove the lock and replace it with a plug to fill the hole though so it's like the models without the lock.)

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