I take my 6.5 yr old with me plinking alot and currently only allow him to fire my Smith & Wesson model 17 .22 revolver with close supervision. My boy is very large for his age and does quite well with the revolver. (puts most shots on paper at 15 yds). I was thinking of buying a new Buckmark or 22/45 or maybe a Ruger SR22. Am I pushing it a bit for his age? I was 9 or 10 when I fired my 1st buckmark pistol with my grandfather. I think 6 or 7 for my 1st revolver. Is a pistol somthing I should wait and make him work for?

I would recommend a S&W J Frake 22 revolver, the one usually called the Kit gun.

I think a DA revolver is safer for a kids first handgun.

If it has to be a semiauto then one of the Original style Rugers would be my pick.

i started my grandsons with the little walther, then graduated to a revolver. eventually at age 9 a browning hi power. they handled the whole thing very well. don't be afraid, kids are smarter than we give them credit for, and with a watchful eye they do just fine

The Walther PPK is nice, that one slipped my mind. I see they have a PPK/S stainless now. That's a nice little pistol. There isn't anything at all wrong with the Model 17 other than it's a 1950's 5 screw, pinned barrel and it's in about 98%. Kids don't understand that when they slide it over on the bench and such. Other than that he see's me shoot my pistols alot and he wants to try one like that. We'll see, he is fine for now, I was thinking maybe for Christmas or his birthday which is 5 days before Christmas (didn't plan that one too well) lol.

start him off right with the new down sized browning 1911-22. that way he is familiar with 1911 design and can smoothly move to a hi power and full size 1911.
they didnt have these when i bought my daughter her first gun, but i did buy her a browning buck mark.--cam

My three son's all started at about that age with a M63 Smith. With the factory "combat" grips it was relatively easy for them to hold. They learned "how to use a firearm" with that handgun.

I guess I'm jest an old fuddy-duddy, but I wouldn't start any kid off with a semi-auto of any kind or chambering.

Kids have notoriously short attention spans, and although they can learn how to operate things very quickly, they don't always remember well or pay close attention to the processes for doing anything safely all the time.

For a 6-1/2 year old, I would find and buy a used single shot .22 LR pistol. If I simply couldn't manage that, I would get him the cheapest single action revolver I could find.

Double action makes it too easy for him or her to forget it is loaded and to pull the trigger "accidentally" when they had no intention at all of firing the pistol...like when they playfully pointed it at the family dog or cat or even some inanimate object.

Make that two old fuddy-duddys. Ixnay on any semi-auto 22 pistol for kids. Most of them want to 'spray and pray' with such a setup due to exposure to video games. My Ruger Single Six revolver is slow to load and shoot. It forces the shooter to pay attention to sight alignment and trigger squeeze, not slinging lead willy-nilly as fast as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by Shootshellz:
Make that two old fuddy-duddys. Ixnay on any semi-auto 22 pistol for kids. Most of them want to 'spray and pray' with such a setup due to exposure to video games. My Ruger Single Six revolver is slow to load and shoot. It forces the shooter to pay attention to sight alignment and trigger squeeze, not slinging lead willy-nilly as fast as possible.

AC and Shootshellz, I agree absolutely! Single shot or single action pistol or rifle to teach sight alignment and trigger pull. I chose the rifle for my kids - they were not big enough to handle a pistol but they did well with a rifle on a rest.

Ruger Bearcat. Smaller frame single action with fixed sights. He will never out grow it because when he does grow he will appreciate the smaller size and how easy they are to carry around.

I would probably use a S&W J frame 22 LR.
If I thought the double action was dangerous I would just let the kid wait until he could handle it. Worst case you can always deactivate the double action feature using a spare hammer.

+1

My three son's learned with this M63 Smith that I bought back in 1978 when I was 16. A great piece that I recommend highly.