What caliber

[Fitch]

Taking my daughter to the range Saturday and shes been shooting before but, she has only handled a .22 cal my Ruger 22/45 she did very well. I am thinking about moving her up in caliber my choices are my Taurus .357 which she can shoot .38's or my G19 9mm. I am thinking the Glock but the Taurus handles pretty good with .38+P so, if I just get .38 specials it should handle ok for her thanks. What do you think? Thanks

How old is she? How big is she? How big are her hands? Can she get a decent grip on the gun? Have you skip loaded a revolver to see if she is flinching?

The four most important things about kids and range trips are:

Be safe and consistant. Do not bend the rules.
Make it fun
Make it fun
Make it fun

Did I mention, make it fun?

IMO, from what I've seen at the range, kids are moved up way too fast, then get yelled at when they don't live up to dad's expectations and he gets frustrated by the problem he created. I've taught daughters and nieces to shoot, they all have CCW licenses now (they grow up). All of them spent way longer with .22 revolvers and .22 Semi Autos than they thought they needed. But they all shoot well now. Skip load a 4" Ruger GP100 with full house .357 ammo and it doesn't quiver when the hammer drops on an empty chamber.

I shot maybe 1,000 rounds of .22 out of a Colt .22 Police Positive as a kid before my dad let me shoot his .38 Special with reduced loads. It depends on the child. Some tolerate recoil and noise better than others.

Too much gun too soon is a big, huge, mistake, can take years for them to get over it if they ever do. The idea with young kids is to enjoy the experience and learn to be safe.

If you have a .22 rifle, or a .22 Hornet rifle, those are good too. I spent a lot of time with a Winchester 52 Sporter in .22LR before I moved up.

Mastering the technique, sight picture, gun handling, rapid fire accuracy, are best done with a .22. If you can rent a Walther PT22 that would be good.

Most important, again, make it fun. Work for smiles.

Fitch

[OpenCarryYes]

I took my 11 year old son out last week. He normally shoots my 22 & 380 but this time he wanted to try my LC9. I took him up to about 10 feet from the target and he asked why. My response was so he could gain a little experience and confidence at the closer range. He said, ok, and hit the 8" target 4 out of 7 rounds. After that I let him shoot from the 25 foot line. He handled the recoil just fine. Now he wants to try the M&P 40c.

[njsportsman]

Well we finally got to the range and man I thought she would have a problem but from the first mag she was on the paper and not just on the paper they were take down shots; that was with the Glock 19. I didn't take the .357 revolver but instead took my new SIG SAUER P250 that I haven't shot yet. She wanted to shoot the SIG and did well with that as well. She needs some fine tuning but, not much. She adjusted very well from the 9mm to the .40S&W a lot smother than I thought. To be honest she did better than I did when first shooting the SIG I was way low and she was on the paper. Overall a graet time she she wants to go again she had a blast and I did as well especially that she had a graet time and she put one right in the bullseye and I didn't so, she have some fun with that. She started out nervous I guess because other people were there but, when she fired her first mag and I told how great she did the nervousness went away. Thanks all


the type of we we shot at

[Rocketgeezer]

It really depends on the kid as to what age to move them up to the bigger stuff, we took my grandaughter for the first time a week or two before christmas, the night before we when the first time I took her downstairs, with our little airsoft pistol, and just showed her proper handling, loading, correct sighting, and most important safely handling the weapon, so the next morning we get there started her with the P-22, but it did not last long she wanted to shoot grandpa's guns, that day I think I had the G-19 and full size Springfield 1911, she shot them both, did very well, in fact well enough with the 1911, to pass a CCW qaulifying test, ain't that something, this past mon, we were at the range and were just finishing up and I had one mag left for the G-26, (her grandma's carry gun)so I put up a fresh target, that 15 year old girl, on her third or forth trip to the range, shooting several differant guns, put a quarter size group at 8 or 9 yds with that G-26, I have tryed, several times with that gun, unless on a sandbag not even close, I meen one jagged hole about the size of a quarter, there were some off duty LEOs next to us and one asked me how long she's been shooting, I said about a month, he just stood there with the others lookin at that target, undam beleiveable,...................yesterday I finaly did get a tight group with the 26.......with the gun clamped in a work vise,...LOL