I carried my 9 year old on a youth dove hunt this year. Her gun was a very light weight single barrel 20 gauge. I actually didn't think she would be shooting since she had said she just wanted to go along and retrieve birds and sit with me in the field but I carried a gun for her anyway.
After several birds, she says, "Dad, I want to shoot." So I set her up and when the next bird came by she stood up from her chair and fired one off. The blast sat her back down and knocked her hat off. I expected that to be the end but she stood up and with a huge grin said, "Dad, that was awesome!" That little bugger shot a whole box of shells that day and she said that she had the best time she had ever had hunting. She wasn't bothered by the recoil at all, even though I considered that old single barrel a kicker.
