Looking for a starter .22 rifle for a right handed 5 year old.

I am trying to find a realistic feeling bolt action with a Remington 700 style safety.
Something with 16" Barrel, short LOP.

Best I have seen so far is the Henry Mini-Bolt. It has somewhat of a "cheap" feel to the bolt and the safety is on the left side. However, the sites are very nice and easy for a new eye (and mine) to really pick up. Checked out the Crickets and they had tiny rear peep style sights with a clunky bolt... Both the Henry and Cricket are very compact and light (nice for the little one...

Have heard good things about the Remington Model Five Youth Compact, but a search revealed these were no longer made. A Google also pulled up a Zastava USSG Z5. ??? Anyone know much about these? Think they are an EAA product. ???

I have an older Rem M510 Targetmaster, but I sort of have mixed feelings about cutting down the barrel and stock for the kiddo..

Any tips / suggestions would be appreciated. Not a lot of "in stock" items to look at here in AK...

Thanks!

Cricket

Doesn't have a Rem style safety, in fact it's backwards, but I've read a lot of good things about the CZ 452 Scout over @ RimfireCentral. No experience on my part with it, but my 455 American is really nice.

a marlin i think it is a model 15 is youth but bigger than a cricket and a push foward same postion saftey as a 700

I would wait a few months for the new Marlin XT22 youth models to start shipping.

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/xt/default.asp

Accu-style trigger as on the X7 centerfires, Synthetic stock desgin with a close grip for kids. And American made.

Hard to beat at less than $200.

Click on the YR and YSR models with the synthetic stocks.

Cool rigs for kids.

I bought my oldest daughter a Chipmunk made by Oregon Arms when she was 6 years old (she's 21 now) and taught her how to shoot with it. Over the years my other two younger kiddos learned to shoot with that rifle too. We still have it. Oregon Arms no longer exists, don't know what happened to em' or the Chipmunk. It's a fine little rifle. Peep sights, single shot bolt action, manuel cocking knob, only weighs 2 and 1/2 pounds. Great rifle to learn on.

I am looking at buying a CZ Scout for my kids. Not the exact match you are looking for but a quality accurate 22.


ddj

The guy at the gun counter at one of the shops up here said that is the one nice .22.. Bit larger than what I am looking for, but definitely a nice piece of hardware.. Thanks again for the replies guys.. Think I'll hold off a bit until I can check out that new line from Marlin.

I started my nephew out with a CZ452 Scout and had great results with it. It has both a clip and a block so that they can start with a single shot and graduate to the 5 round clip.

Stevens Favorite!

I've handled the XT22 and while it was nice, @6 lbs it feels a bit muzzle heavy. The CZ Scout with its odd safety is only 5.1 lbs and has better balance. Buds has been running a "Sale" on the Pink" Scouts for the last couple of weeks and the cost is $207 shipped. The sale is random so you need to check often to hit the price. I've purchased 2 over the last couple of weeks. The "Pink" can be stripped off and the wood underneath refinished.

One more advantage to the CZ is that you can get one of the Manners, Boyd�s or McMillan replacement stocks and he can enjoy the Scout for many, many years, maybe even passing it on some day.

The CZ scout sounds like a great choice. I own a couple of their centerfires and think they make a great gun.

I've got 2 young children that are nearing the age where I'm thinking about teaching them to shoot. I've been looking hard at the TC Hotshot break open, single shot rimfire. They retail for less than $200 around here and seem like a neat little rifle. I like the fact that they break open because it will be very simple for them to see and understand loading and unloading.

Lots of interesting choices out there for a 1st gun. In reality, it probably matters much more to us what gun they start shooting with than it does to them, assuming quality guns are used and proper training and safety are taught.

Check out the Savage Cub w/accutrigger.

That TC looks pretty neat.

I bought my nephew a Savage Cub and it has been fantastic. He has put around 1000 rounds through it with no issues. It came with a peep sight but also drilled and tapped. I just scoped it for him last week.

This is what I bought my daughter. Neat little gun, although the trigger pretty much sucks.

http://cz-usa.com/products/view/cz-452-pink-scout/

I bought both a Marlin 15y and a Savage cub for my boys. The savage cub with accu trigger is hands down winner.

Bearcat74 where did you find bases for the Savage cub? I have looked everywhere and can't find a set.

Dink

Dink, Weaver #16's or #24's, either will work and you will need two, one for front and rear. I got two #16's for my nephews Cub and everything bolted right up.

+1, it seems to be a copy of the chipmunk. Some of the other you rifles are too heavy for the typical 5 year old. I bought one for my kids when they were 5 year olds and they learned to shoot with them. They are quite accurate.

I too did a Chipmunk for the kid, but would not on a second go around. Too hard for them to pull the cocking piece back and the trigger sucks big time.

Thanks.

Dink

Looking back on my beginnings, at that age I enjoyed BB guns and pellet rifles a lot more than .22s. Might have been 'cause I had the latitude to go into the deep woods w/o parental oversight with such contraptions, but not powder guns.

When I started bringing home bunnies, squill and the odd quail now and then, Dad got me a H&R Topper in .410 and I got to go hunting with the 'grownups'. Was probably around 9 or 10 when that happened.

It's very easy to make the CZ trigger much better.

The only problem with the CZ Scout is that they didn't make the grip proportionately smaller for kids' hands.

Paul

I just bought my Grandsons a Marlin 15Y Little Buckaroo that I found on GunBroker . NIB $130.00 including shipping . I trained my son with the same gun , and this one is just like it , down to the atrocious trigger . The trigger is easy to fix , just change out the sear and trigger springs with lighter ones and stone the sear enough to smooth it up . Put a weaver C-4 tip off on it , and it puts bullets through one hole at 25 yards with boring regularity .

After reserach I have narrowed my choice to a Marlin XT-22YSR. Hard part now is finding one... Any one know where I can find one?