My son started out with a red rider BB gun at age 4. We started out hunting empty soda cans that I set on the wood pile. Once he learned how to use the open sites properly knocking down soda cans, then I put up some paper targets for him. We spent a year with the red riderBB gun, the next year I brought out my Browning BL22 for him. He was off to the races after that. He’s now shooting his own 222 rem.