Hey Gang,

At what age did you introduce your kids to shotgunning? I have an eleven year old daughter that is following her Dad's footsteps in regards to hunting and shooting. She excels with the bow and is doing great with a rifle. I have had her on clays with a .410 and a back yard clay thrower for the past year, and I am wondering when to move her up to a 20 gauge and more serious shooting. What are your thoughts? She has a Franchi 620 waiting for her when the time is right.

Having worked with girl scouts and boy scouts stock length
is the most important gun fit issue for comfortable and and successful shooting. I used an 870 28 gauge for the girl scouts and a 870 20 gauge for the boys scouts and some times the 28 gauge for the smaller frames boys.

The 28 breaks birds like a 20 gauge and so much more comfortable to shoot for 11 year olds. Ammo cost may be an issue for you with the 28 gauge...I reload the 28.

Doc

I started at 8 with a cut down Greener SxS. I started my nephews at 10 with an altered 20ga 1100 and decelerator pad they both did well and are avid shotgunners today. I would suggest an altered semi 20 ga of some description as it will eat up some of the recoil.

Depends entirely on her. At her age and experience in other shooting sports I'd say she's likely ready for a 20, at least a gas semi-auto. And with a 20 the pattern is sufficient to go 25 on a standard trap range if the shooter does his part. At 4-H we'd move her to a 20 ga. Remington 1100 Youth Model (club guns) and see what happens. Or the little Franchi semi-auto which with the aluminum receiver is lighter. Weight can be a bigger problem than recoil. At that age arm/shoulder strength is generally yet to develop, particularly with girls. Keep in mind that with gas guns felt recoil is roughly 1/3 of a locked action and are as safe as any loaded one round at a time.

Fit on the youth models may not be competitive trap shooter perfect but it is plenty close enough for the standard size shooter at less than a seriously competitive situation.

We have a Rem 870 in 28 ga. with a cut down stock on loan from one of the instructors. I don't like it, recoil is about the same as the 20 gas guns and balance is poor. It does work well for some of the recoil shy bigger shooters where the fit makes more sense.

Do stay away from the single shots, by and large they are horrid. I've seen bigger kids that could easily handle a 12 ga. 11-87 give up in the middle of a round because of felt recoil with the light weight and poor stock design.

Look for a mainly social youth shooting club, hopefully with good, certified instructors. We run our local 4-H Shooting Sports trap that way and 4-H clubs are supposed to do that but some lean on competition too much. With us we'll coach and encourage competition if the shooter wants it. If you just want to shoot for fun with friends that's perfectly fine with us.

Good advise so far. I will second the 20ga auto. I started my oldest at 8 with a 20 ga. auto youth model. He is about average height, thin but with a athletic build. He handled the gun well and recoil wasn't to bad for him even with heavy hunting loads. He killed his first goose a few weeks after I started working with him. A light auto is the ticket, its light enuff for younger shooters to handle but the auto tames recoil a bit so they won't get beat up. Recoil is the biggest thing that detures kids from wanting to shoot.

My youngest took the gun over when he was 10. He is thinner and smaller than his brother so it took him a while to be able to handle the gun and grow Iinto it. He is 12 now and does ok with it.