hi all. what a great day it is for me! got my 3 yr. old her first gun! bought her a pink cricket 22lr. while it isn't the best thing going, it is nice because it is considerably scaled down for her size. also, i like the fact that you have to manually cock the action to fire it. very nice!! she isn't quite strong enough to pull the cocking mechanism back yet, so it is an extra bit of safety. went out last night to look for coyotes and deer sheds. i'll i can say is that it had to be one of the greatest thrills of my life! she not only listened to me, but was very careful in her gun handling and was very quiet when sitting and calling for coyotes. she asked lots of questions which i was very impressed by. wanted to know what the tracks were and why the "trees were all torn up"! i think i have a keeper here! anyways, to get back to my question. i would like to purchase a sling for the cricket gun but i don't have any idea if anyone makes a sling that is scaled down for the smaller size of this rifle? being she is still young, she is finding it hard to walk while holding the rifle for too long. although, she insisted on walking probably a quarter mile while holding it!! i am not looking for anything fancy, just something that will hold up to rough use and can be adjusted to fit her. thanks, keith

Im going off my memory of a rifle that I started out with. I believe it was a lil marlin single shot with the manual cocking knob in the back. It was cut down for a lil turd like I was, to use. Similar to the cricket though

Seems like we had a regular leather militarystyle sling. That had been trimmed down in length.

Also something to think about as she gets older. I had trouble cocking it by myself after a couple shots I couldnt pull it back. We made a leather loop with a split in it to fit over the cocking knob. I could slip my hand in the loop an was then able to pull it back. Worked great.

thanks, the military sling seems to be a good idea.i also thought about one of the cheaper ar-style slings. they are nylon and the loop is formed by a screw-type deal. figured i could cut that down and just make a new hole. thanks for the cocking knob idea. right now, it's a plus that the gun can't be cocked by her. while she is exibiting good gun handling skills, she is still only 3. better to leave that part of it to me! hopefully, if she stills shows an interest, the cricket will be put aside for a cz 452 somewhere down the road. by the way, didn't go with the scope mount. i feel that iron sights are becoming a lost art and i want her to learn to shoot with the irons first. besides, at this point i want her to just get comfortable holding and firing. we'll concentrate on the aiming at a later point.

OH,

I took my 4 year old granddaughter to the local gun show a couple of years or so ago and she also wanted a pink "pow pow" which was also a Crickett. Haven't had a chance to let her shoot it yet but hope to as soon as the weather warms up some.

I got good deals from the NRA on making her a Life Member so I did so. Also did that for my 11 month old grandson. I have to get him a Crickett too but of course it won't be pink. It will be walnut and blue steel.

I totally agree with your thoughts on using the iron sights. I didn't need scopes until I was over 40 years old.

Glad to see the tradition carried on!

Thanks...Bill.

I agree with the iron sights to start out with. And agree with it being a plus that she cant cock it for now. After I somewhat outgrew the marlin it was passed to the next kid in the family an I moved up to a 94/22 with a scope. It is now back to iron sights an giving squirrels a run for thier money.