[:-]Well, it depends on your kid I guess. My boy shot his first at 10 years old with a lever action 44 mag which he still uses when ever I can get his lazy teenage arse out of bed . My girl is nine (going on 20) and is only 51 pounds and not strong enough to shoulder and hold a rifle yet. But dont tell her that...She is a hunting nut!! I have to tell her no when I go bow hunting cause thats the only time I really get to hunt and use my climbing stand. But when it is gun season, she goes out with me and my dad, she sits there quitely reading a book.I dont think there has been a weekend since mid-October when she hasnt gone deer hunting and we get up at 4:30am! We got some hand-me-down bootsfrom her brother that are to big but perfect for an extra pair of socks and stuffing toes with some hand warmers to keep her feet warm. She is dead on with a BB gun at 15 yards so I moved her back to 25 now for more practice. She tells everybody shes ready to move up to something that shes can actually hunt with. She helps gut and skinour deer, she has no problems with dead animals. Unless they are our family dog or horse, then she getsupset. But so do we all. She knows where meat comes from and that we eat the deer we shoot.

I will need to shoot a 243 before I buy one but thats what I want to get. I may have to but some slugs for her 410 shes fixin to start shooting as soon as I get a recoil pad for it.