I think that he is very lucky to have you to teach him these things.
When It comes to safety, A lot of people are in the frame of mind, that as long as you teach a young person how to handle a gun safely then that is all there is to it.But, that is only part of it.
We don't stop to think, the biggest issue in safty is, we half to watch the other guy.
I was walking up a dirt road just yesterday, and all a sudden people started firing shots over my head. I had to yell to let them know I was there. Seems they were all drunk and had set some beer cans in the road and was target practiceing.
You never know what idiot, may be drawing a bead on you.
People blast away at everything they hear, especially during deer season!!
My main concern in deer woods is not me shooting someone else , but someone shooting me!
In my opinion, 8 years old is too young, not because he hasn't been taught to be safe. But, at 8 years old he really don't have the experiance to keep an eye out for the real danger, "the other guy".