My boys started out, and still pretty much use, two guns.

First was the same exact gun pictured earlier in the forum. The mossberg 500 youth gun. We have two barrels, one is 26 inches (I think) w/ a vent rib and choke tubes. The other is the rifled, ported 20 gauge. It still does kick a bit, but they started shooting it when they were 7 or so with little problems. The rifled barrel combined with partition gold sabots will flat bust a deer out to 150 yards easy, (of course, I limit my kids to about 80 yard broadside shots). Also, it really has great terminal performance, the boys have taken 3 or 4 with it in the last three years, all clean shots through the deer with devestating damage.

The other gun is a T/C Black Diamond muzzle loader. At first blush you may think it not a reasonable gun, but let me finish. I took a used Black Diamond and cut 4 or 5 inches off the barrel and recrowned it. Has about 19 inches or so of barrel left. I then took two or three inches off the stock, put several ounces of lead in the stock cavity and put a limbsaver recoil pad on it. Topped that off with a Bushnell Dusk to Dawn 3x9 scope. Makes for a very nice and handy scout type rifle. We use 70 grains of 777 loose powder and Hornady 240 grain XTP hollowpoint bullets.They have killed 5 deer in the past three years with the m/ler and every shot has been a clean passthrough with a good blood trail. At 100 yards it shoots a pretty decent 2 inch group.The lighter load, combined with the lead in the stock, results in a light to moderate "shove" rather than a kick. All the guys here love the gun and tease my boys that they are going to sneak it out of the truck.

My oldest son, now 11, much rathers the muzzle loader to the 20 any day. This is a good option, because with this gun they can hunt in both the gun and m/l seasons. They only have one shot, but so far, that is all they have needed with either gun.

Good luck
Hank