I will say that you can start a kid as early as you are willing to work with them,I started working with my daughter around three and she has progressed well, she took her first deer last year at the age of 7 years old. Of course with my supervision, as long as you are willing to put the time in and teach them the correct way to handle firearms and have consequences when they make mistakes, they will learn and pick it up quickly. My daughter started shooting with me and then as she progressed I moved her up to a BB gun on her own, then on to shooting the .22 off the bench by herself and on to the .243 off the bench with very close supervision. You put in the time and energy they will surprise you.