Originally Posted by Oldtimr

As much as some people hate to admit it, some kids are not physically ready or capable of handling and using a shot gun as early as others are. Better to wait till they are ready than hurt them with a gun that they cannot not handle the recoil from. When you are talking about hunting big game, using an unsuitable firearm and having wounded animals is not a good lesson for the kid. In PA when I started hunting you had to be 12 yoa. That didn;t seem to slow down kids from wanting to hunt.