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.

Both my kids started shooting at 5. - bb, air rifle and .22 at first. My daughter always wanted to shoot the next bigger size, once. She then learnedher limitationsand wouldwait another year to try again.She is now a teenager andshootsthe .30-30, .40 S&W, and 20 ga pump. She does not like the 12 ga pump. My son marks his progress in a two year lag behind her. Youcan feed off the kids actions and see their interestand ability.

Bringing them up too soon may bring in too muchrecoil andcould lead todevelopingbad habits and alack of interest. I now have my kids back toshooting a tack driving.22 rifle (I almost lost them to shooting due to apoor performing.22). The successful feelingof good shot placement, even on paper,isa good motivator.

I did thewhole Eddie the Eagle routine with both of them and kept the gunsin the safeas they were growing up. You have some good years ahead of you. - Good Luck!

My son just turned 4. He sat in my lap and shot the 22 long rifle yesterday while i held it. However, I feel that he is too young still to even carry a BB gun at this point. He is very smart, he just has a little bit too much energy at this age and I feel as though he isnt capable of containing it properly while holding a fire arm (Barrel Awareness for the most part). Other children i have seen would have no problem with the safet factor at this age, but mine seems to haev a little bit more uncontrolled energy at this age and therefore he will sit in my lap for a few years and shooting whatever I am holding until he is of the age where his awareness of objects and the direction they face is firmly imprinted in his mind at all times. Best of luck to everybody with their children and firearms.Its great to see so many people trying to get their kids involved with the outdoors when all i see in my little suburbia area is parents trying to get their children to sit still with a nintendo wii or some equivelant.

If you want to get a child to slow down,relax, pay attention, and listen.....then take him to the outdoors, its a mental wonderland!

I remember shooting a 22 with my Dad at 5 yrs.

i remeber shooting 22's way back. My dad shouldered the gun i sighted it and pulled the trigger.