Looking for pistol for young shooters

**sellahr** · June 29th, 2008, 06:16 PM

My girlfriends kids have an interest in learning to shoot a pistol. I was looking for and ideas on a good pistol to start them on. They are 13 and 10 in age. Im thinking my 9mm would be too big to start with.

Thanx in advance for all your help.

**knighthawk06699** · June 29th, 2008, 06:20 PM

Try out either a Browning Buck Mark in .22lr or perhaps a Walther P22 In .22lr. Both are a good starter pistol for a youngster I think.

**PisnNapalm** · June 29th, 2008, 06:41 PM

Any decent .22 pistol would do. Personally I recommend the Ruger MKIII, but I'm biased. The Buckmark and Walther P22 are good choices too. The grip on the P22 is smaller and will fit well in their hands.

**JoeWilliams** · June 29th, 2008, 06:57 PM

My boy has a great time with our Ruger Bearcat. It's a neat little gun, lighweight, accurate, tons of fun to shoot. Being a single action revolver, he only gets one shot at a time, with deliberate effort required to get to the next shot.

**str8shooter** · June 29th, 2008, 06:59 PM

All of the above, but add Beretta 21A .22 LR to the list. That's what I bought to use for teaching my 11 yo daughter after a couple tries with a .38 spc revolver and I highly recommend at least giving it a look. It has the advantage of a breakaway barrel for loading the first round. We found racking the slide of semi-autos was kind of intimidating for all my kids, so loading the first round this way, and then cocking the hammer so the first shot is SA made it a lot easier and fun to get used to.

It also makes a great ankle BUG when you're not using it to teach the kids.

**Cole** · June 30th, 2008, 11:14 AM

The first pistol I fired was a 1911 and I loved it. All the same, I agree that starting with a .22 LR cartridge means less recoil and cheaper plinking.

My personal experience would lead me to a single-action revolver.