My 7year old daughter shot for the first time this weekend!!

[jblomenberg16]

Like many of you, our family likes to celebrate the 4th of July with family, fellowship, fireworks, and firearms. This year our 7 year old daughter was pretty curious and I asked if she'd like to try shooting. (She's said "no" in the past). This time she said she would, so after some safety instructions, we got her set up with the trusty Marlin 60 .22LR. Papaw volunteered to help coach her, just like he did with me about 30 years ago.

After 3 or 4 shots, we had her ringing a steel plate at 100yds! Her reaction below sums it up (faces blurred intentionally).



What was great was that she kept wanting to shoot more, and each time she'd hit the steel she'd give a thumbs up. Afterwards she asked if she could have her own pink gun. So...looks like I'm in search now of a pink .22.....

 

[IndyDave1776]

Awesome story!

 

[Sheepdog Gear]

That's great! I'm thinking about this one for my daughter....

But she's younger so the lightweight Cricket is probably the route I'll go....

 

[Joniki]

That is great!

My daughter showed no interest in shooting until she was in college. Now she shoots more than I do.

 

[VanillaThunder]

Repped, good work! Might suggest buying the 10/22 over the cricket, or in addition. She will outgrow the cricket pretty quick.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Repped, good work! Might suggest buying the 10/22 over the cricket, or in addition. She will outgrow the cricket pretty quick.

Thanks guys! I was thinking 10-22 as well. She did pretty good with the Marlin 60 shooting off a rest, so think she'll do fine with the 10-22. Would also be easy to put a scope on it for squirrel hunting.

 

[buckstopshere]

You might want to give the Marlin 795 a look as well. I'm not sure it comes in pink though but they're excellent little .22s

+1 for getting your daughter shooting

 

[Mark 1911]

Awesome!

 

[dugsagun]

Nice! My 10yr old nephew shot his first handgun this weekend. He shot rifles before but never really cared to shoot anything else. I brought my 10.5" barreled blackhawk in 357max (with mild 38 special loads heh) and he actually wanted to shoot it. We had a good time.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

What a great photo.

Check out the CZ452 Scout. I have bought 5 for the nephews, and 1 for Uncle Kirk.

It comes in pink now.

CZ-USA CZ 452 Scout, .22Lr, Beech, Single Shot Adapter -- CZ-USA

 

[Bonkers4Bacon]

 

[jblomenberg16]

As you guys expect, I'm pretty proud of her, and hope this will be something she wants to stick with. I'm sure a pink rifle will help. I had visions of a pink furniture AR-15, perhaps with a .22 kit in it, but not sure of that yet.

Another highlight of the weekend was getting two family friends on the line that hadn't shot before either. One grew up in Cincy, and was not exposed to guns growing up, other than they were "bad." She got on the line and proptly hit 5 for 5 with the same .22 my daughter shot. I asked her if she wanted to try to shoot an AR15, explaining that the operation was exactly the same as the .22 she just shot, only with a louder bang and a slight amout of recoil.

She agreed, and I loaded 1 round to give her a chance, with promise for more if she wanted them. She was shooting my M&P15 with ACOG, so she was able to easily see the 100yd steel. 1 shot, 1 round almost dead center, and one huge smile! "That wasn't so bad" were her words. She even posed for a facebook "Selfie" with it after the shot.

Great weekend and we have a few new shooters!

 

[PRasko]

I read the title to this thread, opened it, and only saw the top half with you holding up your thumb...

Totally misread the title

Glad ya'll had fun, and keep the good times rollin'

 

[searpinski]

Great picture! I love to see traditions like this being passed on to the younger generations.

 

[dmarsh8]

 

[Redhorse]

 

[ryknoll3]

I read the title to this thread, opened it, and only saw the top half with you holding up your thumb...

Totally misread the title

Glad ya'll had fun, and keep the good times rollin'

^This. My first sarcastic thought when reading the title was, "Is she OK?"

Glad you had a good first experience.

 

[Hop]

My daughter is quite a bit older but quickly moved out of the 10/22 compact and currently favors the pink camo S&W M&P15-22. The compact is amazingly accurate, more so than the M&P, but it's not pink.

 

[87iroc]

Congrats! My daughters next gun will be that laminated 10/22. I am not impressed with the cricket.

 

[guitslinger]

That's great. I loved to go shooting with my dad at that age. Can't wait til my little girl is old enough to go.