Parents Of Junior Shooters

[Dave Wilson]

I'm going to be starting my 11 year old son in some the run and gun shoots by the fall/winter. Right now he is shooting Steel Challange stages at our club slosa.org, and has been since late last year. He is using a SigArms Trailside to shoot with so far starting at the "Low Ready" Position. As his toughest critic, I can say that he is very safety conscience and loves to shoot. He has been watching the grownups do their shooting and would like to do the draw and fire thing along with them. Here lies the problem though.... What gun??

My thoughts and some suggestions have been either a 686 7 shot in 38 spec. or a XD-9 4 inch.

Parents, What are your juniors shooting? What would you suggest for a blaster for a small hand sized junior??

Regards,

Dave Wilson

[SRT Driver]

My son has not started shooting yet but I've been thinking the same thoughts.

From my experience, a S&W revo might not be the best (ie. trigger weight and length of pull) unless it has been really worked.

A youngster (age 9) at the Nats did really well with a Glock 34. The XD would fit in the same category.

It all depends on what fits him the best. Why not let him shoot a few, at a local range that rents, and see?

[ipscron2000]

Dave

You might PM DaBlaster. That is Manny Bragg. I believe he is in charge of the junior program for USPSA. He should be very helpful.

RJ

[standles]

I started my daughter out at 14 with a G22. She shot it as recreation and competition for a while. She recently upgraded to a G35 with a dale trigger in it but can shoot anything I shoot now.

I also started her at low ready and worked up to the draw thing. We mastered it in the back yard and dry fire before we ever went to live rounds and then o a match.

Later, Steven

[Rising Sight]

I bought my 14 year old son an XD40. That pistol seems to fit him pretty well. He shoots the same major power factor loads that I shoot.

Some people claim that .40 minor has less perceived recoil than a 9mm. I was going to load minor loads for my son and than move him up to major when he was ready.

[Dave Wilson]

I had thought about the Glock line, but after he tried the grips, they were all a touch too big. He borrowed a XD to shoot and he liked it a lot, but I want to look at as many options as I can before shelling out the big $$$.

As far as the wheel gun goes I have a pistolsmith here localy ( Randy Lee of Apex Tactical) that makes the lightest reliable trigger I have ever tried. If we went that route I'm sure the trigger would end up just fine :-)

I did try looking on the USPSA site for more info, but didn't see a whole lot in either the main site or the junior section. I will PM DaBlaster for more info there.

Alden (my son) is doing his practice with an airsoft USP Compact right now. I have him shooting with it through any of the stages I practice at. A very safe way to work out all the kinks safety wise without that awefull phone call to his mom explaining the new orfice in his left foot....... (yes he's a lefty!) He is starting to go a bit faster than stopped, my only rule on speed while practicing so far has been "Nothing other than A Zone allowed " so he goes as fast as he can with good sight pictures and makes sure his hits are A zone.

He still will be shooting the .22 at the steel matches for a while untill I am really confident (as well as the others I practice with) in his safe gun handling abilities. My Girlfriend is an RO and range safety is a HUGE thing with her, she will not let anything safety related slip by. Consequently he is probably one of the more safety aware new shooters out there ( ok, maybe that was a Dad thing showing )

Thanks for all the input!!

[TriggerT]

Dave

You might PM DaBlaster.  That is Manny Bragg.  I believe he is in charge of the junior program for USPSA.  He should be very helpful.

RJ

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While I am sure Manny would be willing to help, I believe he has handed the Jr. Program off to Larry Houck (sp?). There were letters to that effect in one of the latest issues of Front Sight.

Good thread! I have been wondering about guns for young shooters lately as well. Did KC start with an Open gun? I see a lot of Jr.'s with Open guns, but I wouldthink they would be VERY large for their hands. Maybe a Caspian Open gun would be a little smaller, but still.

[Dave Wilson]

I see a lot of Jr.'s with Open guns, but I wouldthink they would be VERY large for their hands. Maybe a Caspian Open gun would be a little smaller, but still.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

TriggerT

I had thought going the open route as well for the lack of recoil compared to a stock gun. I think though I am going to start him off in a limited or production type class and see where we go from there. I know with his hand size my 1911 is still a bit much for him, close but not quite yet. Besides.... I am trying to convince him that he will like the 4oo-500$ limited more than those $2500 open rigs :-) I don't think he's buying it though (no pun intended)

[standles]

One more thing before I shutup. If you are open to modification on the gun then look at the glocks again and investigate what some pistolsmiths are doing with thinning the grips down for smaller hands. I have never handled one and basically only know they do it because of running across the discussions in forums. Seems like an option to look into.

Steven

[MarkS_A18138]

I started my daughter on a p22 at 8 and moved her to a 38 super at 9 and back to an open 9mm STI at 10. The best setup so far!!! I was told by Kay to start my daughter on optics. She loves that gun and would fight you if you tried taking it away. Also I have worked very little with her on iron sights, she picked my 38 super steel gun up and won d- class at our big single stack match last year. She has had no problems with picking up iron sights. Single stack gun is also a good choice in 38 super or 9mm.

I have one big thing to bring up teach safety first!!!!! I have been told on a number of occasions that my daughter was one of the safest shooters they have RO’d. That made me feel better than when she won her first match.

Next remember they are kids and don’t push to hard! Just have fun!!!! My daughter still brings her rage doll to every big match to watch!!!!

[lneel]

My son started shooting IDPA at 11 1/2 year of age. He started with a 1st Gen Glock 17 (No finger groves, slightly smaller). He shot that very well(safely). He is now almost 13 and I just gave him an SV. He has pretty large hands and it fits him and he has confidence in the pistol. I like it having a thumb safety and he knows I listen for the "click" of the safety going off on the push out to the target.

Lee

[dfwmiket]

Lee's son is a very well mannered, polite young man and ALSO an excellent shooter. Kudos to Lee for doing a fine job raising him. Most of the youth shooters I have met are very polite and friendly. That's whats great about shooting sports..........

Mike

[Carmoney]

Dave, that's great that you're starting your son in the shooting sports....I have had a great time shooting with my own two kids, Sam (12) and Jill (almost 14) over the past year and a half!

I'm a big believer that the revolver is an excellent place for kids to start out. Safe and simple, and really forces a motivated kid to learn the basic fundamentals of successful shooting: sight picture and trigger control. The kid can easily transition to any other type of handgun later on. Trust me on that.

Others' views may vary, but I would only go the open/optics route if the kid is getting discouraged.

Here's Sam at the 2005 USPSA Nationals:

[Dave Wilson]

Thanks to all for the great ideas for my son and sharing about your juniors.

After a local match a few months back a younger B class shooter finished a blazing serries of runs and walked back to where we we all waiting. I walked up to him and congratulated him on the run, and asked if he knew who had the biggest smile on the range... He looked up at me , smiled, and said ME!..... I shook my head at him and pointed at his Dad... "He does" I think we all have that chest swelling pride when our proginy does well.

Here's another part of it....

I'm thinking about going to the CR Speed belt system but I can only find it in size 34 and larger so far. What belts are being used?? I did try my 34" CR Belt on Alden and it wraps about 1.5 times around him. Oh to have that matabolism again!

I have seen the Bianchi in XS size the seems ok but a little more pricey, What are you using?

[Carmoney]

Sam's skinny and he uses a small (26"-30" waist) Gilmore belt and liner. We ordered it through Brownells and it's worked very well for him. A little softer than I prefer, not sure the CR holsters would work well on it, but the Safariland holsters are fine.

[lneel]

My son uses a 31" Wilderness Tactical belt with the plastic liner. It is very stiff and works great for our IDPA shooting.

[kurtb]

I started My 10 year old with a 9mm Witness. The grip fit his hands very well. They are relativly cheap and it will be awhile before he will be able to out shoot the gun. My next choice would be a CZ75B. CZ's are almost identical to the Witness. hovever the build quality is much better.

[JFD]

The Gilmore is not bad at all.

With 4 or 5 single stack mags and a ghost holster I had no complaints after 2 years of use. I had complaints when I switched to Limited and 21 round Para mags. The mags "leaned out". Not something that was really BAD, but all the talk here about the stiffness of the CR Speed belt made me buy one. I'm sticking with the CR belt because I can load it up with 4 Para mags and it doesn't flex at all.

My wife is using a new Gilmore with a Kimber L-10 set-up and 4 10 round mags. Just like me, she has no complaints about the belt. It's just not the best thing for Limited or Open mags.

[Bob Hostetter]

Just my 2 cents..................

When my daughter started shooting we had the same problem with the guns being too large for her hands. We tried several guns and had the best luck with a Browning Hi Power and a G17 that I recontoured the grip on.

We also do a recontour on the XD grip and it should work good as well. In fact thats probably what I would recommend.

[dshooter3]

I started my son with a s&w mod 66 in 38 special when he was 12. He was only able to shoot a few maches a year so i started him with a relvolver; becouse of the reliabality and safty aspect. He is now 14, adveradge hight and size. He has graduated to my limited gun, STI in forty. the only thing I did was to put in a short trigger and stippled the grip. He has had no problems at all. We just did lotts of dry firing to get him used to an auto.

[ShooterSteve]

My son is 12 and we started him about a year and a half ago with a Ruger 22/45. It worked real good and he likes it. Now he shoots my Glock 35, STI 38super open, but his favorite gun to shoot is an old Gold Cup open gun with an aimpoint in 38 super. He has shot 1 ipsc match, and had fun but both of us were plagued by gun problems, so it was a little frustrating. Many thanks to the match directors who let kids start from the low ready. I strongly feel that we are growing a new generation of shooters, while allowing them to start safely. I've been to a few matches where the people were so hung up on the rules that it wasn't fun to shoot with them,(and they wonder why people don't come back). Let the kids shoot, and let them shoot safely!!