The rule for my family (and it's a large extended family) is the same as when we were kids. We got BB guns at 9 and our father taught us gun safety with it. When we were 10 we were allowed to go hunting with him but we could only carry the bb gun. We were however allowed to shoot an HR 20 ga. single barrel at clay pigeons as much as we wanted as long as an adult was behind us for safety purposes. We each got our first 20 ga. H&R for our 13th Christmas (4 boys).
We keep the same rules now, my daughter currently has her bb gun and will inherit my 20 ga. next year for Christmas after she turns 13(since I don't have a son to pass it down to). We have been taking our daughters/nephews and nieces out when they turn 10 and they have a ball (every one has sworn to hitting a flushing quail with their bb gun
). The bb guns are light enough not to wear them out and their imagination does the rest. In fact we even found a brass bb in one quail which they all took credit for.
We keep the same rules now, my daughter currently has her bb gun and will inherit my 20 ga. next year for Christmas after she turns 13(since I don't have a son to pass it down to). We have been taking our daughters/nephews and nieces out when they turn 10 and they have a ball (every one has sworn to hitting a flushing quail with their bb gun
). The bb guns are light enough not to wear them out and their imagination does the rest. In fact we even found a brass bb in one quail which they all took credit for.
