Teaching a kid to shoot...paper or steel/cans first?

[WoodsCraft]

We grew up shooting 22's and didn't see a BB gun or pellet rifle till I was nearly a teen . Shooting cans was fun

 

[sh00ter]

If he can't hit the cans put him on paper so he can see where the shots are landing.
Balloons filled with water hanging low from a tree branch will make for good fun.

I have done that for us adults.
Hang 5 on one side of the trunk and 5 on the other side and make it a competition to see who clears their balloons first.

Make them different sizes and hang them way out there if you can after he gets really good.

Good idea, thanks. Something also I highly recommend to my brothers here is the challenge of shooting an adult Red Ryder with SCOPE mounted on it. I like to put cans on chopsticks and put them all over the yard at different distances and see how far I can stretch it with such a loopy trajectory of that rifle.

 

[sh00ter]

Another +1 on the balloons! I used to cover the range with them and just let the boy go nuts.

Another fun one is printing paper "targets" of the bad guys of their preferred game or show. Coloring books or sheets are great resources for this.

They also have some paper targets that are game based like battle ship or poker.

Print targets with large shapes, colors, numbers, elements from the periodic table, etc and put up multiple at the time. Then you call the shots for them ie. "Shoot the blue square. Shoot the purple octagon...

If you can get a cheap matching game from the dollar store put a bunch of those up and go nuts.

We will be shooting the gingerbread house left over from Christmas as well.

 

[sh00ter]

I think steel or any reaction targets would be the best.

My son will shoot maybe 10-20 rounds on paper before he gets bored and looses interest. Steel, I have to remember to bring more ammo for him.

LOL I can see that being the case...another thing I recommend for adult kids is if you are a glock fan, get one of the blowback glock CO2 guns and setup a pistol range in your garage...lots of fun. And eventually I will use this to teach the wife and kids to handle and shoot glocks properly...for now we gotta have a safety

 

[WoodsCraft]

Animal Cracker Safaris are fun for the younger kids might try those

 

[swampratt]

I like revolvers and pistols with "only a primer" and shoot crayons or wax slugs or hot glue slugs.
In a revolver the primer will back out and sometimes jam up the cylinder.

I have a bag of Primer loads only brass in which I drilled out the primer hole a little larger so the primers do not back out.

 

[HFS]

Animal Cracker Safaris are fun for the younger kids might try those

If you have stale cookies or crackers they make good biodegradable targets.

 

[bigred1]

Started my grandson on tin cans the other day.....he's having a ball.

 

[Okie4570]

A buddy gave me this idea and my grandson loved it.

Buy the cheapest red soda pop you can. Shake a couple of them up at a time and let him / her shoot them with the BB gun. They explode and that is a WOW factor like no other for a kid.

In fact, he finally wanted to go back in so my son-in-law and I shot up the rest of them

This above. Cheapest pop that the kid likes, pop a few and drink a few. As long as it moves when it's hit and it makes for a good time is all that matters. Move on to paper once they get their "expert" credentials lol.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Hell, go straight to tannerite and a .223 bolt gun!