Youth Shotgun Help

Hi,

Thanks again to everyone for their input. There is a lot presented here I had never even thought about. I had never considered the button safety on an 870 being a problem for a lefty and it is nice to know that you can change the safety.

I am more excited about looking at guns for the boy than I have ever been about buying a gun for myself. I have printed off the specs for a number of the guns mentioned in this thread and the boy and I will go to the big town and look them over once the season has ended.

We are going to have so much fun over the next few years.


Thanks again.

My best,

Don
 
my son started shooting with me at 7 yrs old. i pickup a new england 20 single shot . i took measurements off his red ryder bb gun which fit him pretty good. i cut stock to those numbers and added a recoil pad. i also reamed barrel to a more open choke for steel. the best part about this gun to me was the safety factor. he had only 1 shell in gun at atime and you would see if the hammer was set. the gun made no difference if rt. or left handed. its a cheap gun to buy new or used and stocks are still offered .good luck
 
I am truly a righty but I am left eye dominant so I shoot lefty , play pool lefty. All of my guns except for my doubles are left hand. Two LH 1100's and others. My Son is just the oposite a true lefty but shoots right. If at all possible I would try to get your son to shoot from the right shoulder. To me it makes more sense. If your strong arm is your left, why would you want to hold your gun up and aim with your week arm. If your Son want to put the gun up on his right shoulder let him go with it. Left hand guns are hard to come by and more expensive. I take out plenty of hunters that shoot from the left but use right handed guns. The world is geared for right handed people, just ask anybody thats left handed. Its a lot easier for a left handed person to do right handed things then for a righty to do left handed things. Did you ever try to cut a piece of paper with a left handed sissors?
 
Think about this really hard before you make him a lefty. Shooting left handed dooms people to requiring special treatment in all their firearms endeavors. Almost every gun in the entire world is built to be fired right handed. Your son might one day want to shoot an Ak 47, SKS, AR 15 or just walk into a store and purchase a used rifle or shotgun, or just need to borrow a gun at some point. If he shoots left handed he will never be able to use some of these weapons properly and he will never be able to find a used firearm. My feeling is that you should think of your sons ambidextrous tendencies as a wonderful opportunity for him to overcome what would be a life long handicap/burden. Try to teach him right handed. At his age and with no previous habits to break he stands a good chance of picking it up and learning to be a natural good shot.

Ask some lefties how irritating requiring special treatment is. In fact just the fact that you can't seem to find an appropriate youth shotgun that's a lefty proves this point. Imagine walking into a gun store and finding that every single gun, except for one or two, is left handed. Now you don't have any options, you can only choose from the weapons that are special made for people like you. They can probably order one for you but you can expect to pay full price and really never get to pick the thing up and feel it out before making a decision.

If you want your son to shoot left handed I would suggest getting him a right handed shotgun to learn on so he can begin to compensate right away. He will be shooting right handed guns left handed the rest of his life so he might as well get used to it.

I don't mean any offense. I wish you luck. Just want to point out the gravity of the situation your in (in case you haven't thought of it) so you can make the best decision possible for your son.
 
Just a thought.If your son is left eye dominant I believe he'll be a better wing shot shooting
lefty because he can shoot with both eye's open.As a right handed shooter he'll always have to
close his left eye.Not a big deal with scoped or open-sighted rifles , but tougher on moving
targets especially fast flying targets. I've had some experience with this.Good luck.
 
Lots of good advice and I'll not repeat it. I will add however to never get one of those single shot cheapie shotguns with the cocking hammer that acts as the safety. Huge mistake and while a cheap way to start off, these guns are inherently unsafe in my opinion. Witnessed more than one go off accidentally.

Mark W
 
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