The BSA Merlin is a biazarre piece of kit, not a toy, not a real gun, what the flip was that all about? I am investigating it shortly.

My Dad got us shooting with a BSA Meteor, same as the rest of you.

However, I think that I will teach my nephew and any other young 'uns on the HW30S.

I BELIEVE that the true inheritor of the 'junior gun' crown has actually been passed to the CO2 rifle, for example the Chinese copy of the Crosman 160 known as the QB78 can be modded to almost any stature of shooter, I think there was one on here for a 6-year old (supervised obviously), and there are fun and accurate rifles like the Walther lever-action and the Beretta Storm etc to get the kiddies interested.

I would NEVER use a repeater as a starter gun though, and I would chose the HW30 as it all starts with the sight picture and the trigger press (squeeze, whatever).

Dads nowadays all have PCPs and the kids want what their dads have got (apart from financial woes, beer-guts etc) so most airgun Dads buy a AA 200S for the son/daughter and keep it as a back-up to their AA S400. Innit?

I might have a look at a HW25 one day but it is not THAT much lighter than the HW30.

In response to edbear2's original post - Only POSH KIDS could be bought new air-guns in the 50s 60s and most of the 70s, and as we know, Posh Kids are responsible tiny adults who have huge estates to practice in....