Quote Originally Posted by Drew451 View Post
A 75 or 300S is torture when your 12. An HW30S should be a good bet, although I'd look for a Diana 24D, myself. A Diana Diopter 60 or 75 would top it off nicely.
All the best in the sport.
Agreed. I started at 12-13 with a Diana 66. I could get great groups rested, but even with the barrel weight removed, taking it down from 10.6 pounds to around 9, and allowing for a very light cocking stroke, I still found it a bit on the big lumpy tiring side of things. And I'm 6'2" now and was a pretty large teenager, especially by early 1980s standards. In retrospect, I'd have been much better off starting with something like a Diana 27S, modern HW30, or old HW50.

Kids do much better with lighter rifles as starters. My son has mostly shot with an LG55 with no barrel weight and a shortened stock that IJ sold me a couple of years ago. He's now 5'8" (at 13), so could now move to me fitting the full-length spare stock that I picked up a while ago. But my other half (5'4") likes the short 55. Maybe I need yet another gun?