Teaching children

[Avalon-One]

My two sons (17 & 14) would both like to shoot. We do archery and shoot airsoft pistols in the garden, but they're desperate to use the airguns. As I'm selling my ProSport, that leaves a PCP and .177 pistols.

What would you suggest? I'm thinking that the best option would be to join the local club, but when I last looked, admittedly a while back, it seemed quite expensive, what with membership plus a fee each time you shoot. Now that I'm facing losing my job / career due to ill health, I'm on even more of a tight budget.

Also, what would you recommend starting them off with, rifle, pistol, or doesn't really matter? As I've mentioned, they already enjoy using an airsoft pistol in the garden. I'm leaning towards letting them have a try with the pistols, because they would be lower powered than the rifle and they already use a pistol.

Sorry if I'm rambling on, I'm not at best in the morning! Anyway, what's your advice folks?

My situation is similar (wife has worsening health issues, i’ve closed my business and i’m now a full time carer, kids are 8 and 10), I’m getting ‘us’ back into shooting as it’s something we can all do together unlike many of the other activities which are child specific - the kids enjoy it, the local range is seated and indoor so relatively wife/wheelchair friendly and my kids learn proper etiquette, unlike when I learnt to shoot. It’s also great to get them out of the house if the weather’s crap and my wife needs a rest. The down side is it’s not really that cheap to get started if you buy your own kit, but then again neither are any of the other sports or groups they do. I often compare Cubs/Scouts to Scientology - as soon as they get a woggle round your kids neck it’s up to three figures a month on trips/activities/membership! The up-side is buying used means you don’t take the hit on ‘new’ kit and you always have some residual value if they decide not to persue it (unlike the £50 football boots they wore twice).

The way I approached it was small steps at a time, I took them along for an hour to our local range using club equipment, while slightly more expensive, it lets them try a number of different options. PCP is great in this respect, as unlike when I learnt to shoot, they don’t need to wrestle a break barrel every shot (again wife friendly as she gets tired very easily). It became clear the youngest isn’t quite big enough for a full size rifle, so a pistol works best for him, the daughter is becoming quite precise with the S400 and now i’m looking to buy something similar.

The other advantage is I have something I can do for an hour during the week that lets me get out of the house, doesn’t require constant mental juggling of medication schedules, hospital visits, being a husband/father/carer, it’s just me, an s400, 100 pellets and some targets without any distractions.

If you’ve read this far then one thing that may help you and the kids is your local Young Carers group, unfortunately as you’re aware kids with adults who have health issues often have to take on more than other children at the same age, Young Carers is about helping them and do everything from days out, to giving them extra support at school and someone to talk to if they need it. I wasn’t keen at first, but they’ve really helped with our two.