youth auto for sporting clays

I have a 10 year old boy and 12 year old daughter. After hunters ed she expressed interest in trying the trap team but being in volleyball and club softball at the same time has her time spread thin. For now, she she would like to join with on occasional sporting class and trap just for fun for now. My son wants to start on some clays too. I am asking here if anyone has anything laying around that would work before I start calling gun shops. Send me a pm if you have anything for sale. Thanks

I posted a similar topic for my nephew and godson a few weeks back. He’s the size of an adult man in his early teens, but I ultimately was looking for something semiautomatic that he could grow with and use to shoot trap and geese without breaking the bank.

We shouldered a few different shotguns and ultimately I ended up ordering him a Tristar Viper G2 in the RT-Max 5 Camo. I have to pick it up this weekend if I get a chance to sneak away from other work. Once we get him out and shooting I can confirm how it goes. From my limited sample size, I’d give these a look though (if you end up choosing to go “affordable” and new).

Thanks BB. I also thought of looking here first as we haven’t found the time to get to a good gun shop that I though might have some inventory! This weekend alone was 2 weddings, inlaw famiily christmas, 3 kids bday parties, 1 softball tourney, and one playoff fb game. Many of you know how it goes!

Look at SKB. They make youth gun with adjustable L.O.P. They are going to grow at some point and then you will be looking for another gu. 1 and done with these. Lots and lots of kids are shooting these guns. Get a 12ga. Recoil will be about the same as 12ga.

snelson223 wrote:

Get a 12ga. Recoil will be about the same as 12ga.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

Check out my review of the excellent TriStar youth 20 gauge. This shotgun includes 2 stocks so it can become a full size gun as they grow.

TriStar Viper G2 Synthetic Youth Shotgun – The full review.

Bypass the gun shops and order online. Get exactly what you want and save the runaround.

I just read that today Grouse, thank you. It seems hard to beat for what I need at the moment. Looking for a local ffl right now.

Alagnak1 wrote:

Looking for a local ffl right now.

GunBroker.com has an excellent tool for finding local FFLs that will complete transfers.

https://www.gunbroker.com/ffl/index

These dealers are already established within the GunBroker system so you can just use a pick list to select the dealer once you purchase.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>snelson223 wrote:</div>
Get a 12ga. Recoil will be about the same as 12ga.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

Meant to say 12ga will be about the same as a 20ga for recoil.

20g youth T star is on the way. Kids will love the red edition. If either of them get serious about SC or Trap then we’ll get them in their own 12s when the time comes. Thanks again to all for the help.

Alagnak1 wrote:

20g youth T star is on the way. Kids will love the red edition. If either of them get serious about SC or Trap then we’ll get them in their own 12s when the time comes. Thanks again to all for the help.

I think this is a good decision. Focus on enjoyment first. BTW, there is ALWAYS a market for a used 20 gauge youth gun. I have a line of parents ready to buy the 20 TriStar when my younger son is done with it.

Also, 12 vs 20, adults tend to fixate only on the recoil aspect. There’s another factor–12 gauges are heavier, thicker guns with a different feel and balance point that is very often difficult for young shooters to handle.

And pellet count matters only if the pellets are on the target. If you’re shooting 6 feet behind the target, you can be using an 8 gauge and you’ll still be missing. My son shot at least 6 rounds with 22/25 scores his first year out in trap with a 20 gauge. If you’re hitting them, you’re hitting them and that’s way more about fit and comfort than it is about flinging an extra eighth or quarter ounce of lead.

Update on the tristar. We finally got out to shoot this afternoon. The day we picked it up I was planning on stopping by a place to shoot but they weren’t open to the public on that day so we fished instead. So we’ve been waiting a few weeks to try it out. Well, my daughter hit her very first clay. I knew after her practicing shouldering the gun many times at home for a few weeks it fit really well and it’s very light. She shoots a .243 for WI deer and loves to bench shoot, she shot her first deer/4pt sat morning with my 212 savage in MN, likes to shoot for fun/practice any gun so far, etc so I was confident the recoil wouldn’t be an issue if I went this direction in a 20g for her fist bird gun. It did not disappoint in practice field today. She shot 2 boxes of shells! After her first 4-5 shots I asked if she thought there was much recoil. She said she didn’t really think about it and that it’s like shooting a .223 and didn’t notice the recoil. After her first lucky shot she missed a few of course but then she had a few more hits here and there and several hits in a row at few stations and hit around 15-17 all mixed sporting clays with the last 12 shells or so saved for the actual trap station shooting along with a Senior HS team shooter and his dad to show us the ropes. It was great for her to see the other two shoot and get a look at where the targets are going to go before trying the station herself. And, to see a decent shooter miss 6 in a row at a challenging station with the wing blowing hard and rain in your ear. Going to tear down and clean the tristar again right now- which is pretty easy as well. Good first impression on the gun. I hope she had half as much fun as I did the last few days- it seemed like anyway but those of you that are parents know what I mean.