Posted on 12/12/2012 5:38:05 PM PST by RightFighter
I'm looking for a recommendation for a gun for my son for Christmas. Just to lay out the basics - he just turned 15 and is about 6'3" and weighs 235. Yes, he plays high school football. His mother and I have been divorced for many years, and she absolutely forbids him to have anything to do with guns in or near her home. His cousin recently received a .22 pistol, and my son's mom wouldn't let him hold it. I don't know whether she knows (but I assume she does) that he has shot my HK .40 USP along with some rifles at a friend's house a few times.
I think it's important that he learn to respect guns and use them properly, so I'm considering getting something for him for Christmas.
So, the first question - should I start him out with a .22? I have looked at several possibilities. One is a Smith & Wesson M&P .22 pistol, seen here:
It's supposed to be a 1:1 copy of their larger caliber pistols. I played with it a bit and it's a really smooth pistol. Feels very nice in the hand. The other one that I have been gravitating towards is a little more "fun," I think. It's an H&K .22 AR-15 clone. This one is really well built, with metal parts where you expect metal parts on a "real" AR-15. As you can see, it's got all the rails that one would need to feel like they were building a true AR-15, and one day if he decided he wanted one, he could just sell this gun and move to a true AR platform gun.
Or, should I just go ahead and spend a few hundred more and get a "real" AR-15 or a larger pistol for him? I figure with a .22, he can shoot as much ammo as he wants and it's not going to cost much.
He is and so am I lol
“Yeah I can size up these situations pretty quick, it’s true”
If that is the case, then you should have already sized up that you look like a complete know-it-all, nagging wench on this thread.
ruger 10/22
oh uh, yeah, I am a nagging wench, sorry, always have been I guess, so whatever
Whatever you get him, send him to an appleseed clinic. http://www.appleseedusa.org
Ruger 10-22 is a simple and accurate weapon and it takes a 25 round magazine. A great starter gun. Its a lot of fun to shoot. We love ours.
I'm not the biggest fan of how yldstrk worded his advice to you, RightFighter, but he's got a point.
Please try to minimize any situation that makes your ex-wife look bad in your son's eyes. That will take some careful maneuvering on your part, especially when your ex-wife is in the wrong.
My advice: First sign your your son up for a solid gun safety course. Not only would that be good for your son, it should calm your ex-wife's down a bit.
But do not buy your son a gun. Buy yourself (wink, wink) a good 22 bolt action rifle, then take your son target shooting when you can.
And then on his 18th birthday, that rifle becomes his.
ALWAYS a long gun first...much easier to teach gun responsibility. After he proves himself, work in a hand gun very strictlt regulated...he never carries it anywhere and you keep a vital part of it in your possession...in 5 years or so, if he proves VERY responsible, give him more freedom with the gun.
Hmmmm... Female. Why am I not surprised. Whatever sex you happen to be one thing was certain in my mind, a lack of cojones.
Even a Glenfield or Marlin semi-auto is a good plinker. One of my favorites was the Marlin Model 75C. I have a Marlin Model 700 here with me now. The 75C has tube mag. Model 700, box mag. Easily found at a gunshow for $100. Those are both carbines. The full size version is the Glenfield Model 60. Much more common.
I also have a 10-22 and definitely agree that it's one very reliable rifle. My 10 year old son shot the crap out of it at the cabin last weekend..
That SCAR replica .22 is awesome!
Number Built: over 11 million, 1960 - present
That’s very true - and I’ll add that most of us were 6 or 7 when we received that first .22 rifle.
I killed a lot of squirrel and rabbit with that 75C...
Get him a good .22 semi auto rifle and spend a Saturday and Sunday with him at an Appleseed. Best two days of marksmanship and safety training you can get anywhere.
If you learn properly using a .22 at one, you can pick up another caliber rifle and be proficient very quickly. No lie.
Now matter what rifles you own, you should always have a good .22.
Talk to anyone who has attended them. Can’t be overrated.
Get a bolt-action rifle chambered for .243 Win. It can be used for varmints, deer, and target shooting, and is a fairly light recoiling round (so as not to offend his “yuteful” sensibilities). Teach him how to reload to save $$ on ammo.
Truthfully, while I like guns, I’m not a big fan of giving them as Christmas presents, any more than I’d give a gift wrapped monkey wrench, and for much the same reasons.
A gun and a monkey wrench are tools, and tools are not something you have a great emotional attachment to, which is a big part of Christmas presents. Christmas gifts are all about emotion and affection and memories. Practicality is pretty low on the totem pole.
A gun is a gift you might give a week before or a week after, or about any time of the year.
In this particular case, it also sounds like the father is giving a gift of a gun as sort of a passive-aggressive dig at his ex-wife. This makes it worse. Christmas is not a good excuse for pay back.
With the folding stock, it would be a nice backpacking gun too.
” I can tell a manipulative narcissistic move when I see it ...”
Caution, for thy dogma is about to be run over by thy karma.
;-)
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