Air Pistol 10 yr old suitable

[froggy]

I am considering a non Co2 + single shot air pistol for my soon to be 10 years old son.
Nothing too serious looking, kinda fun back garden plinking with an upper GBP 150 limit.
I am especially interested in feed back on the cocking action/effort so it is suitable for a child of his age.
Any suggestion ?

Many thanks,

[Countryman]

Ok well the first thing to remember is that your Son cannot shoot an airgun unsupervised until he is 14.

So with that in mind you would be there to load a springer or gas ram type pistol for him for some time.

Wouldn't you be better off teaching him precision and discipline with a decent quality pistol?

I RO Pony club Tetrathlon and we have lots of 10 year olds shooting mainly either Gamo PR 45 or Weihrauch HW40 break action pistols with assistance from a loader.

If this is not for you then don't write off airsoft. Some of the electric pistols are heaps of fun, cheap shooting.

[froggy]

Re-
Thanks VM . First I put your mind to rest : this will be an august B'day present but unsupervised shooting is a big no-no ...
HW40 was strongly suggested but as he tried a club's Gamo PR45 and finding it a tad hard to cock, I was wondering if both pistols are in the same category & require the same effort ?
The Buck Mark was an other suggestion with an easy operation .

[1066]

Can I ask why you have ruled out Co2. I know it's an added cost but you do get reasonably recoilless performance for very little money. My 12 year old grandson has a Weihrauch hw30s air rifle and soon gets tired with the effort of cocking it but loves shooting my Co2 pistols.

I have an old Hammerli single target pistol - very accurate target pistol although dating from the 1970's (£90ish)

I recently bought 2 x Walther CM2 (1990's) target pistols direct from Germany, around £200 each including postage and I have recently bought 2 x CP1 pistols direct from Poland (New £70 each including shipping) Sold in this country as the Air-force CP 1 at £160.

[Countryman]

My Dad bought me an ASI Paratrooper Repeater for my 9th birthday and a Webley Premier MK2 for my 10th.

I spend hours roaming with those guns (would be so illegal now) I was by far the strongest lad in my class at that age because I was so determined to cock it and shoot them unsupported.

Consider it character forming?

[Demonic69]

Get him a gat, anyone should be able to cock one!

[froggy]

Many thanks for your wise comments & suggestions .
I want to go down the single shot road as I feel it is more suited as a learning tool than "a blasting away" multiple shoots one. That will come in good time once he has mastered the basic skills & hits consistently what he intends to.
By now Max knows & enforces the 4 safety rules as second nature & I want him to be able to operate a pistol by himself (supervised) . I am not adverse to test the difficulty to cock the pistol but I don't want something too hard that will put him off.

[Demonic69]

Did you check out The Gat? It's a push-piston design so he can just apply his body weight to it.

[WelshShooter]

I used my clubs Gamo Compact when I first started air pistol shooting. Great starter pistol, and definitely capable of grouping 10p coin sized groups at 10m. I found that the wooden grip with palm rest makes it much better to grip and shoot compared to just a standard grip, plus the trigger is adjustable. It's just over your upper limit, at £166 with Sportsman Gun Centre, as shown below.

http://www.sportsmanguncentre.co.uk/pro ... -8-f-3177/

[froggy]

Thanks . The budget is not set in stone. That is what initially had in mind, as it is a very capable pistol, along side the HW40 but he tried my club's gamo & found it difficult to cock. I feel his pride might take a knock if he has to rely on me to reload it.
I think I'll start with a Buck Mark even if I up-grade to something more serious next year if he takes to it.