I would say most 6 year old kids are not ready for a shotgun at all. Even at age 8, you’re really pushing it. Not just based on my kids, but other relatives, cousin’s kids, etc.

At the end of the day though, it depends on how bad they want to go. If you are pushing them *at all* it will be a miserable experience for you both when it comes to recoil. But if they are just begging to go and chomping at the bit, you better take ‘em.

If it is the latter, a 28 gauge is probably the best place to start someone that young. A .410 throwing a half ounce of shot is just too hard to hit anything with. A 28 gauge is the minimum I would start anybody on, and if they can handle more use more. Easier to hit stuff.

Yeah, my 6 year old still has a ways to go. We're still working on his left eye dominance and shooting. He's always shot his bb gun right handed and i just switched it up on him the other day when I put him behind a scope. He's shooting left handed now pretty well but we still have a decent amount of work ahead of us.

My 8 year old, however, is pretty gun savvy and a pretty good natural shot. BB gun, scoped 22lr, and his deer rifle all look really natural when he shoulders them. We were watching some different hunting shows a while back and he told me "I really want to bird hunt".