Hey Forum,

My son turned 5 on Monday and of course my gift to him was some father and son time at the range, accompanied by granddad, a real family affair. His first time behind the trigger...he had a fantastic time. Ran through a whole box of 50 rounds and was asking to fire more. It was an excellent night, I am one very proud dad

Trigger control was fantastic, the only real issue he had was getting a sight picture down the optic, so I am thinking of changing things up for the summertime (when we can get to the outdoor range) and going with a RDS and irons in absolute co-witness, instead of my optic. Which would make it easier for him, until he understands more about the dynamics of handling a rifle.

I would love to see what set ups you have.

Seeing as it is just for summer fun I am looking for a combo that is cheap and cheerful, that holds zero and does not break the bank.

May even throw on a flip to side magnifier for dad

The Vortex red dots, like the Strikefire and Sparc, are tough to beat.

I've heard good things about the Holosun/SIG Romeo as well as the Primary arms Microdots, though I only have experience with the Romeo.

None of the above are terribly expensive.

I think a magnifier will introduce the same eye alignment issues that you'd have with a scope. Probably best to use the RDS by itself.

My MP 15-22 is pretty much for the kids and has a Vortex SparcII on it. For intro to shooting kind of stuff that we do with the 15-22, the RDS is perfect.

I’m an advocate for introducing kids to shooting.

I much prefer using plain old iron sights for this purpose rather than anything fancier.

Started my Grandson at 8 with just the iron sights, then a cheep red dot nothing magnified.
Got his parents permission to get him a BB gun & he loves it.
I say get him a Daisy Red Ryder you'll both have a great time.
I assume you can shoot a BB gun in your back yard

Learn to shoot Iron sights first than move up

I started my daughter up at 5 yo also. She had a really tough time with iron sights so I put a fixed magnification acog style scope/red dot on it from primary arms and now she’s deadly accurate. Check those out as well but they do cost a bit more. I think the range options are from 2.5 or 3.5x fixed power and you get an illuminated etched retical so you don’t always have to have it turned on.

As she got older we went over using iron sights but she prefers the acog even now at 9 yo. Don’t feel obligated to start with irons for such a young kid. That’s something to teach them as their coordination and comprehension grow. Think of a bike with training wheels. IMO it’s best to build their confidence up with a slight handicap so as to not discourage them. I wanted my daughter to enjoy shooting and hitting the target with some accuracy was more important than teaching irons from the get go.

Can't beat a Daisy for training a little one.

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Old Age Ain't For Sissies

I have a Holosun 503c on mine on a 1/2" QD riser rail for absolute co-witness. (The sight comes with a low and high base but i wanted a QD mount so use the low base on a cheapy job i got from Ant Supplies which has been great so far). There are Holosun models that come with their own QD base. If i was buying today i'd probably go with the 515 model.

The Holosun is the best of all worlds for me, Aimpoint battery life (3-4yrs constant on), Eotech reticle (but is switchable between a plain dot and the dot + 65moa ring), solar cell power back up and farily reasonably priced. I got mine for £180 IIRC but even from UK sellers they're not ridiculous;

Holosun | Rifleworks Ltd for Vortex Optics

I've got FAB Defense 'iron' sights on mine as i already have two guns with Magpul MBUS on and wanted something different. I wouldn't recommend them for a small child though as they require quite a bit of force to deploy them and they can nip your fingers if you're not careful.

Its shown in the picture but i rarely use it, but i also have it set up so it can take a Vortex 3x flip magnifier;

15-22 4 by Mark, on Flickr

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