Rifle for baby boy due in June

[ndmiller]

Each of my kids has a nice stripped lower sitting in the safe.
My son is 5 and likes guns, shooting occasionally since he was 3. His first shots were with a 5.56 AR, but he's also shot other rifles, and an M&P9 Shield.
He just got is his first rifle for Christmas, a Savage Rascal .22.

+1 on both. Although a lower and a drop in auto sear could make you the best parents ever!!! I grabbed a pink rascal for my daughter for $80 new (no-one wanted pink) and I put some proper peeps on it and take it to the range occasionally. Tack driver @ 25 yards, literally 1 hole groups, amazing. Joined an outdoor range and will take her this summer to shoot it.

I bought the Cricket for my daughter first and a Marlin for my son. I never shot either and would not recommend them. There is no traditional safety on the Cricket and the Marlin Safety was a POS bent sheet metal that I didn’t see being handed down. The Savage was solid! I can’t find it now. Looks like the Rascal replaced it. The Rascal is shorter but I liked the wood stock on the one I bought my girls. The Cricket safety is part of the bolt and was nothing I wanted to teach my kids on. I sold both and bought the Savages.

+1 as well, although I never bought the Cricket or Marlin, but was close until I found the Rascal. The difference in quality was very apparent.

[grizzlyblake]

Any thoughts on what would make a good forever gun for a boy?

[Sry0fcr]

Definitely need more ARs. I’ll be somewhat content once I have a quality primary and secondary AR for everyone in my house. Right now I’ve got quality primaries, but only so-so secondaries. But I’m glad you brought this up, my wife suggested I buy a gun for my daughter when she was born a few months ago. I keep going back and forth on what it’d be (practical handgun vs .22 or PCC mostly) but an AR makes perfect sense for all the reasons you stated. The only problem is that I’d rather buy one that I want and give her my old one, instead of buying something practical like a factory Colt or BCM and keeping it in the box. I don’t know how you psychopaths do that shit.

You should buy your daughter whatever you have reasonable suspicion to believe that she may not be able to get when she's older and at least 10 magazines. Then get some plinkers/trainer guns.

[Caduceus]

Double post ...


They each have a Garand too, since they're relatively inexpensive currently.

A 6720 or similar is probably fine.

[36trap]

Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range. In all seriousness a 6920 would be fine but I'd also consider snagging a 10/22 and a pellet rifle.

[md66948]

I am 67, my oldest is 42 and the youngest is 32. I bought all 4 boys an M1 Garand.

[tehpwnag3]

A quality, lightweight, keep it simple, (flat-top) fixed iron-sighted 16" mid gas and a bunch of 20 & 30rd mags.

Any thoughts on what would make a good forever gun for the boy?

[grizzlyblake]

Bumping my own thread again, looking for some more practical advise from the more experienced guys here.

So I bought a second Sionics Three E back in the spring and it's been sitting in the closet ever since. Got a bunch of OKAY mags and two cases of IMI to go with it. I bought it "for my son" being an excited first time father after struggling for over six years to get pregnant.

We've been blessed again with a surprise pregnancy and now a new baby is due June 2020. The first boy is now 19 months old.

We are still doing the financial dance to allow my wife to stay home full time while I work, and at this point the only debt we carry is our mortgage. However, another baby will certainly add more strain to the budget.

While I had mental images of my young son and I fighting off Redcoats with our ARs I'm beginning to wonder if it makes sense to sell that second rifle and accessories and put that money toward other things.

In addition, doing that would allow me to upgrade my old Gen 4 G19 to a Gen 5 with an RMR and still net out in the positive.

Essentially I would end up with my one Sionics Three E (now wearing a T2) and a Gen 5 19 wearing an RMR for all my families protection needs.

So, all you dads with older kids, if you don't mind weighing in on this I would appreciate it. Not sure what decision will be best many years down the road.

[Wake27]

The finance aspect of it makes it somewhat unique to you, but if I had to guess, I assume you’re far better off than the vast majority of the country if you’re only debt is the mortgage. If you can maintain that and still have your wife stay at home, I wouldn’t sell the AR. There’s so much BS going on with gun laws that a complete, quality AR is one of the last things I’d sell and only if I really had to.


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[LewWallace]

This going to sound a bit old fashioned, but I'd give the lad a single shot bolt action .22LR. It will the best training tool he could receive for whatever shooting he does later in life, will require him to be deliberate about his shooting and if a higher quality model is purchased, he will probably be able to hand it down to his son and/or grandson some day.