TargetTalk

We have two young ones that are just now old enough to learn to shoot 10 meter air rifle, or pistol. They seem interested in competing. What is the best long term choice for them? Do young people stick with air rifle, or air pistol, more? Should we just let them choose? It would be nice if both can shoot at the same time, though, rather than traveling to different venues. Any help is welcome.

You could buy one of each and let them use, then choose.

You may be concerned about cost. If so, pistol is cheaper due to not requiring expensive accessories.
"Pumper" (single stroke pneumatic) guns are also most desirable from that standpoint.

"Competing"? That's a long way down the road. You might find some 4-H activity for them.

As Rover noted at those ages 4-H is probably your best option if there is a program in your county.
Where do you live?
In some cases there may be a club that you don't know about and is most probably always looking for new shooters to train and parents to help coach too.

What ages are your future shooters?
I'll speak in terms of rifle on starting out -- form an 8-10 year olds perspective.
I think that beginning shooting rifle in the CMP 3-P Air Rifle programs is the way to go --- in the SPORTER category.
You can begin teaching them the positions without all the associated jackets/pants/boots and fancy-expensive rifles.
All the high tech gear can hide mistakes in positions.
After they learn the positions, they can begin to move into the PRECISION category that with very few exceptions is the same as Olympic airgun.
At this point is where I like to bring the kids into shooting a smallbore rifle (.22LR) in the positions as well.
This steers their path into the Olympic rifle events - standing airgun and 3-P smallbore.

As the develop thru high school they may have desire to compete after that, it very hard to continue to compete at a high level after high school is they have only shot sporter airgun.
If they have the drive they can shoot fo a position on an NCAA Rifle team for competing thru college. Somewhere around 31-32 schools have NCAA Rifle programs.
If during that their high school & college years they begin competing in the USA Shooting National events, they may even make the JR National or National teams and begin competing in World Cups and even the Olympics.

That's my real short view of the Rifle opportunities for shooters in the 8-21 years. What and how they compete after starting a job, a family is hopefully poured into them and they will still use a rifle to relax, compete or even begin train future shooters.

For Pistol, there are others here that can pick up and expand Rover's example.

We are from the US....currently living/working in County Kerry.

Thank you, for the information thus far!

The experience with my son was dictated by what was available near us. It was not by design, and probably isn't typical, but for us (in southern California) finding a place to shoot was the main hurdle.

So he started with 3P smallbore until that program folded (didn't make it much past prone), then moved to 10m air rifle. We shoot 10m rifle at a 'recreational' club without all the jackets and other gear, which keeps things a bit more manageable. He has not shown much interest in air pistol, but every kid's going to be different.

My son has not shown the drive to really push into serious competition, but I like to think that he could make a team if he ends up going to a college with an appropriate program.

I recommend taking a look at the Winchester/NRA Marksmanship Program (https://mqp.nra.org/courses-of-fire/) with your kids to test the waters and see what sticks. There are programs ranging from Sporter to Precision, in both air and firearm. See what they're interested in trying out, and go from there.

marky-d