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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,

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.

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 .

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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/

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.