I stopped at a gun store today and discovered the Savage Rascal. It looks like a much better little rifle than the Cricket. It has an Accutrigger, nice military-pattern peep sights, sling studs, and a cock-on-open bolt. I'd say it is a HUGE improvement over the Cricket. I'll bet a kid could shoot a Rifleman score with one if he/she had someone feeding it. Anybody have one? I'm thinking about picking one up for the little kids on my line.
http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/rascal (http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/rascal)
UL
UL,
We have both for the little ones in my family. The Rascal, in our opinion, is the better rifle fit. The trigger alone makes the difference...
IHG,
ratchett
Look at the Mossberg 801 Half-Pint Plinkster as well. It comes with a dummy magazine for loading single shells and when ready you can replace it with 10 round magazines for the Mossberg 802.
It was $130 last summer. Magazines were about $14.
The savage "youth" rifle is almost as big as the regular rifle but doesn't have a Monte Carlo stock.
CZ Scout is another contender. I picked one up off of Gun Broker for $250 + shipping, FFL, tax = $1bazillion
The advantages of it are 1) great quality (basically, a CZ 452 with a short stock) and 2) takes CZ mags from the grown up rifles. So when your little one graduates from the single-shot adapter, you can rock a 10 round mag. I don't think it comes in eye-candy kid colors, just a fairly plain beech stock. That's ok, I don't want it to seem like a toy.
I qualified with my CZ-455 American on the last AQT of the weekend I took it. It's a much a better rifle than I am a rifleman. It's not alone in that regard...
At about 4000 rds the vending machine type "key lock " broke on the "Cricket"
I didnt bother to fix it as having a locking bolt wasn't a priority . the locking bolt did impress a few folks who said they wanted their child to keep the rifle in their room .
At nearly 20,000 rds the extractor broke and the keystone company sold a replacement for 12 bucks O0
I do believe youth models from savage ,CZ and the original youth rifle are a higher quality . However I paid under $100 for the cricket .
The question remains how much quality does a youth rifle require ? ::)