lots of discussion about gauge, but nuttin bout ammo or weight? how does 3/4 ounce 12 gauge loads out of a seven pound gun sound?
Well, if the kid weighs 50 lbs and hefts a 7 lb gun, it would be like a 150 lb person lifting a gun much much heavier. I don't wanna say a 21 lb gun, but you get the picture. Most of the difficulties of hitting a target reliably by a small child seems more about ergonomics (gun fit, and weight) than gauge/pattern size, in most of the situations I've seen. That's why I bring up that highly customized .410 that little (and I mean very little) girl was shooting. She handled it like a full sized adult, because it was scaled down to fit her, in both size and weight. But as the weight goes down, the energy of the shell must go down to keep recoil under control. A gun under 5 lbs will recoil too much for a little kid with anything but a .410 shell, IMO.
IMO, little kids can be surprizingly good at hand/eye coordination tasks, often better than adults, especially ancient ones like us. Try playing one of those video games with a kid sometime. They run into limitations when we put a giant gun in their hands with the prejudged notion that they need a large bore to hit a clay or bird. I think they'll show you different.
