CJ was 9 when he started shooting this gun, but he is large for his age. I am figuring that my daughter will be slightly older before she can handle it. It is a 12 gauge.
I tried several different youth guns with him and this is what worked best. The 12 gauge gun weighs more than most 20's which helped mitigate recoil. I have it cut to 25" barrels and a 12" LOP. I like a break open gun because at a glance I can tell the gun is open and "safe." We hunt over a pointer so for the first year we even carried our guns open in the field until passing the dog for a flush.
It was also (in my experience) much easier to get low recoil/low pressure shells for the 12 gauge than for a 20 gauge. All the low pressure pet loads and RST offerings for shooting aging guns are perfect low recoil shells for a kid.
CHAZ

This is CJ putting "Winston" to work at Hausmanns.