This is the sort of thread that elicits many good answers, as do "optimum shot size for phez" or "what's the best gauge" threads. Some 9 year olds are capable of handling an 1100. Some are not. There is alot more to fitting any 9 year old than filing the comb and cutting the buttstock. Most guns - like the 20 ga 1100 - are in no way scaled for small hands. Same goes for most inexpensive SXSs. Sawed off muzzles and butts do not a youth gun make. Fat forends and forward weight balance might work for us, but they are usually not good for small children. And what happens when you cut a buttstock? Balance shifts forward. A small child's spine - never mind the arms - cannot support weight held out front.

Here's what I picked up as a "starter" gun for my kids (no, this one's not mine - and mine is not for sale): http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=101321409

We started with stationary targets on the center stake. My daughter, now 14, still likes to shoot it because she is so petite and the gun does not hurt. My son inkballed his first H7 with it two weeks before he turned seven. After he started smacking L3 and H5 well before the center stake I decided to get him a 20 ga 391 Y model. We load 5/8 oz and 3/4 oz payloads and use factory gun clubs for the first shot on doubles. He is progressing very well - has won a coupla turkeys. But he is cut from a different mold. At 11 he is 5'5", 135#, and has now outgrown that Y model's buttstock.

I agree with those who observe that developing skill with a scattergun really begins somewhere between 12 and 16, depending on the kid. Even so, there is such a thing as a "starter" gun, and a little .410 (like the M-20) that has scaled dimensions has minimal recoil. No, it's not for teals and 16 yd trap. But for informal soft hand trap targets and long skeet incomers it's just fine.

Sam