Young guns go for it

Drill safety into them: guns aren’t toys. Approach it sensibly without frightening them. Never leave a child under 15 unaccompanied with a shotgun.

Teach youngsters the ropes with a pellet gun at home; stalk rabbits, rats or pigeon together to reinforce gun safety.

Buy or borrow a short-stocked, lightweight .410 or 28-bore for your child’s first few seasons and choose a light cartridge, maximum 21 grams. Don’t be tempted to let a youngster “have a go” with your 12-bore.

Take your child to a recommended shooting school; ensure they check his master eye and mounting technique. Get a gun expertly fitted once he has stopped growing.

At your peg, make sure they stand behind you and tell them to watch for falling birds, which can cause serious injury. Ear and eye protection and cap/hat are also essential kit.

Let your child bring a replica shotgun or empty .410 onto your peg so they learn to pick out the birds and swing through; this is the perfect exercise for instilling safety and teaching them which birds are in range.

Where possible, encourage your child to get involved in a local shoot, as a beater or helping the keeper feed poults in summer. Facebook has useful pages for prospective beaters – check out a group called Beaters and Pickers Up, which has 16,647 members.

Plenty of practice during the year can be had with pigeon; this also teaches youngsters patience and fieldcraft.

It’s worth applying for a licence as soon as your child starts shooting game as current law dictates that if you are not the occupier of the land over which you are shooting, you cannot lend a gun to a non-licence holder. There is no lower age limit for applying.

Join the Countryside Alliance/basc: membership offers many benefits and includes insurance; family membership includes under 18s.

Any adult supervising a child (or transporting a child and his gun) needs to have their own shotgun licence; only over 21s can supervise a child under 15.