My 12 year old son has taken an interest in shooting trap this year. I know nothing of the sport and want to set him up as best as I can all the while being as frugal as possible. I used to shoot 3gun and have a stoeger m3000 that I could possibly set up for him. The mag extension will need to come off and most likely a compact stock.

What would you suggest for a young one starting out. I may need to get him a shotgun for himself I think. Something he can grow with.

I started with a Remington 1100 trap model at about that age and haven't seen a need for something different. I regularly out shoot guys who have spent several thousands on their trap guns, so if it's not broke, don't fix it. The weight and gas operation takes a lot of the recoil out of a 12ga, which was one of the reasons I chose it back then.

Any pump gun with removable chokes will work for trap, I think I have modified chokes in my gun but do have a an old shotgun with fixed full choke and i'm pretty good with it.

If he wants to get into skeet he will need a semi-auto, O/U or SxS if he doesn't want to be completely discouraged.

If he is young you can get a 16ga or 20ga if you so please.

ETA: the info on the rem 1100 is true. I love mine.

When picking a shotgun for a youngster, remember the growing years. This means a reliable model that the stock can be swapped out as he grows. My son grew up on a standard Remington 1100 swapped to a youth stock, then changed buttpads until he got back to the “grownup” stock. Same with my daughter with a Rem 870. A good O/U with same stock change out routine. I like S/S shotguns, but might be challenging for a beginner.

Also look into the difference between a drop comb and parallel comb stock for trap. My son shoots bunker trap, and almost all guns in this sport has stock parallel to the barrel rib. I think in ATA trap drop combs are standard.

The key is don’t buy so cheap in quality that the gun is aggravating to use, or too expensive that if your son loses interest you regret the purchase. As far as the second part, scan bulletin boards at ranges to find those shotguns other parents bought, now want to unload.

We had a 11-87 youth 20 guage and 11-87 12 guage for our 4H shooting sports program this summer and both worked very well for us. The youth model worked very well for the smaller framed kids and the 12 is a soft shooter. The youth also came with spacers for LOP.

People bitch about gas guns being dirty, they are not bad at all, but they are far softer shooters than any pump gun I've ever used.

I have watched a lot of kids show up with new lightweight pumps and get the tar beat out of them and develop terrible flinches. Even the lightweight inertia guns can knock kids around.

I think the trap 4h coach at our club uses weatherby sa-08 20 ga. youth model shotguns. They seem to be durable and fairly soft shooting.

If he sticks with the sport he'll want something different and better sometime down the road, but the sa-08 is relatively inexpensive and a good starter gun.

Can't speak long term but my wife is 5'5" and has had pretty good luck with her TriStar raptor youth. New raptors and vipers run between $500-700, can be bought with or upgraded to a 28" barrel and I believe a new adult buttstock is like $40. I think they actually sell one with a second adult lop stock and a 4" barrel extension.

I'm not going to pretend this is something that will last forever but it's a reasonably cheap way of getting into the sport that an be upgraded cheaply and easily.

Can't speak to pumps (very limited experience, but should be fine. Might have a steep learning curve if he wants to move into doubles/skeet/sporting clays) or O/U (for whatever reason I've personally never shot them well), but there are some cheap and effective semis out there provided you keep your expectations reasonable.

Locally our club used to give a free trap and skeet lesson once a month, they even had loaner shotguns. If you have that sort of advantage it would be a good idea before you buy a gun.

Failing that, any shotgun can take trap birds, I started (I'm 5'4") trap with a BPS and took my first 25 with it at trap and skeet. An 870 is an inexpensive GR8 gun.

For Trap, any shotgun will do.  I have a Remington 1100 from 1970 with a mod choke that works great for trap.

On a semi-auto, you can put a rubber band around the receiver to keep the shell from leaving the gun.  Works great.

your stoeger is perfect if you can get a shorter stock for it, or buy another standard stock and trim it

Winchester SXP trap compact. Bulletproof, simple, cheap, and easy to sell to another Trap shooter if you decide to let it go. Roughly $400 brand new. Designed for trap with a raised comb and high vent rib. Best bang-for-the-buck in beginner trap guns, hands-down.

We have two. My oldest went to Nationals this year and outshot kids with much nicer guns. He shot several 25s over the course of the season. At his level, it really is the archer, not the arrow.

You'll have guys tell you that you can pick up a used 1100 trap or BT-99 for the same money. Not sure where they shop, but I've NEVER seen anything remotely like that in real life.

My son started on a 20 gauge Remington 870.

Now he uses a semi-auto 12 gauge.

Well here’s a little bit of an update. He’s 15 now and had changed shotguns twice now. He started with the Remington 1100 competition and then switched to a browning CXT at the end of last season. The boys earned it average 94-95 per flight. He’s shooting doubles and handicaps playing the system to get more medals and let me tell you, he’s winning them.

Super proud of his work and hustle when it comes to this.



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@DirtDivision That’s awesome. Congratulations!!!

Here’s my 11 year old daughter. 1st year on her school’s new youth trap team. Shooting a BT-99 cut and fitted by Todd “Country Gentleman” Nelson. Took her all last year to get strong enough by doing gun mounts every day. I’m reloading 12ga 3/4 oz loads for her.

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