Look at the Savage Rascal too. Better layout for small children and easier to operate than the Chipmunk. Safety is a lot easier too on the Rascal. LOP is shorter on the Rascal.

 

If you search this forum for "crickett" you will find several interesting threads. In the past 2 years I have bought 2 and I am well past 65 and do not have young grandkids anymore. I love shooting the little guns with Colibri's or CB's.

Some negatives about the Crickett are that they are hard to load for some because of the lack of a feeding ramp and that they are hard to cock for very small shooters. IMO they are nice, simple, reliable little guns.

As far as the LOP is concerned, you could just saw off part of the stock.

Keystone sells fiber optic sights, which I have on one of mine, and a 4X scope which I have on the other.

There are several other nice youth rifles available. In addition to LOP, weight should also be a big factor.

Hope you find something she likes and that she has good shooting experiences.

 

If you search this forum for "crickett" you will find several interesting threads. In the past 2 years I have bought 2 and I am well past 65 and do not have young grandkids anymore. I love shooting the little guns with Colibri's or CB's.

Some negatives about the Crickett are that they are hard to load for some because of the lack of a feeding ramp and that they are hard to cock for very small shooters. IMO they are nice, simple, reliable little guns.

.

I realize it has been awhile since you posted this but I'd like to say that starting in 2017 Keystone Sporting Arms (Crickett) released the GEN 2 Cricketts.

Swivel Studs installed in every rifle (except EX target)
Eye and Ear Protection in every box
Trigger lock in every box (no more push button lock)

EZ LOADER FEED RAMP (22LR only) upgrade on every rifle.

The website should be upgraded the week of April 24 so you will be able to get good information.

 

I own a Crickett rifle,,,

I own a Crickett rifle,,,
I bought it specifically so I would have something for the children of my friends.

One young man is only 8 years old,,,
This rifle is the perfect length for his small stature.

Last time we went out he hit 41 out of 50 clay pigeons,,,
They were on the 50 yard berm and he was using some sand bags.

Now that he has some confidence on how to aim and hit the target,,,
We will be weaning him off of the sandbags to a sling.

In my not-so-humble opinion,,,
The Crickett rifle has proven to be a perfect choice.

It has good inherent accuracy for such a short barreled rifle,,,
Off of sandbags I can hit clay pigeons at 100 yards.

Besides, it's only about $115.00 brand spankin' new,,,
So when your daughter finally outgrows it,,,
It's not a waste of hard earned money.

Buy her a Crickett and start having fun.

Aarond

.

 

"Some negatives about the Crickett are that they are hard to load for some because of the lack of a feeding ramp and that they are hard to cock for very small shooters. IMO they are nice, simple, reliable little guns."

That pretty much sums it up. Though just the right size, I have found they are difficult to operate for a small child, like your 8-year-old daughter, due to both the cocking effort involved and the lack of a feed ramp. By the time a child has the muscle control and strength to operate the rifle without serious effort, he or she is probably big enough for a CZ Scout. Adding a scope to a Cricket exacerbates the problems with both. In this regard, the Rascal would be an improvement. I made the mistake of using a Cricket action as the basis for a custom rifle for my first grandson and now wish I had put the effort into something of higher quality and more sophisticated design.

TBR

 

As for cocking effort, I altered my Chipmunk pistol with an Uncle Mikes hammer spur. No alterations, just tap on and tighten set screws. With arthritis, the hammer extension has made cocking so much easier. Not sure if it would fit on the plastic knob though.

 

great idea BulletBait! I think I'll do the same on our Cricket. My kids love that thing. Best $99 I've spent.

 

Forgot to mention, the extension is hard to find in the U.S. I ordered a couple directly from China with FREE shipping. I think the $7.99 is below current local prices on other models.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Uncl...mer-Extension-2453-0-Fits-Browning-BL-22-Astra-357-Free-Shipping/933939702.html

 

lucky for me I have an extra in the parts drawer already...

 

Another 'oh by the way', I also used a dab of JB Weld to help lock the extension in place.

 

i don't have any experience with thecricket but, i bought a thompson center hotshot for my eight year old grandson and liked it so well i kept it for myself and bought him another one.
it is rel easy to operate with little hands and has a safety feature on it that if your thumb slips off the hammer while cocking it, it won't fire unless you have the trigger pulled back.
i was also amazed at how accurate it is. a great buy in my opinion

 

I bought this target model Chipmunk a number of years ago and used it for teaching my great-nieces to shoot. I am very pleased with it. It has an adjustable length of pull, good aperture sights, and is quite accurate. I started my great-nieces's shooting when they were 9 and 7. That was 5 years ago and they've since grown into larger rifles. This rifle must have served it's purpose well as the older girl, now 14, won first place last fall in marksmanship at our local shooting range. She was thrilled at having beat all the boys. The younger girl was very disappointed as she ONLY scored a 98 out of 100.

Anyway, I'm very happy with this model Chipmunk.

 

I grew up shooting a Chipmunk and have only fond memories of it. Great starter gun.

 

I grew up shooting a Chipmunk and have only fond memories of it. Great starter gun.

Nice classic rifle you got there! :bthumb:

 

Thank you for all the input on these rifles! It's been very helpful.

I've only handled a Cricket for a few moments at a LGS and never thought to look at the loading port. I can see where the lack of a ramp could make it difficult to load. Anybody have any ideas as to the difficulty in crafting a feed ramp?

Gabby8157, that Chipmunk looks perfect, but it seems they are not sold with aperture sights and a 3P stock anymore ... what a shame. The current "target" models expect you to use a scope and have plastic stocks. Putting a rail on those stocks may be very difficult.

I'm not opposed to cutting down a stock, but most smaller .22's would most likely become too muzzle heavy for a small statured shooter.

The Savage is a nice rifle, but would be a bear to load shooting prone with a sling!

I'm leaning toward a Cricket w/ laminated stock. I can put in a rail but I doubt I'll be able to put decent aperture sights on it ... I'll have to look at them again. Any ideas on this?

Thanks again everybody, I appreciate your time and interest.

 

The issue of not having a loading ramp can be addressed in an unorthodox way; i.e., holding the trigger down, extracting the bolt, inserting a cartridge under the extractor, and replacing the bolt. This is easy to do from the bench but a little more difficult otherwise.

As far as being difficult to cock, this can be solved with a larger cocking knob or cocking knob extension as suggested above, but maybe this is not a bad condition that the adult supervisor must cock the rifle for the very young shooter until she/he is older.

A possibility for mounting a different aperture sight might be to get the Crickett scope mount, although I'm not that familiar with what aperture sights are available and how they mount.

 

.

I personalized the Chipmunk I bought for my 1st/eldest Grandson.

That was 20 years ago.................when his (then) little fingers had NP loading directly into the chamber.

When my newest Grandson came along in 2011, I bought him a T/C Hotshot.

.

 

DLS

A feed ramp is impossible with the full round bolt. I suppose you could insert a temporary ramp for each loading thEn remove before closing the bolt. There's really not that much of a problem with loading into the chamber. My 22 mag is another story with the limited space between bolt face and chamber.

 

Thanks BulletBait,

I'm just thinking aloud ... trying to come up with the best solution for my little lady. I appreciate the insight about the bolt. I really didn't get a chance to give the rifle a good look, so any info like this is valuable.

 

my Crickett has been one of my favorite fun guns for just walking around the woods with.

I have a blued one with the heavy barrel and a 4x28 scope in a camo laminate stock..but I would recommend the lighter weight barrel for a child

the only thing negative I would say about them would have to be that the trigger leaves some to be desired, as it is pretty sloppy

 

I have never had a chipmunk rifle, but I do have a chipmunk pistol I used for .22 silouettes. a few changes, the trigger and trigger guard were too small, I used hobby shop prass to make another triggerguard and gound on the trigger. I put about a half pound of bar solder on the grip behind the trigger guard. and covered it with bondo. that made it ballance right on the trigger. I modified the trigger for better feel and less overtravel. and last, I hollowed out the forarm and glued in a bunch of .44 mag bullets for more weight.
It mght be a little UGLY, but I won a lot of pins with it. and made the guys with their high dollar anshutz's cry.
cliff

 

Dwarf

My daughter has achondroplasia dwarfism. She has an extremely short length of pull. So much that I ended up cutting 4" off her Chimpmunk Rifle. The sights suck so I put a cheap scope on it and she loves it now. it does cock a bit hard for her little fingers though.

 

Thanks again to everybody who has chimed in here ... I do appreciate it.

What is your daughter's LOP then KA 68? How muzzle heavy is the rifle now?

Sights are an issue with my girl. She has some vision issues due to congenital birth defects and needs apertures. If she focuses on a traditional post her eyes "shake" right and left at a dizzying rate of speed. She started shooting with this, putting the blurry front post on the center of the blurry bull, and did pretty well.

I'm hoping to find a used target model like Gabby5187's shown a few posts back. I think that would be ideal, and hopefully within my budget! <grin> I've struck out so far.

 

My son and I put a red dot scope on my grandson's cricket. Made target acquisition a snap. It made him a better shot from round one afterward.

 

My daughter has a LOP of only 8.75" (at 11yrs old). Her cricket is a bit muzzle heavy for her but there's not much we can do for that without doing a mod to the barrel...

 

Thanks KA 68,

That's right where my daughter is at as well. She just turned 9 and is still growing, but she is going to be tiny due to her birth defects. Not a tiny as your little lady though.

I'm not opposed to lopping off a few inches from a barrel and I've always wanted to buy muzzle crowning tools, so the Cricket is looking better and better all the time.

Has anyone added a rail and aperture sights to the current line of Cricket guns? It shouldn't be too hard to add a set of William's Fool Proofs or the like right?

 

Those little Chipmunk Rogue Rivers are nice little plinkers . . .

I leave my rifle unscoped, my big fingers loading rounds into chamber is not very easy. The Brno 468 garden gun took care of this loading in an unusual manner, having a sliding extractor that also functions as a shooting tray. You lay the nose of bullet into chamber and rest the cartridge rim onto the projection shown below. Bolt pushes round into chamber, and the projection pulls case of out chamber when bolt is opened. Simple and easy.

Very lightweight gun, I find it difficult to steady myself shooting offhand in gusty winds. Sure is light though, it is one of my wife's favorite woods roamers, like carrying a stick.

Good luck with your rifle - you are a caring parent, looking for the best firearm for your kid - good on you! :bthumb: