Okie,
I went the Contender route for my daughter, but I basically cheated. I already had the Contender frame and some handgun bbls. I merely bought the carbine stocks and bbls for her to use on my frame. There's a couple of problems with this, aside from the obvious that she's tying up my Contender!
First, the current factory carbine bbls are all bull bbls. They're heavy. The overall weight of the carbine is light, but the center of balance for the rifle is much farther forwards than a "regular" youth 22 rifle would be. It is harder for a kid to hold it up and steady it because it "feels" heavier with the weight in the front of the rifle. This may not be a problem if all she's going to do is shoot it from a bench. My daughter is now 12, and she's big for 12, weighs over 100 lbs already, she still has trouble steadying the rifle in a "field hold" position. We've worked on it, and she's using a walking/shooting stick, which helps, but it's a lot to deal with for her. She has to "get ready" by setting the stick, putting the rifle on it, cocking the hammer, taking off the safety, etc, etc, moral of the story, is the rabbit or squirrel is long gone.
I also have a light weight custom carbine bbl I bought from Ladobe here on the forum for her to deer hunt with. The difference in weight and balance is tremendous. She can handle that rifle quite well compared to a bull bbl carbine.
The reason I started mine off with the Contender carbine is because she is left eye dominant and I have only right handed rifles. I did buy a right handed youth 22 marlin for her, but this was before I knew she would need to shoot left handed (like 6 years before
). I'm still not sure if she'll stay a hunter with me ( I hope so), but I'm confident enough now that she'll keep shooting that I'm ready to buy her a left handed 22 rifle for targets and small game. I'll probably keep her hunting deer with the Contender carbine and light bbl for a while longer before I spring to purchase her a big game rifle in left hand, since I'll not be able to use that myself if she stops hunting.
The nice thing about the Contender platform is that, yes you can change out stocks and even bbls as she gets older and her size and ability increase. If I hadn't already had the Contender to begin with, I may not have gone that route. It has clearly NOT been cheaper than just a youth 22 and youth hunting rifle! The plus side of that is, you can always trade or sell of those components you no longer need/use after all is said and done. I bought a regular stock set for mine and had it cut down to fit her, as I couldn't find any "youth" stocks anywhere.
If TC is listening, you are REALLY missing the boat here on Contender sales by not having a youth package of stock and lighter weight bbls avail in 22 lr and smaller caliber hunting bbls like 25-35, etc. The bull bbls are too heavy for kids.
