Lawdog mentions something interesting about the availability of a particular model of .22LR rifle:

Of course, since Little Miss is a girly-girl, nothing will do but to get her the Model 225.

Why, you ask?

Because it’s the one with the laminated pink stock. Duh.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find that to be completely and utterly cool—It’s a dedicated Girl’s First Rifle.

About bloody time!

Apparently, I’m not the only one to think this, because we couldn’t find a Crickett Model 225 at any of the gun stores we called.

Not only that, but each store we talked to informed us that their suppliers were out of the laminated pink ones until after Christmas.

That news gives me the warm fuzzies.

That news tells me that a whole bunch of little girls are getting a rifle for a present.

For those not familiar with the Crickett rifles, they’re small .22’s suitable for children to use when learning.  Here’s the 225:

It’s a single shot, bolt-action, with a manual cocking mechanism.  This means that the shooter has to concentrate on making the shot count and that a very specific set of deliberate actions is required to prepare the rifle for shooting (just loading a round in the chamber and closing the bolt isn’t sufficient).

My nieces have a model 230, which is the one with the synthetic black stock.  Here’s my older niece shooting it just after Christmas last year:

After they were done I gave it a try.  It’s got such a short length of pull that it’s not really very comfortable for an adult, but I found it to be acceptably accurate.  Still, if you’ve ever seen an adult sit in a chair in a kindergarten classroom, you can imagine shooting this rifle is something akin to that.

Anyhow, it’s not intended for people like me.  It’s entirely suitable for teaching discipline and marksmanship, though.