Mahkagari,
On a side note. My wife has shot, or caught a deer and 3 elk.(sorry never hunted don't know lingo)
Awesome!
"Harvested" is the hoidy toidy word. Most hunters I know say "shot" or "killed". "Taken" is another.
Do you have suggestions on a .22lr firearm for a 5yr old?
Do some "readiness" tests with her before investing would be my main suggestion. Can she aim? Some kids take a while before they can really look through one eye. Mine still can't close one eye, but she's getting better at aiming with both eyes open. I cut the ends off a ballpoint pen for a "scope" for her to see if she could look through it before I started teaching her to aim.
Trigger pull is another consideration. A year ago, my 6yo could barely reach the trigger on airguns, much less have the hand/finger strength to pull with accuracy. Even on youth models. Take her to look at some youth models and see if she can reach the trigger with the pad of her finger firmly on it. Even better if she can put her first finger joint on it. She should learn to shoot with the pad and not the joint, but it'll show she can reach it well.
Does she have the arm strength to hold it up? Different models will have different weights. She can benchrest shoot, but it's a consideration. I went .410 shopping with mine and had her kneel ("standing" on her knees, not sitting on one or two feet) on the counter aiming at the animal heads on the wall at Sportsman's. I told her to hold her aim and counted to 10 to myself. I kept my hand under it in case she dropped it, but let her hold it herself.
Are her arms long enough to shoulder it properly? My daughter reaches over the top when she's airgun shooting, but I don't want her doing that with anything with real recoil. That was the main thing that has me holding off for a while before buying her a shotgun. I already have a couple .22's and don't want to buy another unless it swaps a barrel with a .410.
This was all after a long safety lesson and surprising her with the trip. We were going to a model train show and we stopped at Sportsman's. We go there regularly, but the surprise was when I asked the salesman to look at youth .410s and set her on the counter. She was drooling over a Cricket:
http://www.rrarms.com/catalog.php?prod=G221
If your daughter's not ready for you to invest in her own .22, you can get a $30 air rifle for her to practice with in the backyard or basement. Mine only shoots one or two rounds on the airgun before she's done. Besides, telling her she needs to build her strength to hold the gun up so she can go hunting helps me get her to eat her dinner.