In February this year, Joshua Michael Taylor and a co-accused entered a Flora Hill home and confronted a man they believed to be selling drugs with a sawn-off shotgun. 

Taylor,19, wielded the firearm, pointing it at the victim's chest, while the second man searched the property. The victim surrendered several hundreds of dollars, and about $5000 worth of cannabis.

Police intercepted Taylor about a week later on unrelated traffic offences and found the weapon, together with three cartridges and a red coloured jacked which matched the description of the robber.

Taylor pleaded guilty in Bendigo County Court on Friday to charges of armed robbery and possessing an unregistered handgun.

Defence lawyer Mark Sturgess told the court his client had been using the drug ice to "self-medicate" his feelings of despair and isolation following a relationship breakdown with the mother of his one-year-old son.

Mr Sturgess said his client had gained insight into his offending while in custody and would find imprisonment in an adult jail unduly onerous.

Judge Duncan Allen told the court his decision was about where Taylor would serve a jail sentence, not if he would be jailed.

He said he accepted medical opinions tendered to the court which described Taylor as immature and psychologically vulnerable and ordered he be assessed by Youth Justice

The case was adjourned for sentencing later this month.

The maximum penalty for armed robbery is 25 years.