how old or big is he? I mean is he 10 years old or 15 years old? I'm 19, I can barely bench press 100 pounds 1 time, i'm not in shape, i'm 6"2 and weigh at anytime inbetween 160-170 pounds, and I don't have my own rifle but I shoot my uncle's Rem 700 in .30-06, 180gr core-lokt, and personally i don't feel the gun recoil at all, if you gave me a 100gr .243 and 180gr .30-06 I wouldn't know the difference, god's honest truth. It's possibly he is holding the gun incorrectly, you need to teach him to relax his shoulder, and take his two arms and pull the rifle into his body firmly, also I'm guessing alot of this is mental, he is scared of the gun and also probably associates the sound of the gun with the recoil. I don't notice recoil until I shoot a 150gr .300 win mag, but even them i'm not flinching or wincing or whatever, you just need to tell him the gun is not going to hurt him when it goes off. My first rifle i'm getting is going to be a Remington 700 CDL in 7mm Rem Mag shooting 150gr