My first deer was taken with an 870 pump - 12 gauge....... I was hunting in a shotgun only area in SE Michigan. 99% of my hunting now is in the UP. I have a few friends that started with a 30-30 and still use it today....
I am another NEF FAN. My favorite is the NEF superlight .243 Handi rifle. I have mine topped with a Nikon 4x32 scope. It is very handy in the woods. It sure brought home the deer this year (a 5 pointer and 4 Does). This weapon just grows on you. I would highly recommend this weapon for your son or any one else that needs a light rifle and takes pride with hunting with a single shot weapon.
My favorite is my Winchester M70 Featherweight 6.5x55. I've spent a lot of time tuning the rifle and finding that "perfect load" for it. Now it'll shoot a 3 shot sub MOA group, over and over again if I'll give the barrel time to cool between groups. I think it'll do .5" at 100yds in the hands of a truly talented rifleman.
I've glassbedded the action, floated the barrel (pressure pad at forearm end), tuned the trigger, and burned several pounds of powder looking for the right load.
Oh, and I shot my first deer with it last November.
I must say it is my 1983 remington adl 7mm mag.It's topped with a leupold 2x7x33 and has killed many a whitetail here in n.e.Mn. But I do have a new found love that being a tikka t3 ss/syn 7mm. mag. I guess when I hunt out of state it will be the tikka, but at home I'll stick with the remy.
Ruger M77 (not M77II, mine has shotgun type safety from 1983), in .30-06 topped with a Simmons 3X9 scope. I've almost always used a .30-06, although I occasionally carry a Marlin 336 in .30-30 with scope, or a Winchester 94 in .30-30 if I need to go light.
My first deer was with a OLD .22/410 over and over on our family farm in NW Ark. shoot a spike with a 410 slug at 30 yards, My fav is my 1976 Ruger M77 in .270 I got when I turned 14 I have killed sooooo many deer and other critters with it. I have been looking at the Tikka's in 7mm here lately for mullys in West Texas.
My favorite changes from year to year. I typically use an M1 Garand if I'm hunting somewhat brushy areas of my ranch and when I hunt the open areas, I am prone to take the sporterized 1903 my grandfather built (or stocked and scoped- not built). Both are incredibly accurate and both are more than 60 years old. There's just something cool about hunting with old guns.
If I only hunted deer....I would say...the .270. (flat, distance, low recoil).
If I hunted anything larger....defeinately NOT the .270. Then I would move to 7mm or preferrably the 300 or 300 UM.
Well,...to 'fess up, I don't really use the FMJ round as much anymore. In another thread, somebody commented on meat destruction and FMJ bullets. Just wanted to illustrate that my old handload from guiding days was hardly a boat-tailed, spire-pointed hamburger maker traveling at the speed of light.
It's just a good old round...lots of penetration with a minimum amount of collateral damage.
I guess if I ever run out, and Bob Palmer won't scrape me up some more, I'll have to switch to Barnes solids.