Youngsters first rifle?

My $.02....

have you considered a 25.06?
Click to expand...

Long action rifles with overbore cartridges will either be overly cumbersome for kids (with proper barrel length) or have a huge amount of muzzle blast (due to a short barrel which is poorly suited to the large case capacities involved)......

Hunting rifles are carried/ handled far more than they are shot, IME. A 9lb rifle will not only wear out a 9 year old kid schlepping it around all day, but will also be really hard for him or her to fire off-hand, while a shortened/youth sized overbore full house cartridge like .25/06, .270 WIN, 7 Mag, /06, or any of the Weatherby offerings are just going to kick the hell out of them, and that's no fun, even when shooting water filled milk jugs, which is the easiest way to get kids to practice sufficiently with a centerfire rifle, IME.
 
I'm not terribly smart, just experienced in this area....

Jimbob: Good point. Obviously, I hadn't thought that through.
Click to expand...

Oh, I made mistakes with Eldest child- thinking she could just use my deer rifle (.270 WIN). She did not like that at age 12. I made some reduced loads for it (130's @ 2800) for my middle daughter but the gun was just too big for her..... Eldest loved that, but I still needed a handier rifle for the other daughter...... I bought the Frontier hoping she would like that ..... she hasn't, but TheBoy certainly has..... It's not that I thought it through- I just kinda figured out what does NOT work, the hard way..... and I hope I can save some other people the troubles I experienced.

Another feature of making reduced loads is that later on, the kiddoes will get bigger and stronger, and then you can just as easily make full house loads, if that's what they want. I'm thinking I could push a 168gr Berger VLD to 2500.....
 
Jimbob, my biggest mistake was looking back on my 25.06 experience [at a young age] with rose-colored glasses. Come to think of it, my pair of rose-colored glasses sees a LOT of use....:D Anyhow, when I had that experience, I would have been about 13; a far cry from the age of the child specified in the OP, especially in terms of physical size. I really should have stopped to think about that, along with the reasons you cited.
 
I bought my 7yo a Rossi single shot .223 for deer season. While the recoil is a bit much for her from a factory round, shes 45# soaking wet, I do reload for her a reduced recoil load using H4895.

Like said above, when you have that deer standing in front of you, you don't feel recoil at all. So I will be loading her special hunting rounds that are only at the minimum for a .223 55gr over H4895. She won't feel the recoil at all. To help with the scope and her not getting bit by it, I taught her first on iron sights then recently bought her a red dot scope to put on it.

I also take her about every 3 weeks to shoot the day away with my Ruger 10/22 and shoot as much as she wants for practice.
 
So I will be loading her special hunting rounds that are only at the minimum for a .223 55gr over H4895.
Click to expand...

I hope that will have sufficient energy/penetration for a quick kill...... but maybe your deer are smaller .....
 
I'm in Arkansas the deer are smaller than up north but we have a lot of them. Right now she's shooting a 55gr V-Max over 17.5 grains of H4895, but for deer season I'm bumping it up to 23.1 grains. I'm using the reduced to get her used to shooting a bigger gun than a .22lr but during season I know she isn't going to feel the recoil at all when the deer is standing in front of her.
 
I'm using the reduced to get her used to shooting a bigger gun than a .22lr but during season I know she isn't going to feel the recoil at all when the deer is standing in front of her.
Click to expand...

I did the same with Eldest and her 30/30 - 100 grain semi-jacketed practice bullets @ 2300, 150's for deer season. The 100 grainers pop water filled milk jugs with the same satisfying "Whop!" that the 150's do, but with less recoil, and they cost less, too!
 
jimbob86 said:
I did the same with Eldest and her 30/30 - 100 grain semi-jacketed practice bullets @ 2300, 150's for deer season. The 100 grainers pop water filled milk jugs with the same satisfying "Whop!" that the 150's do, but with less recoil, and they cost less, too!
Click to expand...

Exactly, that's why she practices A LOT with my Ruger 10/22. LOL
 
I load 80 grain Hornady GMX bullets or Barnes TSX in my two .243s and they perform very well on deer-sized game. They shoot accurately, penetrate well and kill quickly.

The younger grandkids use a Handi-Rifle with a shortened stock and the older ones use my customized Rem 700 ADL. The ADL is my go-to rifle for Eastern Coyotes and other medium game/varmints smaller than deer.

My .270 will kill deer reliably for me at 400 yards, but I limit the kids to 200 yards with the .243 Win, not because the cartridge can't do it, but because the kids may not be able to shoot as accurately as needed to kill reliably beyond that distance, especially with a moderately-powered deer cartridge.
 
I limit the kids to whatever distance they can consistantly hit milk jugs full of water at with the rifle they will be using ..... TheBoy was popping them pretty reliably out to 150 yards shooting off of sticks last fall, but I told him he had to wait until he was 10.....
 
I tought a 9year old to shoot with a .243, he didnt mind the recoil but aftera box or two he went back to shooting the .22lr. I would say, even though you want to try something new... Reduced .243 would be perfect. I used an old savage model 110 youth. It was a perfect rifle for a child to carry in the field. With optics, sling and rifle fully loaded IIRC it was about 8 pounds.
 
The 7mm08 is a pretty light recoil caliber...maybe he needs to bulk up a bit...get him on Pushups for strength :)

Wide Arm stance, Close arm stance, and Diamond pushups (20 or so of each) will give him extra strength and power...
toss in some pullups and other strengthening calesthenics...
I dunno if yer kid is skinny, medium, or chunky...but fat is the worst padding against recoil you can imagine...
so if ya throw some muscle on him, it will help a LOT!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top