What caliber would you choose?

[Taco280AI]

According to Chuck Hawk's recoil table:

7-08    7.5lb rifle     120gr @ 3000fps    12lbs of recoil energy and recoil velocity of 10.2
243     7.5lb            100gr @ 2960        8.8lbs of recoil energy and recoil velocity of 8.7

For a small 10 year old, the 243 all the way. The 7-08 comes back quite a bit harder and faster than the 243. Give them too much early on and they'll just learn to flinch.

[JimmyHoffa]

.264 Win Mag is pretty tame on recoil

With the 100 or 117 gr bullets it feels quite a bit less than a .308 Win (150 gr).  With 140 gr about the same as .308 Win.

[bobcat]

That certainly wasn't my experience with the 264 mag. With a 140 grain bullet at 3200 fps, the recoil is well above any 308 load. I could see it not being bad with a 100 grain bullet, but that's pretty light for the caliber. Plus the 264 really needs a 26 inch barrel to reach its full potential. Not really a kid friendly cartridge.

[fastdam]

264 win mag with a 140 grain bullet is not much different than a 7 rem mag and that is way too much gun for a, 10 year old.   Remember this is a kids gun. It needs to be light enough for a child to carry, minimum recoil and perform on elk.  30-30 is the way to go.

[jasnt]

That certainly wasn't my experience with the 264 mag. With a 140 grain bullet at 3200 fps, the recoil is well above any 308 load. I could see it not being bad with a 100 grain bullet, but that's pretty light for the caliber. Plus the 264 really needs a 26 inch barrel to reach its full potential. Not really a kid friendly cartridge.