Son's first rifle, 7mm-08?

[lewy]

Great caliber choice

[Alchase]

I bought my oldest son a Winchester Youth Model 70 in 243 WSSM for his first rifle. Those tiny pills hit pretty hard.

[h2ofowlr]

My oldest son shoot a .7mm-08.  It has been a great gun for him.  He has dropped everything he has shot at with 1 shot.

[fowl smacker]

My kids shoot a Ruger American compact in 7mm-08, it shoots sub models and my oldest just shot her first buck with a Hornady Superformance 139gr GMX bullet.   Deer was dead instantly with a heart shot.  I was very impressed with the bullet, I found it opposite shoulder just inside the hide.  I haven't weighed it yet, but expansion was great and it appears to be intact.

[ShaneTyTrey]

My youngest has a Tikka 7mm-08 for his first and it has been a really good shooter, we have used 140 grain accubonds.

[C-Money]

I can't say enough good things about the 7/08. Light recoil, ease of reloading, accuracy, on game performance...It is the whole package!!

Note...Plz try the 100gr Hornaday interlock bullets in your .243win. Find a load with IMR 4350 that works in your rifle, and its magical. I gave the old boss man mule deer buck an instant dirt nap yesterday at 330 yards with this load. And, its done it many times before for us.

[Stein]

I can't say enough good things about the 7/08. Light recoil, ease of reloading, accuracy, on game performance...It is the whole package!!

Note...Plz try the 100gr Hornaday interlock bullets in your .243win. Find a load with IMR 4350 that works in your rifle, and its magical. I gave the old boss man mule deer buck an instant dirt nap yesterday at 330 yards with this load. And, its done it many times before for us.

Thanks, will do when I can round up the components.

[jasnt]

7/08 is a great choice but I wouldn’t over look the 243 either.  Place I buy my ammunition components currently has 2 choices on the shelf.  Few .338 bullets and a good selection of 6mm choices.   Though I don’t shoot factory ammo I have not had any trouble getting bullets for my 243 even when shelves were empty otherwise.  Jme

[Stein]

Yeah, I have been able to scrounge up several boxes of .243 that he used to kill his first deer.  We ended up shooting it with Winchester Deer Season and I have to admit I was impressed with that. 

Prior to that one, I loaded Nosler BTs and was not impressed at all.  It kills eventually, not great in my limited experience and leads to significant meat loss.  My daughter hit a mulie perfect and it stumbled around for quite a while, fell down a hill, got back up and then finally died.  Next year she shot a doe center chest facing toward and it ran off through a bunch of junk, down a big gulley and finally died.  Both had much more meat loss than I expected.

From my experience, when deer are hit with 30 cal, they go down real quick, I've seen my 30-06 and my brothers .308 and they never go more than 20 yards.  That said, the Winchesters put a doe down this year, she fell in her tracks and no meat loss, so maybe I haven't done enough research on bullets yet.  Everything I read said use a rapid expanding bullet in .243.  The Deer Season went completely through but didn't seem to have a huge crater like the Noslers do.

[bearhunter99]

My wife and all three daughters have 7mm-08s.  Wife has a Thompson Encore, 2 of the Howa 1500s (cerakoted camo Howa at Sportsmans on clearance for $349 couldn't pass it up, bought both they had) and a Savage.  All shoot great and have knocked down many a deer.  Tried switching my wife out to a different gun but the new one sits in the safe because she always grabs the -08.  IMHO you can't go wrong with that caliber for youth or female shooters.

[DRB3224]

Since recoil is a consideration, you can develop reduced power reloads for 7-08 with H4895.  This is discussed by Hodgdon here:

https://imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/h4895-reduced-rifle-loads.pdf

NOTE THIS GUIDANCE ONLY APPLIES TO CARTRIDGES THAT HAVE LOAD DATA FOR H4895 ON THE HODGDON WEBSITE.

You can start low and then increase powder charge as your son is able to tolerate more recoil.

You can find Hodgdon's load data online for 7-08 and H4895 here:

https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

GM

[buckfvr]

Id go with best available ammo whether 6.5 or 7-08.  I can say the 6.5 cm with Sierra 130 tipped game changer is just slightly the little brother of the .270 shooting 130gr.  Tad slower but better bc.  And never ever discount the .243, especially if you reload.

[screedler]

My Howa 7mm-08 shooting federal premium loaded with nosler partitions has done well for me so far; two deer killed with it. Not a lot of recoil either.

The first one I shot from a relatively close range and the partition bullet really put a big ol hole thru the ribs and it didn't move from the spot it was shot in, he fell right over.

Similar story with the second deer I shot with that same ammo, vitals shot and it was down in its bed.

Now to find partition bullets for reloading, I'm not counting on it