Options for kids first gun

[Igor]

I went a little different route when my sons started hunting.  I made the decision to start them with the rifle that would be their hunting rifle, and not change things up on them as they got older.  For both, the choice was a Browning A-Bolt in .30-'06.  I started them off at age 12 shooting reduced loads to minimize recoil.  From reduced loads to light loads to full loads was just a matter of a few years, and recoil was never an issue with either of them.

Both are now in their 40s, and they still have those Brownings as their deer rifles.

[Bob33]

Don't forget that flinching is caused not only by anticipation of recoil but also loud noise. Make sure to use quality hearing protection while practicing and even when hunting if possible. 

[greenhead_killer]

i bought both a 308 and a 6.5 creedmore for my daughter to try. ruger american predator. they shoot well and are easy to use. not very expensive. should be an easy way to get into the game and can sell down the road and upgrade if need be. id imagine she will go with the 308 as it has a mb but both are low recoil guns anyways. something inexpensive and functional is all she will need to get her foot in the door.

[Jpmiller]

So resurrecting this one again. I was out shooting the rifle with the new pad on it. It made a pretty big difference in my felt recoil on it which slightly surprised me. Pretty happy with it other than the like 1/32" lip it has from being just ever so slightly undersized. Oh well I'm sure I'll live.

While I was shooting it I was again reminded that I've always kind of wanted to lower the trigger pull a bit on it. I've never done it but I've been told there's a way of adjusting the factory triggers or just dropping a new one in.

I don't know that I have a specific reason but I feel like having a lower trigger pull on a rifle for a kids rifle might pose some concern but I can also sort of talk myself into it being better for them too. Any of you guys with more experience have any input on kids and trigger pull?

[bearpaw]

I wasn't sure what caliber you ended up with? Is it a .308 or 7mm/08?

I've got some loaner guns that I let hunters use, often times it's women or kids that end up using the milder kicking guns, most don't want a lot of recoil, and most of these shooters are never going to shoot further than 300 yards, I like to get lighter weight barnes ttsx bullets for those guns, the recoil is so much less and the barnes will still go clear through the animal because it doesn't lose weight on impact. I've been using 150 grain ttsx in .30 caliber but I'm going to try some 130's to see if they still perform as well. A .308 winchester or a 30/06 will be well over 3000 fps with a 130 gr bullet and should be very flat shooting out to 200-300 yards.

I also have a model seven 6mm that we let other people shoot at times, I've always bought 100 grain Remington corelocks for it which worked just fine, but I see barnes has an 80 grain ttsx that I'm going to try out one of these days. It will be less recoil for sure!

Not all guns are adjustable. Be careful you don't get it too light if you do adjust it or change triggers so you can adjust it, IMO about 3 lbs is probably pretty light for less experienced shooters.

[Jpmiller]

Im.pretty well set on letting them use one of my .308s after shooting it with the better recoil pad. I'll have to check out the lighter Barnes bullets, I've never used them but I'll need more soon and am going to try and work up a reduced recoil load over the winter sometime.