What do your kids shoot?

[Fletch]

I have an 11 yr old and it wont be long and he will be deer hunting with me.  I always figured Id buy a .243 for him to shoot, but have also been looking at the .308 although I have more experience with the .243.  What do your small kids shoot? any recommendations?

[PolarBear]

Both of my girls (7 & 10) shoot my Savage .250-3000 and various .22 lr's.  The oldest has got her eye on my old 30-30 brush beater.  I'm thinking about getting her a .243 or a .308 as well.  They are hard to beat for the youngins! This is a pic of my youngest taking it out on a can on a stump.  I need to get pics of the girls when they are set up and calling coyotes.

[Fletch]

Thanks for the reply...He shoots a .22 real well...I have never shot a .308 so dont know much about it although I do see it has a heavier bullet...its not too much kick for a kid? Is a .308 big enough for elk? Great pic by the way!

[PolarBear]

Thanks.  A .308 is big enough for elk, much better (IMO) than a .243.  It all comes to shot placement and distance.  I havent shot a .308 in years but I dont think that it has much more of a kick than my .250 Savage or 30-30 and my 10 yr old can handle them just fine.  She's a pretty strong farm gal though.

[actionshooter]

Just bought my 13 year old daughter a Tikka T3 lite in .243, wanted the 7.08 but couldn't find one. We have an agreement though, if shes not using it I can 

[Guy]

I figure there are a couple of key points to consider when the kids are ready to move from a .22 to a centerfire deer rifle:

1) Have they gained proficiency with the .22 to the point where they won't be wasting time, money & ammo with the bigger gun?
2) Does the centerfire rifle actually fit 'em, so they can hold it normally, and build decent marksmanship skills?
3) Is the bark and bite of the rifle more than they should be messing with to start?

With this in mind I started my sons shooting .22's when they were pretty young. One of those Chipmunk rifles. Then they graduated to Ruger 10/22's. Then later to the centerfire rifles. My youngest boy started with my old 6mm Remington 700 when he was 12, after tagging along on deer hunts with me for a few years.


He liked the rifle, but the stock was too big for him.


I put the rifle in a synthetic Remington "youth" model stock, and he took to it real well. Zapped his first mulie doe at 275 yards with one 95 grain Nosler through the heart... Not bad!


He's grown a lot, nearly 6' tall now at 15, but still thin. We put the rifle back in the original stock, and added a limbsaver recoil pad. Not that a little 6mm needs a limbsaver pad, but that hard plastic buttplate and his bony shoulder weren't getting along real well. The 6mm Rem is about the same power/recoil as a .243 Winchester. He's using it for rockchucks and coyote hunting in the off season.

I didn't handicap him with bad equipment. A good rifle, and there's a 3.5-10x Leupold on it. We handload for it together and he spends a fair amount of time in the field with it. He's shot a couple of my bigger rifles. I don't think my .308 recoils much more than the 6mm, but he has a different opinion! I'm real happy that both of my boys love shooting. The older one uses a .223 and a .308 Win.

Regards, Guy

[Slenk]

Well My Kid's are all grown up and away from home now , 4 sons all started with 30-30s at 12  and went to .270s a year or two later now they all shoot
30-06 , 300win mag ,and 338
Have one grandson now that's 15 and he has shot a  30-06 remington auto for a couple of years now he started with a 243 .He likes the auto cuase he'sa lefty .Three years hunting and killed 3 Deer . He has a younger sister 12 and brother 11 that are starting this year with the 243, this year.
Slenk

[boneaddict]

Mine are going to start with a 30-30, and 32.  If one of them hasn't graduated to the 25-06 with a shortened stock, then we'll hit grandpa up for the 300 savage.  I've been wanting to shoot it for myself.

[huntnfmly]

My girls started off with a .243 now they have a .257 roberts that i got for them last yr.
jim

[bowpredator]

My son is 11 and I also started him out on one of my old 22's, then on his 9th b-day I got him his own 10-22 with a harris bi-pod and a bushnell 4x scope. For his 11th b-day I picked up a rem 700- .270 with a leupold 3x9 and put the bi-pod on it.He took to it real good.Will be putting him on bear this Aug. and deer in oct.

[brush hunter]

My Grandaughter  two years ago at age 5 with her .22

[Idabooner]

Been there, done that with 4 boys & a girl, one boy & the girl didn't take, they all started with the old 22, then three went to the 30-30 open sights, I think they learned to get in close with the old buck horn. Boneaddict learned to stalk in so close he became a good bow hunter, and woodsman. Don't recall the ages but if you start them to soon they will develop a flinch, and a flinch with the excitement of shooting game is not good.

[brush hunter]

The flinch is a bad thing, We started my Grandaughter with some Lapua bullets (can't remember the name, but I still have some in the reloading room), they are powerless so there is no recoil. Last summer she was shooting My 10/22 in .22 mag. with out flinch.

[boneaddict]

Awesome pics.  You can't tell they were having a great time.  Where were you hunting?

[littletoes]

Kinetic Energy, and Simple Physics.

If the bullet is heavier and/or it uses more powder....its going to kick harder.

Also, as we all know, the rifle design also contributes to "felt recoil" and anyone that has fired a Winchester 94 30-30 can attest to that. Poor design, kicks like a mule. Too much drop at the heel, which causes more "felt" recoil. Put that same caliber in a straighter combed rifle, and you get a nice meek and mild offering.

I picked up a .243 Remington 700 for my Son, who is about to turn 11 next week.
He's handled his mom's copy of the same rifle just fine for the past two years, so I think it just may be time for him to have his own...he doesn't know yet.

His Mom is very recoil sensitive, and since she just hunts deer with me, I've loaded the smallest bullets avialable that will still work on deer sized game, Nosler 90 grn Balistic Tips. And they seem very accurate with a load of IMR 4350.

 

 

[sisu]

My grandson was born on the 19th of April, so I bought him a Youth Model 870 with two chokes. My daughter said, "Dad, you don't even know if Dash will like to shoot or hunt." I told her that he was part of a chip off of the old block and he's love it. Besides I took my son in law to Montana with Pacyew varmint hunting and he went wild. The lad had never owned a gun before so Pacyew picked out a 10/22 and I bought it for a present for the event. Now all I need to do is get the family to move from Juneau to the Lower 48 so I can hunt and fish with them more often or I need to save shekels to go there for fishing and hunting.(that would be a shame, hahaha)

[littletoes]

Good Job Sisu, way to convert another one!
sometimes all it takes is to take 'em shootin'.

[shag]

My 14yr old son shoots a Model 700 in 7-08 slingin 140gr partitions.  My 12yr  old . is gonna shoot a .260 rem with 140gr. core-lokt ultras.

[wannahunt]

My four kids all got started with a 30-30 marlin for a couple years and then moved up to a 7mm mauser. The two boys are now shooting 7mm mags.  All my kids were born two years apart so it worked out well moving them from one gun to the next until they turned 14 and got their own rifles. My youngest girl is just stating this year at 13 (took her longer to decide is she wanted to hunt) My oldest girl is still using the 7mm Mauser. It is light and shoots very straight. This was her blacktail from last year. Only a fork but it was a very old buck.

[popeshawnpaul]

Anything with a .308 type casing works great.  .243 (necked down .308) is fine for deer and smaller stuff, but sometimes it would be nice to have a slightly bigger bullet even for deer.  Then you go to the 7mm-08, which is a great gun and can stop elk if needed in a pinch.  Then you go to the .308, which can handle elk up close as well as deer.  My favorite for elk/deer/bear would be the .358.  It's just a .308 necked up to take 200-250 grain bullets.  It doesn't kick me as hard as my .243 does.  Some of that issue is related to the weight of the rifle, but you get the point. 

So...my choices would be the 7mm-08 if only going after deer sized game, and the .358 if they were to take on some larger animals. 

[smdave]

I won a Kimber 84m in 338 Federal (308 necked up to 338) and my daughter loves shooting it. The Kimber is a very light rifle around 6lbs. shooting it is very comparable to my Remington 270. It is a very easy shooting caliber in terms of felt recoil.

Dave

[GoldTip]

I don't have kids, but my wife is rather recoil sensitive so I have her shooting a 6.5x55 swedish mauser.  Good shooting little gun, has been sporterized as far as the bolt handle being turned and the safety flopped over the top.  Picked it up at a gagrage sale for $65, put a 4x leupold on it I had in the gun safe. I had planned to handload for it, but she can run 3 shots of the federal 140gr into right at 1 1/4", so I'm not toying with it.  I have had several buddies borrow it for their kids "first" hunt and they have all done well with it.  Being the Carbine with the 20" barrel, very easy for a kid to carry.