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youth caliber opinion
hadjii
Member Posts: 976 ✭✭
Looking at buying a rifle for my 13 year old daughter. Presently she shoots my 17 HMR, but am going to buy her a centerfire. My question is this. Between a 243 Win, a 260 Remington, or a 7mm-08, what is the people's choice. The rifle will be either a Remington Model 7, or a Remington 600 Mohawk, and yes I know that the only caliber of the 3 in the 600 is the 243. Thank You.
Comments
Don't rule out the 30-30. My sister carried a Marlin 30A when she was 13.
Another vote for a 30-30.
They do not have much of a kick, the stocks are normally shorter to where a young'un can handle them, and have plenty of power for deer hunting (I would guess that a 30-30 has probly taken more deer than any other round).
Plus ammo is reasonable so your young'un can get lots of practice![:D]
I bought a Marlin 336 in .35 Rem as a short-range deer rifle, although I have only been deer-hunting twice (I know - shame on me), because the reloading manuals all state that it is superior to the .30-30 in performance. I won't argue that more deer have been taken with the .30-30 than any other round, but I also believe that one should take game cleanly and from a distance that will not stress the animal, and thus, opted for the more powerful round in the same size gun. We all know that shot placement is critical to achieve this, so my opinion is to have more power for some compensation.
As for your other calibers, all of them have the aforementioned option of reduced-recoil, factory loads or handloads, so your daughter should be able to handle all of them, and still take game humanely. Personally, I'm happy to see this discussion as I have only been shooting for 12 years, and have only been hunting 4 times. I have a 4-yr-old daughter and a 4-month-old daughter, and I hope to get both of them on the range, in the field, and/or in the water for fishing.
I will also second the 257 Roberts (even though it is not one that you listed). Much of the factory ammo is very mild and thus almost no recoil. It would be a good choice, in my opinion.
And if you buy the Weatherby Compact it comes with both a youth size stock and a full size stock.
So you are getting a rifle that can be easily used to grow into since it's a five minute job to switch out stocks.
This exactly what a guy i know did for his small framed son.
And these rifles wont break your bank account either.