Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help with son's first deer rifle: Ruger American vs Remington SPS?

I guess different folks have different ideas about what a first gun should be. I'm thankful my first gun from my parents was a walnut/gloss blue 12ga Browning BPS. That gun is still in my safe and will be passed to the next generation some day. If it was a Wingmaster I would feel the same way about it. Sadly, if it would have been an 870 Express, especially a synthetic, I probably would have traded it away for something nicer in my younger days. Because it was a very nice piece to begin with, I still have it now that I am old enough to appreciate having that "first gun" in my collection.

My BIL recently bought my nephew his first deer rifle and, knowing that I do a lot of trading, he asked for my help to locate him a nice wood/blue rifle for his first. He wanted something that he would hopefully appreciate into adulthood. I found him a very nice Model 7 CDL and a youth synthetic stock to go with it. He can bang up the synthetic stock while he's young and learning, then the nice walnut stock can be put back on it in a few years when he's older and able to appreciate it. As a good uncle, I had to supply a nice older Nikon Monarch UCC to complete the package.

I bought my own first deer rifle several years back. Not knowing any better, I bought a Rem 710 because it was cheap. I later won a Ruger M77 MarkII in 280Rem in a raffle. That was my first "real" rifle and it will stay in the safe with the BPS to be passed on. The 710 is long gone. I still kind of regret that my first deer rifle that I killed my first deer with is gone, but that rifle was awful in comparison to the Ruger.

Of your 2 choices, I'd go with the 700. It's still at it's heart a real rifle with lots of options for the future. The RAR is a good little gun, but I still can't see it as one to be passed down through the generations.

If you aren't stuck on those 2 but still need a budget rifle, the stainless 7mm-08 Marlin XS7 from Whittaker's would be my choice. After a coat of paint on the stock, mine looks like this:


and shoots like this: