a lot of what is being said here, I've seen over the last 12 years or so, handloading ammo in various calibers for kids when they are beginning hunters...

I sorta got started with observations over at our local range... typical was a 10 to 12 year old, that was given Grandpa's 30/06... dad would taken him out to shoot it, and then get angry as hell at the kid for him getting intimidated due to the gun kicking the crap out of him...

I had pretty much in my old age, figured out that one doesn't need a cannon to down a deer...also 90% of all game is taken within 100 yds and 99% is taken within 200 yds or less...so I was asking myself, why does one need a 500 yd load, to take a darn deer at 100 to 200 yds...

So with the pair of those concepts in my noggin, I decided to take a closer look at the reduced loads Speer had in their manuals...doing alot of testing also with bullet penetration capabilities at different velocities into different mediums.. I started noticing a lot of stuff that was happening that wasn't in the hunting mags and the reload manuals...

I came to the conclusion that the reason the 30/30 has hung on for so long, as it covers a lot of what the average guy really needs... so I started loading stuff to 30/30 speeds...

Kids and women really responded well to the reduced recoil and blast....what was really funny, is that once some of these dads had their kids try these reduced loads at the range and saw how well their kids did with them, they would ask me how much would it cost to have me load some up for their kids...

My policy always was, since it was for a kid, if the dad bought the components, I'd load them for the boy or girl at no charge...
just passing on to the next generation of shooters...

What was funny was after loading up a batch of ammo for a kid, the dad would call me up in a week or two and ask for some more... I'd ask if their son had already shot the ammo up, frequently they would reply NO... they shot a couple of them and liked the lack of recoil, that they wanted to have me load some up for them...

I usually would if it didn't get too crazy close to deer season...

I've used a lot of these reduced loads myself, for deer hunting locally...last really good sized black tail I took weighed about 205 to 210 lbs on the hoof...he was taken with a heart shot at 50 yds or so...I'd seen this animal a couple of seasons over the years and he was a wylie darn buck...

He was taken with a 7 x 57... with a charge of 28 grains of SR 4759 and a 115 grain Speer HP...Recoil felt less than a 223...

here is why the deer dropped with a 115 grain Varmint Bullet, was due to shot placement and the Varmint bullet performance at lower speeds...

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Although using a different powder ( Blue Dot) and a 130 grain Sierra SP...this is the same 7 x 57, and here is the results from 100 yds with it...charge was 22.5 grains of Blue Dot..
Rifle is a Model 70 Featherweight, chambered in "7mm Mauser" as stamped on the barrel...

[Linked Image]

So lack of recoil, on this rifle as an example, shows how shot placement is made a lot easier...

and if you look at a trajectory chart in some of the reload manuals, you will see, that is a bullet ( regardless of Weight or caliber), if the MV is in the 2250 to 2300 fps range.. if zeroed 3.5 inches high at 100 yds, it will be pretty much dead on at 200 and about 3.5 inches low at 230 to 240 yds or so..

equate that with the fact that an average antelope is 14 inches from back bone to breast bone ( regardless of weight), cut that in half you have 7 inches...consider a trajectory that is calculated at 3.5 inches high to 3.5 low, all one has to do is hold the rifle steady, and you can aim at hair.. pull the trigger, and you should not have to do any compensation for trajectory out to just short of 250 yds...

then return to consider that most game is taken at 100 yds or less and definitely 200 yds or less, you have an awfully capable load, especially matching the bullet to the impact velocity speeds...

no advocating here of anything, just offering food for thought...

it definitely helps kids and women with shooting accuracy and shot placement made easier.... and if we can think outside the box, it'll probably work for the most macho of Campfire Members also...