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

Only a pretty good gunstore would have a decent enough selection to make this approach you suggest work! But if a father and son visited a place with a good inventory of new and used guns and worked together to find the right first gun........the results would be far better!

A used rifle can often be found that would far surpass the budget rifles. One real problem with this approach though is that team approach is actually happening and many of them are looking for exactly what the author of this thread is looking for!

Absolutely classic!

I'd be surprised if you get much agreement on that, unless you were being facetious.

Thirty thirty..... if he can run a lever. Find a nice used marlin with pretty wood...

W

I have an american I won... I tried to get it rebored.. guy refused, said he would not work on one again, PITA etc...

Plus I dont' care for ruger still due to past politics.

The Rem has a LOT more options out there and for the future.

That being said I'd take him to a gun show or gun shop and let him look...after all its he that has to like it really.

Wood is fine. Synthetic is by far better. Depends on your needs. If you would hang around shooters that are picky, competitive ones, that demand zero's stay the same and top line accuracy, will take synthetic every last time.

I did not stay at a Holiday inn last night.

I have both, like em both well enough. I'm a Ruger fan so I bought the All American for my 12 year old Grandson. If he had his dream gun it would an AR with a hand full of 30 round mags. He will figure out exactly what he wants in a deer rifle down the road.

I vote RAR 223/243 Vari X-II 2-7X33.

I thought Remington did away with the ADL years ago.

SPS by a very long mile.

If you really love your son, Whittaker Guns has Howa's for $329.00 right now.




Travis

remington 700 all day

I went with a Rem 700 Youth .243 for my son when he got tall enough to use the 12.5" LOP. Before that he was using an H&R single shot with a shorter LOP because we started when he was 5 years old and a little on the short side.

I looked at several others but for the money, and the availability of almost any aftermarket part you could want the 700 just made the most sense to me.

It is not a finely blued rifle but I gave it a couple of coats of Krylon Matte Clear and it still looks good after 5 years and several deer taken. The stock spacer will allow it to grow with him and it is accurate with factory ammo. Then we have the option of buying a better stock and trigger later if we want, but the way it shoots now I don't know why we would. The only thing I would like to have that it did not come with is maybe a 22" barrel over the factory 20".

It will probably not be his main rifle for the rest of his hunting life, I'm sure he will experiment, but for deer sized game it will be all he would need.

When they get older they can have more input and help make decisions on what they would like have.

Bob.

The howas feel like solid rifles. If they put out some of their micro action .223s in 1-8" with a weatherby style stock I'll have one.

Not sure that 8 twist is gonna gain you anything with that short of a mag.

But the standard VG's and Howa's can be got with any stock your heart desires. Almost.



Travis

u know there are sooooo many good calibers out there now for the young hunters.in my day it was the 30-30 or 257mainly because pill selection for the lighter calibers like the 243 were limited.
today u have the 7mm-08,260,25-06,he can probably even shoot a 308.
yes there have been a variety of new calibers over the past 20 years or so but nothing really new in ballistics,the new and in my opinion best new developement has been pills, so that now even a 22 caliber can be used.
i have a 223 loaded with sierras relatively new 65 gr bt,it has a 1-9 twist and shoots under .500 at 100 yards. the only thing is its a max 200 yard weapon,maybe even 150
270 FOREVER JACK CONVINCED ME I GOT 6 OF THEM

The 700 will be just fine for a first gun. If he takes to hunting and shooting buy him a nice wood/blued for graduation if thats what he wants.

Myself having the choice of someone buying me one would not be blued/wood. I would pick SS/Syn.

I picked up one of the youth 243 700's about 3 yrs ago from wally world on sale for $299. Nice little gun. I ended up selling the slick youth stock for $50 and replaced it with a factory SPS with the hogue type grip panels which I like much more.

cdnnsports.com has the Ruger M77 Hawkeye in several configurations and calibers including blue/walnut, stainless/synthetic and compact versions for $499. The 7mm-08 All Weather would be a great choice!

Looking at some other options which are quite a few nowadays. You also have the Weatherby compact youth which is a Howa action but its stock can be extended as he grows. My Daughter has three Tikkas and one custom Sako 243. Her one Tikka is the hunter in 308 with the stock cut down to fit her and a Edwards recoil reducer coupled with a limbsaver recoil pad. Virtually no felt recoil. She also has a Tikka 7mm mag T3 but her favorite is the Tikka compact in 7mm-08. Excellent trigger with a Leupold 3-9. More than RAR in cost but a real handy accurate rifle. I think 7mm-08 is the way to go what ever rifle you purchase.

be careful the wall world rems are usually rem 783s

If it is an ADL it is a deal. A BDL, even better. I had an SPS once . I don't know how much difference there is but the SPS .243 Win. Youth rusted really fast and could only get 3" groups @ 100 yds. We traded it for a Tikka t3Light? in .270 Win. He likes that gun a lot more. It is longer and not a youth but is a better gun. It was $ 529 without a scope however. Wish I'd spent a bit more right away. He has a Redffield Revolution 2x7 on it. The cost came to about $700 out the door but might be worth it in the long run. He got a 3 pt and a bear so far in 3 years of owning it. In 20 yrs, the extra few hundred bucks will long be forgotten, but the quality will still be there. I dont think you will go wrong with the Remington though. Will need a real scope in 5 yrs though.

If you can, let him handle both and see which one he prefers. If he has a strong preference, you have your answer.

If no strong preference, I would go with the Remington 700... As stated above, there is a world of after market parts available to tweak it and customize it when the time comes.

JMO... YMMV...

I know the difference. I also know that my local Walmart sells the the ADL package for $377. I also know the going rate for a SPS is about $550-$600.