Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kids deer/antelope rifle

Dude, you live on Long Island. Come on now.

Buy a 22 creedmoor in the barrel length and profile that suits them best. Maybe a heavy sporter.

Drop deer, coyotes, and such one after another....

Yeah, I live on Long Island where there is a bigger population of deer then in Many,Many areas of the United States! They are considered a pest here. I live in a very populated area and my house plot is 100' x100" and i have seen deer across the street as well as flocks of turkey.

And DUH!!!! I don't hunt here but hunt in the Catskill mountains and have shot a lot of deer there where you have to actually hunt for them and not sit in a n elevated blind with hot and cold running water, full kitchens, Hot showers and a flush toilet!

'm talking about hunting here!!!

Hip (A hunter----not a girly man!)

Cool story bro. Do tell me more. I'd love to not hear about it.

Skull fu c ked is the proper term

Kchunt Shoot,

Meat simply gets shot in the face. Hint.

Pickles don't. 1-8" 223AI. Hint.



Fhuqking LAUGHING!...............

I went with the Tikka T3 Compact chambered for .243 Win 1:8" twist for 11-12yo Grand daughter who wanted to hunt white tails here in KY. Leupold 1.5-5x20 on top. Minimal recoil. Forgiving eye box. A 95gr NPT sealed the deal on her second hunt.

Back in the early 80s I worked on a diesel barge outside of Ketchikan with a guy who used to hunt moose with a 22-250. At 200 yards they were dropping 47 feet and getting less than an inch of penetration on woodchucks. I used to tell him all the time that he needed upgrade the CTM with CTR12 chromoly backed with vanadium, put colored tape on the scope to boost muzzle velocity, and load a batch of 57 hootenanypoppers but he ended up selling the rifle and got a job at Howard Johnson's. Moral of the story: HOW MANY TIMES DOES STICK HAVE TO RE-TEACH YOU MORONS THE SAME THING? NEVER STOP STICK. NEVER STOP FIGHTING. THROW MORE IN THE CREEK. MAKE THEM LEARN.

You expect us to believe a .243 killed a deer? The photos are clearly AI generated and Stick hasn't even seen them. How many times did you throw the rifle in the creek? If it's less than 30 we know you're lying.

All the youth who've tried it have liked my 6.5CM Howa with a B&C youth stock on it.

125 gr reduced loads- very light recoil
Daughter has been shooting it since she was 10 now 17 she loves the 308.

You are there. The step from the T1/22 to the T3x/223 will be easy. If one of the kids is especially recoil sensitive you can even download the 223's practice rounds since you hand load.

Taking kids hunting is awesome when they have fun and take to it. I was asked to take a nephew out for his first buck a few years ago. He borrowed a 223 and after we practiced a bit he placed a 62 grain Federal Fusion bullet neatly behind the shoulder of a 7 point. (The wound was tremendous and the buck died quickly by the way. The tissue damage looked more like a wound from a 270-type cartridge.)

Enjoy those hunts and take lots of pics. They grow old fast and those memories will mean a lot.

It’s too bad they don’t chamber a bunch of factory rifles in 250 savage. It’s the cartridge I wanted to start my kids with.

I’m with the .223 crowd.....

Light loads in a .223 to start, then on to full power stuff as they grow.
Deer/antelope die easily if hit properly.
Once old enough/proficient enough, I’d go 6.5. CM and never look back - load it light, medium or heavy depending on the the need..... the road map to success....

Yep .223 gets my vote too!

243 gets my vote. Doesn't need to be a fast twist either. You don't even need a fancy scope or a fancy bullet. Some guys overthink this schidt. It would look something like this:

Rifle:
1. Winchester model 70 featherweight
2. Tikka T3x lite or superlite
3. Sako AII
4. Ruger RAR
5. Stevens 200
6. Myriad of other rifles that would work perfectly

Scope:
1. Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle

Bullet:
1. Hornady 100gr BTSP interlock

Keep it simple, like what is outlined, and it's really hard to go wrong, or screw up. After that, practice, practice and more practice. Teach them to learn that reticle, and I guarantee they can be deadly out to 500 yards, with this combo.

Your 6mm "Understanding" is Fhuqking HILARIOUS!. Hint.



The 223 simply gets the nod,with a real scope and real projectile. Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING!.............

L O L O L O L ! ! ! ... Don't need the sarcasm font for this one... ... As BSA said, don't overthink it.

243 seems like the best choice to me, especially given that you handload.


Don't listen to the guy who is recirculating 15 year old pictures. Miraculously for a game slayer who loves to brag about success and wares, there are no recent game kill photos.

All my kids started antelope hunting with youth model .243s and 7mm-08s. All standard twists, all crappy BC bullets, and at least one of the rifles isn’t even sub-MOA (Gasp!!!)….but the rifles fit them well, the kids shot straight and we made an effort to get them within the ranges they were comfortable shooting.

This was my youngest boys first season and he used his Tikka superlite 7-08 with a 120 NBT. I started him with reduced loads and he now shoots pretty well.






In the .243s we have mostly used the 85 TSX



If I was starting from scratch I would take a hard look at the 6mm CM and the 95 LRX. We shoot that bullet in my 6-06 and it is a hammer without excessive damage to the real trophy on an antelope.