Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Thoughts on TC Encore rifle for son's first hunting rifle?

Steve,

What bullet were you loading in the .22 Hornet for your son? Very imperessive kills for a Hornet!

The flextech stock works. I'd put a Limbsaver pad on my original stock and when I bought a 375 H&H barrel I got a flextech stock too. I shot the 375 with the Limbsaver equipped original stock and then put the new stock on. The difference was noticable. Definitely worth the money.

Factory Winchester 46 grain soft points. Six animals with seven shots, not counting the blesbok.....which would have quietly died if the PH's Jack Russell hadn't bolted and started worrying him by the hind leg. I had to put one in him at powder burn range while he rodeoed with the damn dog to finish him, but that was about a 200 pound animal. He got exits on all the broadside shots.

All shots were less than 100 yards, all animals calm and not spooked. The kid can shoot, and placement counts for a lot more than caliber or bullet weight. Duiker, steinbok, common reedbuck, impala, blesbok, and springbok. I also whacked a jackal and a ringtail with his rifle.

I'd recommend a .223 with an X or trophy bonded over a Hornet, but the fact is the Hornet worked about as well as anything could have.

Steve,

You photoshopped those animals...

A .223 can't kill a deer, you know that. Now you say a the wimpy .22 Hornet on African game?

What a stunt...grin...

amazing, ain't it?

Firedude, I did the same for my son when he was that age. One thing I'd recommend is a hammer extension, it was hard for him to pull back the hammer with his thumb, especially with the scope partially in the way.

Is this still an issue with how the Encores have the swing hammer conversion that is adjustable to either left, right, or normal(straight)?

Thanks for all of the responses. The African pics are awesome. Those are memories that will stay with your son forever, Steve No. My son just finished his hunter safety course yesterday, so he is very excited for this years hunting season. He keeps asking me, "what can we hunt right now?"

good luck to both of you this season.

I have the G2 in pistol with 223 and 17hmr both are scoped,very accurate and fun. Also have encore in 204 with with a 26 in. barrel very good for small game, and then there is my favorite encore with a 16 in. barrel in 7-08 with pachmayer decelerator grips and forend and to top it off a T/C 2to7 scope. I load my own and all of these will do 1/2 in. groups at 100 yards the 204 a little better. I have done a 1/2 in. group with the 7-08 at 200 but that was a good day for me. My next barrle is going to be a 26 in. in 7-08. A good place to look for barrles is www. matchgrademachine.com. It sounds like you have a great idea and are going to have a lot of good memories.
Sammy1

Thanks Steve, sounds like the boy is quite a fine shot.

I think that the encore offers the answer to the eternal question of what rifle for a child�s first big game rifle. With the youth stock you don�t have to have a stock cut down and it offers a wide variety of calibers. tom