Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Contender Kids Deer Caliber?

I'm putting together a rig for my 7 and 8 year old girls for deer and hogs.

I am thinking a 7-30 waters in a contender frame would work well. Has anyone shot the 6.8 spc in this frame who can verify how much punch the recoil has?

I am concerned about recoil. Any guidance is much appreciated.

Can't speak to the 6.8, but can say that the 7-30 is near perfect deer medicine in the Contender. Mine was a 21" carbine w/ a Leup 1.5-5x20mm on top. It was nice but almost too light out front. Traded it away, but were I to do it again, I'd go w/ a bull barrel. Recoil BTW, is very mild and would be extremely kid friendly, IMO.

Consider a .357 Mag if the ranges aren't long. Very flexible and very deadly at reasonable ranges.

One of my boys first deer rifles will be a Contender in 7-30 Waters;






*Says 5lbs 10oz*

Depends on whether you reload or not. If you reload then the 7-30 would be a fine cartridge. But if you don't reload then it wii be to expensive to shoot and practice. And the one thing kids need is practice. If you do not reload then look at one of the pistol cartridges. 357 would be OK, or so would a 44 magnum. I like the 45 Colt, but that factory ammo would also be a little expensive.

And even though the 7-30 is a great cartrdige, it is about the same as a 30-30. So it depends on how much you want to spend. 30-30 ammo is half the price of 7-08 ammo. Tom.

My choice for a young hunter would be:

357 mag 6.5 Grendel (custom bbl). 7-30 will do a fine job, tad more mv than a 7TCU.

K.I.S.S. - 223 w/Barnes TSX and the right grain for twist.

I have a custom shop tapered 22" barrel in 6.8 and it has VERY mild recoil. Should be perfect for young ones. If you go with the factory barrel, it will be a heavier contour and should kick even less. Also have a custom .25/35 Win tube and it is very pleasant as well but is strictly a custom proposition. Haven't killed anything with the 6.8 yet but killed a doe with the .25/35 a couple years ago and it worked fine.

I also have a .25-35 carbine barrel and have killed a "fork" (Easterners would call it a 4-pointer) blacktail with it; one shot, ran about 50 yards and died. BUT for me the .25-35 is strictly a handloading proposition. You need to use the best bullets available, and a slightly hotter-than-factory loading to get reliable deer performance, IMO.

In the area where I hunt, we are resticted to non-lead bullets, and that imposes further limitations on the .25-35. I now use the .357, which doesn't need to be handloaded to find nonlead ammo, and seems to me to kill better at the ranges I shoot. The best conventional ammo kills even better, and is available off the shelf.

And you can phase a young hunter from .38 wadcutters that don't kick thru medium .357s to .357 deer ammo easily. Even the hottest 180 gr. stuff doesn't kick nearly as much as a .30-30, it seems to me.

I would think that the .357 MAGNUM would be about ideal. Performance in the rifle barrel can approach .30-30 levels. Practice ammo is relatively cheap to buy and down right cheap to load. It is accurate. There are bullets to suit any state.

Why screw with the 6.8SPC? Because its new and neat?

Why not stick with the .30-30 or 7-30W? Or maybe a .44Mag? The all have rims and are perfect for a break-action piece like an Encore or Contender! And Certainly not the 6.8. But if insist on something not rimmed, why not go with a reduced .308W load? Or .243? (couple examples) Hodgdon lists data for doing so with the 308.

I reload.

357 mag? I had not considered that as an option. This might be a great idea. What do you think range limitation would be - 100 yards?

The 6.5 grendal is also a cool one I had not thought about. Recoil wise it may be ideal also.

My goal is to watch the shot through the scope. I've thought much about the 223 with barnesX, but after shooting a few hogs with one I think it's a sharpshooter's round for me, not the kid.

I would say that the .357 is about a 150 yard deer ctg. in a rifle with a scope (or a reciever sight for somebody with excellent eyesight). I started using them after reading articles about them in Handloader and Rifle and found that the articles were actually true.

But you have to accept some limitations: using ammo that will actually punch thru a deer from most angles, shooting from a distance where you can actually hit a vital zone (preferably the one you were aiming at!) and not shooting at deer that are running and full of adrenaline.

There are lots of .357 factory rounds that will penetrate a deer from most reasonable angles, starting with the shells that use regular 158 gr. Gold Dots and going to Buffalo Bore 180s and the like.

I keep my shots to about 100 yards and use a small scope on my two .357 rifles (Marlin '94 "Cowboy" w/oct 24" barrel and Contender Carbine with 20" custom barrel).

I will shoot at a deer that is starting to walk but not at one that is starting to run. My experience is that even a 12 guage slug or '06 won't really stop a running deer in its tracks. And our California chaparral is just too thick to drag a deer out of if you are 67 like me. My beagle can find a dead or wounded deer, but I'm not sure I or my ancient companions could make meat out of one that we had to retrieve from some jungly barranca. (Probably end up makin' coyote take-out ourselves....).

My Marlin dropped a doe IN tracks at 75 paces, 158 RP JSP atop Lil Gun, 2050 mv. Recoil not bad at all. Trigger stiff out the box not great for a kid, and CAN be tuned by a smith or a kit. A TC blows it away in the trigger dept.

In college I shot alot of handguns for awhile, the 44 outkicked the 30-30, but the TCU was even less. I believe a 6.5 Grendel would kick less, though handloaded a Thutty Thutty is not a bad round to 150 yds either, using a 125 or 130 spitzer. RN bullets fall out fast, but at woods ranges are fine, and deadly, but often heavier so recoil may go up.

Hornady loading cost efficient 123 amax about 2550 mv - ideal for youth recoil, and closer range deer = quick death IMHO w/6.5 Grendel.

Alot of options. A 243 w/80-85 barnes is effective and not bad on recoil. Factory loaded in TSX 85 by Federal if needed, deadly. Blast I believe would be less piercing with a 357 or Grendel. Recoil less also I believe.

Many options. A 7.62x39 would be as a 6.5G, non - rimmed, but I never had any big problem w/any extractions w/o rimmed rounds. Cheap ammo for plinking, SPs for hunting, 123 gr also IIRC.

The 6.8 SPC offers far less recoil than most of the rounds cited so far here and effective ranges to 250 yards and beyond to boot.

Your kids will appreciate that and shoot more often to develop their command of the round.

One problem is that I think the TC is only available in a very short barrel -- 10" ? -- format and you really need a minumum of 16 inches to perform at its stop potential. IMO The Ruger compact 77 is a perfect package for kids.

There also are high quality 6.8 bullets -- Barnes etc. -- in commercial fodder that will cleanly kill deer. hogs, etc.. And the 130 GR H0RNADY IBs can be loaded to take down even bigger game.

1B

Nah IB, you can get a TC in any barrel length from 6" to 26" in any safe caliber. "Just a little matter of time and money," and there are tons of various calibers and lengths "off the shelf" if you cruise the web.

I agree the 6.8 looks very interesting, not just in "black rifles," either.

This wasn't for a kid but rather a gun to poke around in the bush looking for deer. The condender in 30/40 k is near perfect. MGM made the barrel and it shoots.

If legal 223 Remington, 1-9 twist, 60gr Nosler Partitions. My boys 6&9 and I have killed several deer with it, all one shot kills...

357 mag for sure. Cheap ammo. Yet deadly.

If you reload a .357 MAX would be good out to 150 yards or so and you can shoot .357 Mag and .38 special in it as well. Neither the 6.8 or waters kick too hard but I like the waters better as a deer killer. The 120 NBT is a good killer at about 2700 or so out of the 20 in tube on my carbine. I also have a 30-30 AI in a 20 in carbine that I like even more than the waters. You can shoot factory 30-30 ammo in it if necessary and it is accurate with that. I run 150 Nosler NBT and 150 Hornadys at about 2500 in that combo and it is accurate and deadly on deer with little recoil but if you want a little less punch on the shoulder and still have adequit killing power the 125 - 130 gr bullets can be pushed to 2700 or so in the AI and are pretty flat shooting and good killers on game.

i shoot several contender carbines in low recoil calibers, started my kids with TC carbines also. most anything mentioned above would work fine.

killed a few deer and a few hogs with the 25/35, as mentioned handloading makes it way better. also killed a few more with the .25classic, which is a .25x30herrett, pretty much the same oomph, and 100gr BT's do a pretty good job at those speeds.

25/35 carbine

the .357max isnt bad on recoil, especially with middleweights like 158gr. my 22" carbine shoots the 158remmy bulk pretty good. and if you can find them, the now discontinued remmy 150gr 358's shoot great in all max barrels i have owned (got 4 at the moment) and you can always shoot .357mags in there.

the 7x30 is getting near the upper end of what i'd call "kid friendly recoil" with full power loads.

my 30/30AI is a tapered profile so it is very light...around 6# scoped...and i think it might be a bit much for a new shooter with full power loads, but you can always download it and then never have to step up.

i had a 7TCU, really pleasant, and i sort of miss that one, any of the TCU's would be fine. never tried the 6.5TCU, but the .25TCU is fun.

any of the medium-caliber, small-cased centerfires would also make a great light walking varminter rig for you...

i put together a 6.8 carbine not long ago, wanted one because i shoot it in a couple of bolt guns, definitely one of the better kid-friendly calibers i've played with so far.