Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 250 vs. 308

The 250/3000 burns less powder and throws a lighter bullet, so it will be alot easier to shoot than the basic 150 gr. .308 load.
If the "kid" can really shoot a .308, fine. I started deer hunting at the age of 12 with a bolt action '06 with a muzzle break. Had no trouble shooting it well. But not everybody can shoot such a rifle well.
You can also down load the .308 or buy "reduced recoil" loads for it.
All that said, I'd be more inclined to hand him a 250. It is entirely adequate, and rarely is too much for anybody over the ages of 12-13. E

Seems you should have identified yourself as the 15 year old boy in question and that you had both rifles in hand in your original post. Taking a smart ass approach will get you know where and fast!

I have a 15 year old son who was talking all cocky last week. If you speak with him, ask him how the lump on the back side of his head is feeling.

P.S. does your daddy know you're talking with big people on the internet...

Kid, people here including myself will help you if you are willing to accept what people offer as help based on their experiences.

The scoped 99 you have is no lightweight rifle. You should be fine in .308. Have daddy load it down for you a bit.

What I do know is that I shot a decent 8-pt with a 150 TSX out of a 308 and it died. My son shot a good-sized doe with a 85 Gr TSX out of his 6mm-250 and it died an equally dead death.

Kid needs to have MUCH thicker skin if he's going to hang out here. If he thinks I post crap, he don't know what crap is!

I do have quite a bit of experience.ya I am 15 but i have hunted in 6 different states and I have killed my share of game. You most likely sit infront of a food pile and kill deer.Imop that isent hunting

Thanks! My real deer rifle i use is a 760 gamemaser -06 im not worried about recoil. I am just afraid about the 250 not having enough killing power

My .250 has a scope but also a folding tang peep. My first Savage [at 12] was a .300 and had one of them as well. I liked it well enough that I never had a scope on my deer rifle until I was 28. They work really well. I encourage you to try it. You don't give up all that much out to 150 yds...farther if you have young eyes.

Laffin'...........

And you said I had poor spelling and grammer..Its laughing

It's "grammar".

It's "It's".

And you forgot your punctuation at the end of your sentence.

I've got .243, .250 Savage, .300 Savage, and .308 My first was a .300 Savage 99 lever. If you're going to start a kid out deer hunting I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better round to do it with than the .250 Savage. Its a fine round that should be loaded in a lot more guns than it is. Very little recoil and with 100 Grain bullets, it flattens things.

Alright man I am 15 and your a adult so this is very dumb.So Im just going to ignore you and w.e you say.

You can actually put me on your ignore list. You can figure it out......you're 15!

And I'm not "a adult". I'm an adult. And there should be 2 spaces after the period.

Kbruce;
With regard to your original question I'd opine that it depends greatly on the recoil tolerances of the junior hunter in question.

If recoil is an issue with a junior hunter or for that matter any hunter, then as has been said by many of the knowledgeable posters before me, a .250 with a decent bullet that is well placed will kill any deer that ever walked.

I state that with confidence based upon watching our youngest daughter kill a number of mule deer and whitetail bucks with her .250AI, as well as having eaten parts of between 3 and 5 moose which were shot by my late father with his .250 in a 99.

While I know some whitetails can get pretty big, even the Saskatchewan bucks I hunted when I was your age weren't quite as large as even a small adult moose.

With that part of the question dealt with, I'd also say that if a hunter - for whatever reason - in their heart believes a particular cartridge/rifle combination is "just right" for them, then by all means that is what they should use.

A late friend of mine did just that with a 95 Winchester in .30-40, eventually in his lifetime of hunting northern BC shooting over 50 moose, several grizzly bears, caribou, sheep and more black bears and deer than most of us here would believe.

Was it a perfect combination for everything? For him I'd say the results indicate it was.

At times though, the tough thing for folks like him to wrap their heads around is that there are many, many ways to get this hunting thing accomplished.

Speaking for myself alone here, as long as it's a legal and humane method of killing the quarry, I don't get too hung up on the tool being used to dispatch the animal anymore.

That didn't happen overnight mind you, it came with being either responsible for or simply present when a broad spectrum of big game animals died. Several decades of processing game animals for our family and family friends has done nothing to change my opinion about that either.

Hopefully that made some sense to you and was at least a bit useful?

All the best luck to you in your upcoming hunts Kbruce.

Regards,
Dwayne

All time low here. Getting in a pizzing match with new fifteen year old kid. A proud moment for you I'm sure.

Thanks. And it's not "pizzing". It's pissing. And if correcting a 15-year old back-talking kid is an all-time low for me, I must be a saint!

About 10 years ago I ordered a 16 1/4" 250 Savage barrel for my Encore from Fox Ridge Outfitters. That really made up in to a nice little gun for my type of thick woods wandering.

Fast forward to today. My son is 12 and the last 2 deer seasons he has used that 250 Sav barrel on his Pro-Hunter frame to Shoot a Doe (first deer first Youth Weekend), and a 5 pointer. He loves that barrel and says Dad isn't getting it back. I load the 100 gr Ballistic Tip over H380 and both of his deer have been one shot kills (the doe actually took 2 shots, BUT the first one completely missed her and she hung around for the second!)

My son acts like he is recoil sensitive, however when he tells me that he likes shooting a Win 94 in 30/30 more than his Encore in 223 I tend to think it is more a muzzle blast issue (he wears plugs AND muffs). The 250 being a lower pressure round than the 308 you are considering, or the 223 he was comparing it to may make the difference for some young shooters.

As an aside, my son has decided that he wants to give my 6.8 SPC a try this spring when we can get to the range. (That's another lower pressure, lighter recoiling round you might consider.) I may end up having to find myself another 6.8 Barrel!

kbruce- any lost deer won't be because a 250 wasn't enough gun. Great round.
Peep sights are a big improvement over std. iron sights. I put them on my sks and dramatically improved my shooting. Younger eyes ought to fare even better. Practice enough to build confidence and to clearly identify your limitations with them. Use it, and use it wisely and do your grandad proud and happy. I have several scope rifles but a few without and for close up fast stuff there is no beating them.

Keep on going. I am all ears

Another long line of recent idiots to join. PM Jeff O, it will take a bucket of cold water to separate the two of you soon.


Yep, 250, albeit AI version thereof

7mm-08!