Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles First gun for my son?

Just went through the same scenario with my daughter who just turned seven. We went to Bass Pro and a gun show and let her handle several makes and models. I learned pretty quickly that even the CZ scout was too heavy for her to shoot off hand for more than just a few shots without getting tired. The Davy Cricket was the lightest but is very cheaply made. My brother bought one for his son and the sights shoot loose, it is not very accurate and just feels dinky. We ended up with the Henry Mini Bolt. It has nice fiber optic sights, and more substantial feel than the Cricket or Chipmunk. She loves it and is becoming a pretty good shot with it. She can take about 20-25 offhand shots before she starts the leaning back posture that signals she is getting tired. I know she will outgrow it in a couple of years, but I thought it was important to get her a rifle that fit properly right now so that she can learn proper offhand shooting technique from the start, and no be relegated to shooting from a bench.

Thanks so much again for the suggestions. Looking over these rifles and a few others combined with my son's size has me convinced I do need to buy an inbetween rifle to start him with before jumping to the CZ or a small leveraction like the BL22 I am fond of.

The savage rascal has a lof of what I'm looking for at a price I am very happy with. BTW I google image searched "Savage Rascal Red" and the picture johnw posted of his son with his target and that great big grin is on the first page. Those come in a few different colors and my son loves red.

I think a contender carbine or G2 would be pretty practical. Safe for a little one and the only thing needed to keep him shooting for years is a new butt stock and some more tubes.

Too Bad that kid looks like his Dad.






Just kidding - Gotta Love that Smile & Expression on his face.

This is what I started both my kids on, and they (and I) still consider it our favorite, and most useful gun. It's an old Win 69A, I bought in a pawn shop. I had the barrel cut to 20" and the receicer grooved for scope mounts. The most accurate rifle I have ever seen.


Today...

I understand "mine". Do I understand you're thinking about the 39 for a kids fist gun? I am not sure that's what your saying.

Regardless .... I like the 39s, but I've never handled one that was not heavy. All I've been around have been too heavy for a kid's first gun.

Matt - I honestly don't remember what I started my boys using in the way of a 22.

As a 'First Deer Rifle' I looked around and handled several, but all were in Adult size.

Another 'Gun Writer' (don't remember who) described the Savage 99 as, made quite well for 'yutes'. They have a 'shorter' LOP and in 243 the right model is not too heavy.

I found one, don't remember exactly which model, and by george he was right. At 10 yrs and small for his age, my younger son could handle and shoot it quite well. IIRC and I'm pretty sure, he killed 2 bucks his first season. They were not big but legal.

I haven't looked for a 'deer rifle' for youths in a long time and we have many new models BUT the Savage 99 will work.

No, I wasn't recommending that. It was posted more to agree that a lever gun is wonderful. But I don't think it is ideal for Matt's child.

Short, light, simple, cheap is better.

When my son was 6 years old, I bought him the Savage Cub for a Christmas gift. Great little gun with a nice trigger. Accurate and simple gun. Can't go wrong with that gun.
When he turned 7, I bought him a youth Remington 700 ADL in .243. Pic of his first deer.

I started my son out on a mossbert 22lr bolt gun that I cut down to fit him and mounted a red dot on. He took to it quite well and it was very easy to teach hm to shoot accurately. Hard to go wrong, put dot on target and pull the trigger. I really think the quick learning curve with the red dot helps keep their attention. He even used it to kill a few snowshoes over the first few years. Started him at 5.

Now that he is soon to be 10 I have been setting about to get him something he can handle and still be big game worthy.

My son is left eye dominant and I have taught him to shoot left handed. Being right handed the only logical choice of my rifles was my T/C Encore. I have rifle barrels in 22-250, 30.06, a shorty 45/70, and 209x50. After keeping my eye open for a 308 barrel for the last few years I came across a blued sportier 308 barrel for $100 bucks locally. I jumped on it and finally had all the makings for what I considered the perfect starter rifle for my son. had originally indented to get a wood stock and cut it down for him to use until I came across this collapsable m4 style stock that Choate makes. With a LOP variable from 11-16" it seemed like a great choice for something that we could both use.

First I cut and recrowned the 308 barrel at 17.25", and put the sights back on. I mounted a 2-7 Nikon scope and its good to go. I'm planning on starting him out with some reduced loads with Trailboss. There are a bunch of good reduced loads for the 308 that run between 900-1400fps with bullets in the 150-180 weight range. A good friend gave me a few hundred 173gr RNGC cast bullets to load up. He also gave me a recipe for 7.0gr of trail boss that had this bullets running around 975fps out of his 22" barreled 308. These ought to be very mild shooting. According to him no touch more than a 22lr.


Its still a little heavy for offhand shooting but with lots of practice off shooting sticks or packframe he should be good enough with it in a year or so to make moderate range shots on baited blackbear and maybe even fall moose.