Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 223 VS 357 for young hunter.

I think this would be my recommendation as well. Just make sure she has comfortable safety gear too. Adult sized muffs are too large and cumbersome. Just another thought.

What is going to be more useful long term? A bolt action .357, or well set up .223? I can't imagine anything more useless then a .357 rifle. The 223 will recoil less, kill better, kill farther and if she decides to keep hunting will be useful for the rest of her life.

If you are going to go the .357 route, I suggest a less expensive Handi Rifle, reamed to .357 Maximum. In this configuration you can still use .38 and .357 magnum, but the .357 maximum is much more potent medicine on deer sized critters, still with very little recoil.

It's not nearly the quality rifle that the Ruger is, but ability to ream it out to the maximum caliber is a great benefit for hunting.

That's the arguement that keeps bringing me back to the Montana.About all the 77/357 has going for it is that it is cheaper,weighs the same,and will do the job for MOST situations.

Recoil of the .223 and .357 in rifles of the same weight should be pretty close to identical. The .223 will be noisier. Recoil of .38's in a rifle is extremely mild and the report isn't much more than a .22 LR. At 125 yards or less the .357 from a rifle will work fine on deer or hogs. It is only past that point that the .223 has an advantage.

Neither is a brush buster; but nothing else can be counted upon either.

The usefulness of a .357 rifle is up to its owner, but of course the .223 would be better for varmints or longer range shooting, and it will probably print smaller groups on target.

I'd say that is accurate for most places, but in Indiana I'd say it's the opposite. The 357 is legal for deer here and the 223 is not.

I'm thinking of starting my boys with a 357 as its the smallest that is legal for deer here and would be better than the 20ga slug gun I started with. Now to pick the platform...

I have both a Marlin 1894C in .357 and a Stevens 200 in .223. I can't tell a bit of difference in recoil between the two when firing full power loads in each. I've also killed deer with both and can't see much difference in effectiveness there either. If anything, I'd give a slight edge to the .357 inside 100 yards and I've killed deer with it out to 220 yds. with complete pass through penetration. The nice thing about my .357 is that it's quite accurate with both .357's and 38 specials and when it's zero'd for 100 yds with a 158 gr. 357 load pushing a 158 gr sp at 1800 fps., it's also dead on at 50 yards with 158 gr. 38 spcls.. With the .38's it makes a good 75 yd. small game rifle that has noise and recoil levels not much above a .22.

Don't have kids of my own, but I do have 10 nieces & nephews. Since I manage the deer herd on our family ranch in N.Texas I have taken most of them to shoot their 1st deer.
I started most of them out using my little T/C Carbine in .223 using Federal 64gr soft point premium load. The little rifle has a 16" bbl & weighs about 5lbs with a Leupold 2X7 & has virtually NO Recoil. I limited most of the shots to young does taken at 80 yards or less from a box blind with a Sand Bag Rest. Most of the does either died on the spot or ran about 50 yards & dropped.
I started them all out like you did with BB guns, & then moved them up to a single shot .22 rifle. When they mastered those guns I then put them in the deer blind with the little .223 T/C Carbine with a rest & most importantly, good hearing protection. I found that by not letting them shoot the .223 before hunting deer, they never developed a flinch from noise or recoil, ... And with their adrenaline pumping when shooting their 1st deer, They Never Noticed Recoil or Noise.
My 11 year old nephew took 2 does last year using his Dad's Marlin lever action .357 magnum. He is a lefty, so the Lever Action .357 was his choice & he actually got 2 does with his 1st Shot! He didn't realize in his excitement that a fawn was standing behind the doe he shot. We now call him ole deadeye... His Dad will be purchasing him a Ruger bolt action lefty model .357 Carbine this season. It ought to be a great little deer rifle with the right load & taking reasonably close shots. He also shot a feral hog with it this spring.
My, youngest niece, however, who is a beautiful little blond Tom-boy, wants to use my little .223 AR Carbine this year. She is 11 & the collapsable stock fits her perfectly. She has been shooting my AR 22lr quite a while now & she is quite the marksman... Girl.
She regularly out shoots her 16 year old brother who has all ready killed several deer.
We will be using Winchester's new 64 grain Hog Load which should perform well & is very accurate in my AR Carbine. By the way, when letting the kids hunt with a AR-15, I only use a factory 5 round mag with only 2 rounds in it!!! Safety always comes 1st when we hunt!
Anyhow, I hope this was helpfull in your decision. Hope your little huntress scores on opening day! It will be a memory you will both cherish the rest of your life. If we don't take our kids hunting and teach them good hunter ethics.... Our sport is truly doomed! And it's up to us to teach them well & keep our sport & traditions going in future generations!

223 with 21grs IMR4198 behind a Sierra 62gr prohunter.
Ive used this combo to drop many many whitetails and hogs. Also used it in a "loaner" rifle for my clients children over the yrs to get them their first one (deer/hog)
The loaner was a Rossi single shot very similar to the handi rifle. I had bought this firearm for my children and they have dropped several deer with it.
Short story is I would not hesitate to go with the 223 as it will do for the deer in your area.

P.S. I used to live in Alabaster Ala. and hunted deer there and used a Rem 700 in 223 to take a few there

I have raised two daughters as deer hunters. Throw in a nephew and a few neighbors' kids and I can tell you that there is no single best youth rifle. A lot depends on the age, size and maturity level of the child. Sometimes the percussion and noise are more of a problem for the youngsters than the recoil. I suggest that you get good ear protection and that you refer to recoil as "push" instead of "kick". Think about it. Most folks do not associate pain with a push.

That being said, one daughter loved a mini-mauser in 7.62x39 and a Model 7 in .260 (she was bigger)and the other prefered a low pushing 45LC single shot. I bought the H&R Buffalo in 45LC, removed the stock and replaced it with an AR style, adustable stock rather than cutting the wood. She says its a "bad" looking gun. The nephew shot a .223 H&R at first and then graduated to a Model 7 in 7mm-08. Even if you do not reload, several companies now load reduced push rounds in .308, 7-08 and in another kid-friendly round, the .260. But, between the two calibers you listed, I would go with the .223. First, with modern ammo, it is deadly out to 100-150 yards. Morevover, it will be good for paper, coyotes and chucks in later years. I doubt the .357 in a rifle will be used as frequently in the future. Also, the two articles/reviews on the 77/357 I have read have not been overly kind as to the guns accuracy but gave it favorable reviews for size, weight and packability.

You know your child, so pick the one you feel best suits your needs. Good luck and enjoy the time with your kids. Blink and they are grown and gone.

P.S. I have a like new, factory .357 Max rifle that is scoped. It is a shooter and has plenty umph for deer out to 200.

They both kill deer with aplomb, but one does it a LOT further out and doesn't have the trajectory of a rainbow.

Which one?

LOL that almost made me spit coffee out my nose.

Make and model please? I'd be interesting in tracking something like that down.

I was of the old school where you let a kid learn to hunt and kill stuff with a 22 and as they got strong enough in desire and ability then let them progress to bigger game and guns, if they developed a real passion for hunting, but those ideas are pretty ancient.

Did you miss page 2,where I explain that I did exactly that.

My boys and I have taken alot of deer with a 357 carbine and the 223. We have not lost any deer with either. That said blood trails are much shorter with the 223 with a good portion of the deer falling at the shot. None of the deer shot with the 357 have fell at the shot and usually run 40-75 yards.

R_H,

I have recently dealt with the same dilemma. I have a Marlin 1894 in 357 with which I killed a 150 lb Bama buck at the same range you are hunting. A 180 gr XTPHP through the boiler and he piled up in 30 yards.

I have five kids ranging from 5 yrs to 16 yrs. My smaller ones couldnt handle the Marlin well due to the pull length. My solution was a AR-15 with a telescoping stock. Fits everyone and kills at least as well as the Marlin (which I still use and love). Last year I used the AR on a 175 lb buck at about 160 yards. He was slightly quartering towards me and I shot him a little high and back but still through one lung and the liver. The 55 grain Barnes TSX dropped him within 40 yards. I was quite surprised it put him down as quickly as it did due to the quality of the shot I made.

223 my small 8yr old son has a h&r 223 very light and fits him real good he killed his first two deer last year with it

I've killed hogs and deer with the 357 and would suggest the 223 instead. With the 357 it seems to just poke a caliber size hole in and out without much damage and sparse trails(even with soft HPs such as Sierras). Penetration is more than adequate with the 357, but I don't care much for lack of damage and little blood. Stick some Partitions or TSXs in the 223 and rock on.