Anyone own such a gun, there is one for sale locally, and was thinking about getting it for my 11 year son. Just wondering if it might be a little too much gun for an 11 year old, was originally thinking .260, or 7 mm 08.

25.06 is a great round! Muzzle blast out of a 22-23 ish inch barrel can be a headache so make sure they are wearing ear plugs while hunting! The recoil isn't bad, the Tikka Hunter is slightly heavier. The stock doesn't fit me particularly well but I manage to shoot it, but want to replace the stock and add some weight. Mine loves 115 Nosler BT with Reloader 22. I have only shot hogs with it but it kills them just fine.

Tikkas are fine rifles, and a 25-06 should be a decent deer cartridge for your son. The hardest part for you will be to shorten up that tupperware stock to fit him properly, unless of course he is a 6 footer. I see you are planning on changing out the stock. Supposing some of the 11 year olds in Wisconsin are born ready to burn diesel fuel. I might also suggest that the 100 grain TTSX Barne bullet might reduce the recoil a bit as well, and at 25-06 velocities, it should perform very nicely.

My wife is 5'3" and the stock is a little long for her. The recoil gets to her after 10 or 12 rounds, so it's very manageable. It shoots 100 TTSX well under a inch with H4350.

I love mine. Lightweight, low recoil, and the first group I ever shot through it could be covered with a nickel. That was 110 NABs. It also shoots 115 Bergers pretty well, and I have some 115 NBTs and 80 TTSXs I plan to try. I'm 5-11 with long arms, so LOP is never an issue. Might be a little long for a child, though.

Reduced loads in a 7-08 would be more my thinking.

Limbsaver makes a pre-fit recoil pad for the synthetic stock T-3.

Limbsaver is a good product, but for an 11 year old, it will likely add half an inch to the LOP over the stock pad. A stock that fits is very imprtant to shooting comfort, accuracy, and mitigation of recoil.

I run 48grs of imr 4831 for my daughter, light load and incredibly accurate. Light on the shoulder too.

Thanks for the replies, but I don't think it lasted a whole day, and for the selling price of $400, (like new only 15 rounds shot) I knew it wouldn't.

Oh well, on to the next search.

243 Win or 257 Roberts

243 would be the route I would go. Shorter action, less recoil, lighter, and less muzzle blast.

There was a Tikka 595 in .243 on GB a while back. Of course it was north of $400. $6?? if memory serves me.