After my hunt this morning and my 10 year old missing a nice 4x4 at under 100 with the mini howa mtd lss grendel I put together for him I think I should have just let him use my lightweight 16" ar. He asked to use the ar and it had a 20 round mag of 60g partitions in it and I just said no you're using this bolt gun.
I'm finding that 10 is pretty young to be deer hunting stalking style not from some ground blind or elevated stand where they have a good rest. It just hard for young inexperienced kids to get set up in a hurry in a field shooting position where you have to improvise with whatever is near by to try and make a rest. I really am starting to think a lightweight ar with an adjustable stock in 223 is the ideal 10 year olds deer rifle for one who's actually out stalking animals not waiting to ambush one from a bench.
That little ar has a lightweight 16" Black hole weaponry 3 groove 8 twist and a ctr stock. The kids love it. My 7 year old would bank rupt my running cases of ammo through if I let him. My 8 year old daughter says she likes it better than her purple rascal and wants me to build her a purple ar. I think for the my 7 and 8 year olds first deer guns I will just build them lightweight ARs. Maybe I'll find some pencil weight 6mmx45 barrels so I can burn up all the 85g partitions I have.
Then when they get a little bigger say 12 I'll build them bolt guns in something a bit bigger.
I can't imagine how the leftists would freak reading that someone is considering building ars for his kids at age 10. I just really think they'll make good deer guns for smaller kids. I let my 10 year old use the ar in the morning if the right opportunity presents again. He told me on the way home tonight that I don't have to find him another big 4x4 he said he just wants to shoot a buck, any buck.
Bb
The absolute best training tool I EVER had was a youth model RWS .177 break-open with a 4x scope. We got it for Christmas when I was about 10 and my brother was 7. Aside from the initial sight-in and occasional zero-check, it never saw a benchrest or sandbags. We shot cans, birds, varmints, grasshoppers, you name it, all from improvised field positions, be it bracing against a tree, shooting off somebody's shoulder, or kneeling behind the railing of the backyard deck. It taught us how to judge a rest, get our body where it needed to be, acquire the target, and break the trigger at the right time. It was invaluable experience, and made me into a pretty decent shot when it was time to hunt deer in the following years.
