Why make a "youth" rifle that is supposed to be for physically smaller and weaker people with proportionately smaller hands with a fat, bulky fore-end on the rifle?
As much as I like Howas, that's exactly my thought too. I don't much like the Hogues to begin with, but putting a butt heavy, thick wrist, and wide forearm on a skinny-barreled rifle that's marketed for youths is ridiculous. As an aside, the other thing I don't understand is why finding a 223 youth is so hard.
If you can find one, check out the Remington 700 SPS compact. Black stocked model is 27391 and camo stocked is 84191. Both are 7mm-08s. I bought one sight unseen in 223 and the stock is much more of what I would call a youth than many others. It comes with spacers too to adjust LOP by an inch. While the spacers don't appear to be the most rugged things in the world, they'll work for bridging the gap while a kid is growing.
