Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles New member looking for advice

Since she's new to all this, I'd suggest that you get some good properly weighted snap caps to use for the dry fire practice so she learns to operate the bolt fully each time. We don't want her short-stroking at her moment of truth! The practice loading the magazine will help too. Good luck to you both.

Thanks everyone! This place is great!

She has been hunting for a few years, shot her first turkey this spring and her first deer in October, she got that one with a bow.

She's excited to get her "own gun", she used the 16 guage I started with for the turkey and is rifle hunting with my Dad's hand-me-down Ruger .44 mag carbine. Hasn't shot at a deer with the gun yet.

Once we get through deer season (ends this weekend) and Christmas we start the hunt for her gun. We will be heading to Harrisburg PA and she'll get to handle some there, plus we will visit a few shops.

Remington Model 7 is one of the top ones to look at!

welcome Bob:

Lots of great advice there. Many years ago I built a rifle just for my wife. Now years later and after a family, she has started to use it. She's killed 2 deer in past 2 years, both with clean 1 shot kills. I don't really think I'd change a thing on her rifle. The 7mm08 would certainly be great, although a bit more recoil than the smaller calibers. I felt there were 2 vital aspects of the rifle prior to building it: IDEAL FIT for her (she is 5'2") and light recoil. Her rifle is a .257 Roberts that I equipped with a 4x Leupold scope. It weights approx. 6 1/2# as it has a very light 20" barrel with a very slim stock with 12 1/2" length of pull. I think recoil, or keeping it down, is vital to fun shooting, especially for a small shooter. I handload and load a VERY LIGHT load using 100 gr. bullets. For our whitetail deer they have worked perfect. Shot placement on game animals will always trump size of cartridge so I personally would go with the rifle/caliber that had the least recoil as that is a huge factor. Even men enjoy shooting a smaller recoiling rifle, even though many won't admit it, and shooting should be FUN.

She doesn't shoot a lot, as she likes hunting more than shooting. But each season, she shoots a little off the bench and then does a little practicing off of our shooting sticks. Practicing off the sticks has been very beneficial as we always take the sticks with us in the blind and use them. Honestly, I don't think she would have killed those deer without them.

Best of luck Bob.

I'll go along with the 7-08. I don't have one myself but I do hand load ammo for my 7x57 M70 Featherweight to 7-08 levels. Currently working up a load for an elk hunt coming up in about three and a half weeks. (My Christmas present to me. :D) One minor suggestion. If whatever you choose does not come with a good recoil pad, have a competent gunsmith put a Pachmeyr Decelerator pad on the rifle. My wife likes shooting my Featherweight but complained a bit about what came one the gun, roughly .50" thick piece of relatively hard rubber. I had it replaced with the Pachmeyr and now she says that's her rifle and if I ask nicely she'll let me use it.
Paul B.

The7 08 or 243 would be a great choice. My wife used to flinch a lot from shooting a 270, when I met her. I got her good ear protection, and had her shoot my .222 all the time. Nothing else. The combined ear protection and virtually no recoil,made her an excellent shot. Did the same with my boys, and they are very good shots. You might consider something along these lines in addition to the rifle you get your wife. A confident person who isn't scared of recoil, or noise will likely shoot very well. .223 ammo is cheap.

X5 on the 7mm-08 recommendation.

The 7-08 is great, but I still prefer the 308... more brass/component availability, factory ammo availability, and far easier to get shooting with a variety of bullet weights. No brainier really.

Agreed. I would recommend consideration of the .260 IF you reloaded. The factory Federal Fusion load would do what you want.

However, as much as I love the 260, I have to say that 7-08 is the better choice since there is a much better selection of factory ammunition offerings.

Wanted to update this since everyone gave so much great feedback!

We spent most of the last weekend with her handling guns, we went to the Harrisburg Outdoor Show in PA, then stopped at Cabelas on the way home. Overall she handled:

- Remington (BTW, what's the thought behind Remington going to a 10 day outdoor show with 40 guns for people to handle and not a single Model 7 or 700 compact? Just dumb)
- Savage
- Ruger
- Tika
- TC
- Browning
- Winchester
- Mossberg
- Winchester

Once we got the dealers to stop talking to me and talk to her she had a blast! by far the best vendor was the Winchester guy. He showed the gun (drawing a blank on the name now), features, explained length of pull to her, how to quickly check it etc. She didn't particularly care for the Winchester, to heavy, he then pointed us over to Browning with the specific gun (X-bolt) to check there.

Overall, after handling them all, aiming, shouldering etc. She fell in love with the TC Venture Weather Guard. I was a bit surprised that she didn't like the Venture compact as much, but when I asked her "why this one?" she said she felt like she couldn't explain it, but out of all the guns, this one "just felt natural to hold and shoulder and aim"

Told her that's what we're looking for!

Unfortunately couldn't actually buy it there, so we will be getting it locally via a dealer near us, in 7mm-08, then topping it with a Leupold Vx-III in 2x-7x.

We also booked a mule deer/antelope hunt in WY for Oct 5-10, so she will be hopefully Christening it then!

Thanks for the info and advice to everyone on this site, you guys rock!

I don't think that Leupold catalogs a 2-7x scope in the VX3 line.

Leupold VX3 - gold ring, 2.5 - 8. Sorry. Was going from memory!

I have the same scope on my rifle, pulling this one off my other rifle!

Regardless, of cartridge choice, make sure it weighs enough and has really good aftermarket recoil pad. For big game, a variable just introduces something else to go wrong (set a 8x when the Elk appears at 50 yards). Go with a Leupie fixed 4 heavy duplex.

My 7 pound 7mm08 kicks as hard as my 9 pound 270 .... just sayin'

243 will kill anything in New Hampshire that a 7/08 will...

but truth be told, a man with a 243, 260 or 7/08, would be set to take anything that walks, flyies or crawls in New Hampshire...

Heck yes, it'll work quite nicely.

BTW, welcome to the fire. I'm a bit concerned that the first BobinNH is already more than we can handle.