Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Youth rifles

Nice! She’s grown a lot too!...must have been 5-7 years ago that we talked about that gun.

She's hoping to outgrow me, but I think it's going to be more of a tie.....

My kids love the AR suppressed. They choose the stock length, low recoil and quieter than regular. win-win-win.

My son is not old enough to start hunting or shooting, but when he is old enough I have a brand new Remington 700 22-250 we will start him out on. Big enough to kill deer at 100 yards all day, and not enough kick to mess with him too much.

Bought 12yr old granddaughter a Howa 308 youth model in 308 and two 14yr old grandsons Winchester mod 70 featherweight compact 308's. The Winchesters are beautiful rifles and very accurate, the Howa has been a good rifle also but I'm a Winchester feller. The Howa is heavier which cuts down recoil for the granddaughter.

I ended up getting him a Remington 700 youth in .243. I put a Leupold vx freedom 3x9!on it. It was tax free weekend and scope marked down. Now to the important part “bullets”. Core lock was on clearance for $13 so I bought a box but am wondering what’s best for performance on deer at 20-150 yards. I hear people praising Barnes, Nosler Partition, sst, ballistic tips, fusion, and plain old soft points (corelock, interlock, power point). It has to be factory. Obviously I will pick something that groups decent. I just wanted to know whether to stay cup and core, sst/ballistic tip for maximum destruction/dry, or something like a Barnes or partition to ensure pass through. I’m not worried about ruining a small amount of meat just want a dead deer that’s easy to find. I haven’t used a .243 since I was a kid and used corelock back then but am open to better options and want the most forgiving ammo with kids. All suggestions are appreciated.

I shoot only reloads, but if I was going to buy factory ammo for deer hunting I’d go with Hornady SSTs or Federal blue box. Both of those are top quality and inexpensive.

Just about any 100 grain factory load will do what you ask.

I would recommend some of the Hornady lite loads with the 87 grain bullet for your son though. Shoot behind the shoulder and they will kill deer just fine

Here is what I got for my kids.
Tikka 223 and put a youth stock on it.
Cz 527 in 762x39
And I just got a tikka 6.5 CM supper lite for when he gets older

I bought a box of those too. I figured I would let my son practice with them. Might use them hunting but doubt he would notice difference if slipped full power in while shooting at deer. I would of coarse rezero the scope

was in same scenario and bought my (2) sons,age now 15 and 8, a tikka t3 compact in 7mm-08 and also bought a fullsize stock for it on ebay for when they get bigger or i might inherit it as i shot my best 100 yds 3 shot group outta it ever. so, i gots confidence in the thang. by the way the 15 yr old is getting his own tikka t3x superlite in 308 win in a few days if buds will get on board. the 8 yr old will be behind the trigger 1st of november for hopefully his first deer.
good luck,
Big Ed

I have six kids that are all spaced two years apart so I figured youth rifles were a good investment. Three of them will be hunting big game this year.

I started my kids out on deer with a couple of .243s. One is a Rem 700 SPS youth and the other is a Ruger Stainless/Laminate compact. Both have performed well and have taken there share of deer, antelope and coyotes the past few years.






To keep recoil down and velocity up in their hunting loads I went with an 85 TSX load that both rifles shot adequately (sub MOA in the remington and 1-1.5 MOA in the Ruger). Either is perfectly adequate for the ranges I limit the kids to with those rifles.

When introducing my younger kids I load up 58 and 60 grain varmint bullets over TrailBoss at around 2200-2300 FPS. Insignificant recoil, good accuracy, and dead on at 100 without adjusting from their hunting loads which I have dialed into 2" high at 100. My kids are pretty shrimpy and even my eight year old can handle this combo.




By the time they are old enough to hunt elk my kids have been able to handle a 7mm-08 alright. When elk are on the menu I switch them over to a Ruger Frontier or youth/ladies Savage Axis in 7mm-08 shooting a 140 accubond.

Great choice on the gun! The 100 grain CoreLokt will work just fine for your ranges.

If you want to try another cheap but great load, use the Federal Fusion 95 grain. It will be accurate and hold together even though it opens up easily.

Thanks for all the replies.

Another approach I have taken is to get something like a Rem. Mod. 7 that they can use the rest of their life. Then get an inexpensive stock from Stockies and cut it down.

More money up front but less down the road when you have to buy a new full sized rifle. Once they out grow the stock it could be sold or saved for future young shooters. Kids grow so fast it won't be long before you are buying a new rifle. I think I had to add spacers every year for about five years with one of my boys who is 6'4" now.

I picked up a beat up old Win M70 Ranger youth in 223Rem. The stock is all scratched and has been shortened at least another inch over standard "youth" length stocks. The bore is pretty pitted, however it still shoots ~1.5" groups @ 100yds w/55gn softs or 50gn V-max. It's got an OLD 3.5-10x40 Leupold pre-click adjust, pre-Multi-coat IV. But, it works. I can let almost any kid shoot it. The 22" bbl coupled w/only bing 223Rem to begin with doesn't bother ears or shoulders. Typically w/kids I just set up a 10" gong @ 100yds and let them bang away to their heart's content. Getting to be a fair number of friends kid's who've taken deer with that old beater.

In fact, Daughter 1 (she's 10 and smallish) is going to be shooting it @ steel this afternoon.

That Remington ammo will kill deer just fine. Most guys on here have used it over the years at some point and killed plenty of game. I know I did and so did my father. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Worry more about practicing

I lucked up and found a model 7 youth in 708 a few years back. It will stomp a kid with normal loads, I load reduced loads for my son. I don't know how easy it is to find reduced loads for a 708. May not go the 708 route unless you load your own. 308 reduced loads should be easier to find.

Another good one to look for is a Ruger Hawkeye compact. I little price but something that will last a life time for sure. I scored an old M77 compact in 260 last year. It's a sweet heart and what I'm moving my youngest son, 8, to this year. He shoots it fine with normal loads.

Lugnut,

I'm a big fan of premium bullets in smaller cartridges in order to ensure exit holes. I am hand loading the 80 gr TTSX (3180 fps) for my daughter and have been very pleased so far. We have killed 12 or 13 deer between us with her gun. I believe you can get the same bullet in Barnes Vortex factory ammo. Or Hornady GMX is basically the same thing. The lighter bullets also have slightly less recoil than a traditional 100 gr bullet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhxxvbiko1hpa0g/20171109_165330.jpg?dl=0

Yep. Howa mini Grendel with a mdt lss chassis is the ticket for growing kids.