Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Mentored deer hunt firearm choice

My sons both did extremely well with a 6-250 with a long barrel which did 2 things:

1) provided weight against recoil

2) put distance between the muzzle & him to protect against blast

I actually think that #2 matters more than most people recognize.

He used very mild loads with ballistic tips. With low velocity loads I’d stay away from Barnes and use something that has a wider range of effective velocity. In the 6.5 the 100 GR Hornady tipped target bullet would be a great candidate for you.

243 Win with 85-95 grain loads. Several million deer have been easily dropped at 200-300 yards with the old 243 Win. Kid friendly for sure and shoots like a laser.

Something tells me you were right. My son was introduced to the Grendel and the 300 BLK last night. The shorter barrel on the 300 BLK makes for a much more comfortable balance point for him. Then we are down to the CZ 527 and a youth handy rifle in single shot as options in the stable. Again due to weight and balance I think the little handy with a straight 4 power scope may work best at this time. More exposure or testing to come.

Then we will start out practicing with some 123 grain low recoil sub sonic loads. Moving on to hunting loads If accuracy is found with the 110 gr barnes Tac-Tx load we may have found our recipe. We will see how the practice session works out.

Honestly I was leaning to the 24" barreled Grendel though at this point the 16 blackout may get the nod due to his ability to handle the lighter rifle. We will see if he chooses the simple handy or slightly heavier CZ527 both in 300 BLK. Oh that is right the wand chooses the wizard Note: He prefers to call the 300 blackout by its original name 300 whisper

If you do use 300 blk we have had very good success with 125 Nosler ballistic tips and h110.

I don’t reload plinking subs as I only use them for the kids. I normally just buy S&b subs as I can get them for 12$/20. They shooters good enough for them to practice with at 50 yards, and out of my gun stay subsonic!!

For expanding subs I use the maker Rex 200. This will be my first year trying it on deer so haven’t seen how it will perform yet. Have a small piece of land I can hunt but it’s basically bow only as the owners don’t want a bunch of shooting early in morning. They are fine with me using this set up though!! 75 yards is my max distance to shoot anywhere there and should be fine with my set up.

Obviously a good 6.5 bullet moving 2600fps or more is more potent, but my kid is still a little recoil/blast shy and even 243 has too much recoil and muzzle blast( need to get there model 7 youth 243 threaded if I can)

Good luck on the hunt. My son and nephew go next weekend!!

I feel there are roughly a half a dozen great choices or so, for full velocity bullets suitable for deer or hog hunting with the 300 BLK that come to mind. Hornady 129 Gr SP, Hornady 123 gr SST, Barnes 110 gr Tac-TX, Cavity back 105 gr, Sierra 120 gr pro hunter Along with Nosler 125 gr Partition are all considerations. And for subsonic I was aware of one and now two bullets that may work well as subsonic hunting loads. Please feel free or encouraged to share with me as to how the Maker Rex 200 works out for you.

We made it out today with the reduced loads for target practice and I feel we were both encouraged with an all around good experience. Was a windy day and we limited our distance to 25 yards. Accuracy was more than acceptable IMHO. With the reduced recoil all worked out very well as a introduction to the deer hunting type rifle. mind you we ,we defiantly have not yet worked with deer hunting loads yet. All this will come in time.

I’m running 125 NBTs for just about anything we might shoot with a 300. Something to keep in mind, at least some the subsonic ‘hunting’ loads, are just mimicking expanding broadheads it would seem. You’re unlikely to get very emphatic kills, at least as compared to the supersonic loads, though stuff will die...it’s just probably gonna be tracking the bleed out, unless you hit CNS. He still might be all over the 6.5....never know.