Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire First Deer Rifle

M93 Spanish mauser 7x57 1969 was 14, shot my 1st wb a 3x3 at 17 with it. 50 years ago this fall. Bought my daughter a m7 with a short stock to use in 6 mm rem. She shot it some had no desire to hunt deer. So one fall awhile back I hauled it to a gunshow, had 3 different people try to buy it all talking about how they would replace that sawed off stock. A guy walked up with an 8-9 year-old girl, a 7 year old boy and another girl 5 years old or so. He asked to look at it, sure I said he checked it over and handed it to the older girl. It was obvious to me dad had been working her with a 22. I asked if it might be a first deer rifle and he said hopefully for all 3 how much you asking? I told him I'd allready been offered 500 ( it had Redfield rings and bases with a 2.5x7 redfield wide view on it). He took it back from the girl and laid it down said he was hoping to stay under 400. The look on that girls face said it all to me. I said I understand that, get your money out 395 will do. He got it and gave me the 395, I reached under the table and gave him the box of reduced loads for it and told him what they were and for. I had 329+tax in that rifle and scope but sometimes you need to pay it forward...mb

ACTDad - My first deer was taken in 1956 with an Arisaka 6.5 x 257 .
My Dad fitted a Bishop stock and cut the barrel to 22", then
mounted a Lyman peep sight.

First rifle I used was a plain plastic stocked Remington 700 in 270 Winchester.

My son is 6yrs old. When he’s ready he will have the choice of a 243 or 7mm-08.

My first deer rifle was a 30/30 marlin 336. I would recommend a descent bolt action with a scope in a 7mm08 or 6.5 cm. A tikka would be a no brainer if you can swing it.

.308 Winchester in Begara Rifle

Get him a Remington model 7 in .243 and call it good.

Col my daughter took her first deer with 6.5x257. Worked well little recoil

93 sporterized Mauser 7X57 with the stock cut down to fit. It worked.

I started out with a 20 ga double barrel 8 yrs old my old man dropped me off on a tree stump and said right barrel is for deer left is for turkeys the first squirrel come along I shot it with the deer barrel 🤷‍♂️

The first deer rifle I hunted with was a savage 99 308 180 gr round nose corlokt at age 10 still have it today my old man had turned me loose by then

If it was my grandson haunt the pawn shops model 70 push feed focused 270 in mind you’ll find one within your budget

In hindsight, I'd have made my son's first deer rifle his last deer rifle.

Growing up my grandparents owned a gun shop, and at 12 they gave me a weatherby mark v carbine. It was a 6 lug 7mm08. I killed alot of deer growing up with it shooting factory 140 cor loks. That was the early 90s since then I've bought many other rifles but that will the last one I get rid of. Since then alot of kids have killed there first deer with that rifle.

Mine was a push feed winchester model 70 in 270. I would suggest a 243win or 6 creed. Kills deer deader than dead and has low recoil.

LOL. That sounds very similar.

Tikka T3X compact in .308 Winchester. Could always upgrade to a better quality full-size stock later on.

First rifle I killed a deer with at age 12 was a Rem 700 25-06 that my uncle had recently won at a block shoot. Otherwise would have had to use Dads single shot 16 gauge with punkin' balls. The 25-06 was subsequently stolen by a deadbeat boyfriend of my cousin. First gun I bought myself on day of 18th birthday was a Rem 7600 Synthetic 30-06 that has killed many deer and I still have it.

Do 99% of my deer hunting today with a 7-08 and 140 Fusions. Have many rifles in that caliber but my go to is a Tikka 595. Hornady 139grs have performed well in several of my 7-08 rifles as well.

Highly recommend a 7-08 as a beginner's rifle but ammo has been a bit tricky to find as of late.

A 7-08 is a great choice.
My son has one as a first rifle in Win 70 ss.
He did extremely well with it for quite a few years.




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Shot my first deer (a long time ago) with a husqvarna (FN) 30-06. Somebody was watching over me that morning! I have shot a few more with a 30-06 but mostly migrated over to various 270s, with 25-06, 280, 7mm mag, 300 win mags liberally sprinkled throughout. My son shot his first one with another 30-06 husqvarna (fn) downloaded a bit to keep recoil reasonable.
Starting from scratch I would lean towards a versatile caliber for bigger stuff (assuming there was a reasonable opportunity for that in the future) and download initially to reduce recoil. Something like a 270/7-08 etc in a gun they can physically handle well.
I am unconvinced that young hunters should start shooting at big game too young, they are mostly not mentally and emotionally ready for that. Nothing wrong with them accompanying a parent/uncle/grandpa for a few years first to enjoy the experience, understand that there is a lot more to it than just shooting something and see if it is for them.

About a zillion year old winchester top ejecting lever action 30-30 that was beat all to hell. I love that gun. I gifted it to a friend who needed one to feed his family many decades ago.

I would recommend a howa 1500 with walnut stock in the caliber of his choice (the weatherby equivalent - vanguard - is also a good one in that price range). The tupperware stock on the cheaper ones is complete junk even though it looks and feels great - it flexes too much. They are guaranteed to be <MOA but in my experience, they're more like .5 MOA.