Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm-08 for daughter

My 8 yo son started out with a 7-08 loaded with 37 grains of IMR 4064 and a 140 partition. He is now 9 and has moved up to 40 grains of 4064. The 37 grain load flattened 2 deer last year.
I cut down a factory stock to fit him, which I believe is the most important part.

My main deer rifle is a model 7 CDL in 7mm08. With a Nikon Monarch 2x7 scope, it weighs in at 6 3/4 lbs. If it weren't for the Remington R3 recoil pad on it, I believe it would get my attention a bit. As it is, I have to remember to close my jaws to keep my teeth from clacking together when I shoot it at the bench.

As a comparison, tonight I was shooting a buddy's Ruger 77MKII in .270 Win. It's a stainless steel, laminated stock version. With the 150 gr. Remington cor-lokt ammo he gave me, recoil was surprisingly a bit less than my 7mm08.

The recoil issue can be overcome of course by rolling your own ammo for her and as mentioned here many times, gradually increasing the powder charge until you reach a happy maximum. My big concern would be stock fit. The stock on my model 7 is almost too long for my smaller size (I'm 5'5"). I'm sure you know that she needs to be able to enjoy shooting it if she is to show continued interest in hunting and shooting. I'd be less worried about caliber (assuming it's a caliber up to the task) and more concerned about stock fit and comfort when she makes it go boom.

She should be able to handle it just fine. She is about the same size i was when i started hunting, my first was a 7mm-08. Very accurate rifle, mine was a compact and very lightweight yet recoil was still pretty tolerable!

When my daughter was 11 I got her a Rem. model 700 mountain rifle in 7mm-08. We had to shorten the stock to make it fit her, she is 5'2" now at age 19, and we added a sims limbsaver slip-on recoil pad. She has never complained about recoil and we used remington 140gr cor-locks. She has taken 7 bucks,we are only allowed 1 per year,all one shot kills. She would not trade this gun or caliber for deer hunting for anything else.

My vote is for the 7-08. A wonderful all around rifle. IMO is more vesitile than the .243. My 11 yr old son is 4'9" tall and 113 lbs and shoot's a 7-08 which I load for, with 46.2 grain's of RE-19 and a 160gr Sierra bullet and does'nt have any problem at all with recoil. Took his deer this year at 125 yds. It was a bang, drop. Go 7-08. You'll be glad you did.

Thanks for all of the input... I'm still leaning toward the -08. Just seems like an all-round great caliber. She will more than likely never hunt anything larger than whitetail... maybe a black bear but they're thin skinned too.