Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Kids at the Campfire SMALL? deer rifle

Been hangin around for awhile, this is my first post. My eleven year old son is itchin to deer hunt this year and I'm having a hard time finding a rifle to fit him. Been lookin at Ruger compacts and Rem model 7's, but both seem just a hair too long in LOP for him. he has SHORT Arms. Also thinking of setting my Contender up with a 6.8 or 30/30AI and a chopped stock. Looked at Stevens 200's also, I think they might be a good choice with a chopped stock. Thinking .243, 7-08, .260. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Nick

MarshallOK Nick,

Welcome to the Campfire and way cool your first post is about your son...speaks volumes about you...

The calibers you listed are hard to go wrong with no matter how you look at it. Personally I would try to down size a model 7 for him, as time goes on he can add a longer stock to it when his arms grow a bit more. In the end he will thank you for a quality deer rifle he could enjoy his whole life.

Stuff like that is an investment in the hunting heritage, if you hang onto the shorter stock, the rifle can be passed down to his younger siblings if he has any or could be passed down to his kids someday...

Good on you for getting your son out in the field...

Surely someone on here has a mdl 7 youth stock that there kids have outgrown...

Nick

I started my youngest son out with a Contender carbine.....16" stainless 7-30 barrel.....the factory synthetic stock fit him very well and he killed his first deer with it at age 9. He killed another deer with it the next year and then graduated to a Model 7 youth rifle in 7-08.......I loaded the 7-08 with a mild load using 120 Nosler Ballistic Tips.....worked very well and the recoil was not a problem.......he now uses the Model 7 with a full size stock.

Model 7 youth gun, The made a 788 in 7mm-08 carbine, cut the stock down, restock with a Ramline later. Your on right track regardles what you chose, make the gun fit him. 243 or 6mm rem, 250-3000 are great kids first guns. duckgunner.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I'm leaning towards the model 7, my only dilema is that he thinks a '06 is THE coolest deer rifle. So I may have to just get him one, chop the stock, and load it really light till he gets used to the recoil. Does anyone have experience loading light '06 loads, and can they safely be loaded to a recoil level that he can handle (he's not scared of his 20 gauge)? Like Wildswalker said, this could be a rifle that would last him his whole life.
Thanks again for the open-arms welcome.
Nick

Tailor made for this situation, the Hodgdon youth loads:

http://www.hodgdon.com/data/youth/30-06_y.php

mathman

Welcome Nick! Enjoy the time with your son.

Wayne

Have you taken a peek at the NEF youth in 243?

Mark D

The 30-06 is not made in the model 7. So now you would be looking at a model 700. I Know a guy that will sell you a New factory take of wood stock for around 60. Then you could cut it down, keeping the org. stock until grows into it. duckgunner

I have a Remington 700 BDL Factory stock I will donate if it will get a kid into hunting. Only problem is it was opened up for a # 4 Shilen and bedded

Thanks for the suggestions, we're gonna go shopping in Tulsa this Saturday and see if we can find the perfect starter gun. NEF hadn't crossed my mind, but we'll check those out too! Thanks for the link Mathman. I'll let you guys know if we come up with something.
Nick

Welcome to the Fire'...and Happy Birthday!

Way cool, trying hard to get the boy started right.

The older Speer manuals list some great reduced loads for large rifle cartridges. Some use 4198 and some use SR4759.

A couple of my favorite light recoil loads for the 30-06 come from Speer #10. The first is a load which I used to shoot regularly to save the barrel and my shoulder. A few years back, I would shoot a couple hundred rounds through my 06 twice a month at ground squirrels.

I used the Speer 110 gr varminter over about 45 gr of 3031 to get an MV of 2800 fps. This little bullet is too frangible to hold together in flight at any higher velocity, but it is absolutely devestating as a varmint bullet, or on water bottles at this speed . Also it is surprisingly accurate out to about 150 yds.

The second load I would reccomend is a 150 gr bullet over 23 gr of SR4759 for an MV of about 1800 fps. This load will recoil about the same as the 243. It is almost guaranteed to not induce flinching.

There are some hazards associated with introducing a youth to a rifle in a large cartridge, as I learned with my son when he was 12 or 13.

I had promised him a rifle. And, as he was tall and lanky, he had no problem with the LOP of a full size stock. We found the Winchester model 70 black shadow packaged with a scope @ Walmart for $300. I told him to pick one out.

He wanted a 7mm mag but they were out of that. He refused a 30-06 and a 270 because I had one and his uncle had the other and he wanted something different. I said "that's cool!"

Finally he held a 300 Win mag in his hands, and asked "Dad can you load this so I can shoot it?"

I said "Absolutely"

Anyhow he shot up about 100 rounds of Speer 125 gr TNT's loaded to about 2200 fps and was having great fun. But meanwhile I had loaded a hundred rounds with a 165 gr to 3200 fps.

The lad decided he was tough enough to handle the 165's from that light, synthetic stocked, rifle. I noticed he was shooting them up and asked if he was sure they were not too painful.

"Naw, they don't bother me at all" he replied.

Well a few weeks later I had about four rifles leaning against the bench rest I have on my property, doing some load developement work.

My son wandered down to where I was and asked to shoot something.

I have a heavy barrelled Savage 112 in 22-250 that will shoot inside a dime at 100 yds all day long. I handed it to him with a box of ammo. He proceeded to shoot about a six inch group and asked "What is wrong with this rifle?"

I showed him a target with a 3/4 inch group I had shot about fifteen minutes earlier. Then I handed him the loaded rifle a couple of times for him to shoot. The third time I handed him the rifle with an empty chamber. You should have seen the look on his face when the muzzle of that empty rifle jumped two inches as he pulled the trigger.

My son is 22 years old now, and I still have a tough time getting him to shoot anything heavier that the 260. It is an excellant deer cartridge, and does not do a bad job on varmints with the 100 gr balistic tip bullet.

If I had it to do over again, the 260 is what I would have started my boy out with. And my rifle of choice would have been the Ruger compact model 77. It comes with a short LOP and is well suited to shooters of small stature.

If the kid wants a .30-06, by all means get him what he wants. He will be more apt to grow with it and stick with it. There is plenty of light load data available for the .30-06. Load it with 130 grain Hornady soft point flat base bullets, H4895 (about 38 grains) and go hunting. This bullet is a great one and really crunches game, plus it is affordable to practice with. Flinch

Marshall;

The 700 in .30-06 is a very good gun, loaded light and chopped to fit, it'd work very well.

That said, if you want a Contender set-up, the 6.8 in the G2 with a 23" barrel would work very, very well.

Good luck.

I have little ones and a wife that hunts, so I have already faced this situation.
For you, a Savage/Stevens .270 sounds great. The way the stock is designed you can chop the stock way down and add a Simms or Pachmayr pad. Later, he can get a nice, full sized aftermarket stock. And there are factory reduced loads for the .270. Mine shoots well with the Rem 115 grain loads.
FWIW My 10 yr son has a cut down .243 and my wife shoots my old .260. The 7 yr daughter has a cut down .222 and just got her own cut down lefty .243 with 80 grainers.
And everyone got a deer this year except Dad. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

pepaw

My first deer rifle was a 30-30 marlin took me 3 shots to get my first, but it will do the job for deer, yet that was in kentucky with pretty short range (20-50yrds) how many yrds are we talking. My little 7 yr old brother is itchin to go deer huntin this year and after what we saw with the 30-30 my pop is changin to a moissin naggant M. 44 for my little brother. his arms are little short for it so but thats what the stand rest is for ( got it for $70 at a gunshow) not to much recoil but enough. also a 7mm or a .222 would do it too

....A 30/30 "trapper" model with a shortened butt stock would work like a charm,But so would the 30/06 he wants. Cut the gun down and use the new REmington "reduced recoil" loads with 125 grain bullets. These loads will flatten any whitetail deer and recoil is like a light 30/30 load.

....I'll tell you about anoughter sweet little bolt gun. The CZ model 527 carbine in 7.62X39..This little gun renders 30/30 ballistics at range,shoots flatter than the 30/30 and has a shade less recoil too!..It's a beautifuly made little gun that will bring alot of admiring looks around the deer woods,which of course any lad would thrill to..Check them out...They turn the AK cartrige into a very accurate round. Softpoint ammo is dirt cheap,and super accurate handloads can be cobbled easily if sub minute of angle groups are the aim. Most of these CZ carbines will print near minute of angle three shot groups with Russian softpoint stuff.