Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Idea for a deer/hog rifle for my daughter

What she really needs is a 6.8 SPC, which is kinda like a .223 in recoil but with bigger-diameter .243-weight bullets so it kills more like, um, a .250 Savage. Which would work too, because the .250 doesn't kick as hard as the .243, unless you load it like one....

There are probably a million solutions to inspire even the looniest rifle loony, who like Martha Stewart wants everything to be just so.

Yup just look @ some of the "expert" magnum shooter

Just another thought. When my daughter turned 15, she wanted to go to South Africa with me like her brother did at 13. She had never hunted much and had not shot much either. She is not tiny but she is not big for her age either. She shoots left handed like I do.

She wanted to take some larger animals like a blue wildebeest and her real favorite, a zebra. I did not think a 243 was large enough for them and she has a low pain tolerance so a larger caliber was not going to work without some changes.

I have an older Rem 700 FS which is left handed in 30-06. I loaded some Barnes 150 grain TSX with IMR 4350 to about 2450 fps. This is a light rifle and she still handled it with no problems. She shot it off sticks and off the bench before we left. In SA, she took 3 animals, an nyala, a blue wildebeest, and a zebra with one shot each and none of them went further than 75 yards after being hit.

Last November she shot her first whitetail deer through the heart with one shot and it traveled maybe 30 yards. She has total confidence in the rifle and waits until she is steady to shoot.

You may want to try downloading a larger round with a bullet noted for penetration like a Barnes or bonded bullet to keep the recoil down while still ensuring excellent penetration.

The only downside to all of this is I will probably never get to shoot that Rem 700 again. She has claimed it for good. It is certainly worth it to gain a hunting partner for life though.

She really likes to hunt hogs and dove. I've been loading 85 grain Sierra HPBT's over 29 grains of H 4895. You guys have about worn me down. She doesn't flinch when shooting her shotgun and my AR. I use 65 grain Sierra GK's in my AR that she keeps at her house so maybe I'll take the Eotech off and put the Bushnell Elite 2x7x32 off her .243 or a Viper 2x7x32 that's laying around on it and let her try it for a while.

cdb, you've warn yourself down! These guys have offered great advice, which you asked for. Most people would be appreciative of the advice here. Seems like if you were already set on the Browning! Why would you ask if you weren't open for suggestions? Not trying to be an ass, just saying.

Saying they wore me down is a figure of speech. It was meant as a compliment. If was already set on the Browning I wouldn't have originated the thread. Look at my first post. I was asking if others thought the Browning was a good idea. The only thing I wasn't really receptive to was .223. I would be willing to bet you have been given good advice at least once in your life and didn't take it. At the end of the day I'm implementing the advise I was given.

I have ten managers that report to me. I quite often ask their opinions and sometimes I agree with their opinions and follow through on the advise that is given. Sometimes I don't and follow through with my idea. And sometimes I am resistant to advise initially and reject it but when I rethink the issue I change my mind and follow through on the advice.

I wasn't set on the Browning but I was against the idea of her using a .223. If you read back I really wanted to find a Lady Savage for her to handle but couldn't find one.

I feel that this thread was a success. There was a dialogue, an exchange of ideas, advice was given, I wasn't rude to anyone who gave me advice, only to the person that said I was wanting people to tell me what I wanted to hear. If that were true I would have stopped posting and gone to another forum and looked for some people that would tell me what I wanted to hear. And if I remember correctly at least one person thought the BAR was a decent idea.

My apology for not coming around to the advise most of the posters were giving fast enough for you.

That was the most polite GFY I have ever read.

Bravo sir.

Can we start posting .223 pictures now? You already know you're going to take the plunge.


Travis

That cracked me up

John I like the idea of a .250 Savage but the 6.8 SPC doesn't happen for me. Of course if I had a Savage 99 in .250 I would probably keep it for myself and my daughter would never touch it. So a 6.8 SPC would be better for her.

Put 22 in front of the 250 part and you'd REALLY be golden!

Thank you everyone for your responses. Sorry for the rant a minute ago. Just between us girls I felt the need to verbalize my thoughts as we girls are want to do.

I hate to hijack my own thread but last night there was a commercial on TV by a pharmaceutical firm advertising a new drug. As they all do at the beginning their was huge number of symptoms listed that if you experienced then you needed the drug. One of the symptoms stated was this: Do you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning? Still haven't gotten my head wrapped around that one.

This thread must be that 'War on Women' that Democrats are always frothing about.

This nice young woman was about to get a shiny new rifle from her Daddy, but you guys threw every argument against it that you could til he's only going to loan her some silly .223.

Misogynist bastids, one and all.

Get her the shiny new BAR when the time comes, and load her some flinch fighting pills until then.

Will you be my new best friend and pay for the BAR? And if you turn out to be really weird I'll just tell people we met at an aromatherapy class.

cdb, It's all good. I wasn't trying to come across harsh. It's some great advice on this forum, I don't wanna flame anyone. I've learned a bunch on here myself.

What has me curious is that an adult woman, who shoots a 20ga and an AR223 with no issues, thinks a 243 loaded with 85 gr bullets recoils too much?

IMO, it is either noise, or the stock does not fit her, like the comb is hitting her cheekbone.

So, make her wear plugs and phones to see if that makes things better.
If not, try a straight combed stock. A Hogue or Bell & Carlson wouldn't cost much.

I find straight stocks work best for me. Everyone is different though.

If she's shooting out of a blind, how about a bull-barreled .243? That might have enough weight to tame the monster.

I simply loaded the Nosler 85 Pt w/ minimum loads (34 g. H-4895) for our NE Washington deer and 21 gr. H-4198 w/80 gr anythings for gophers ect. at 2,000 fps. (shot several hundred a year). When he was 12 he weighed about 80# soaking wet and 5 foot nuthin then and his rifle was/is a Mod 7 youth w/18.5" bbl. I have since screwed on a 22" takeoff Mod. 700 .260 Rem bbl and he now uses max H-4350 loads and Nosler 125 Pt's. and is 28. I think that the reduced loads are the real key, particularly the muzzle blast reduction- Muddy

As a first choice I'll stick with the ShorTrac suggestion. Pretty rifle for a pretty daughter. Load some minimum charge rounds and see if they cycle. If not bump 'em up. In .243 it ain't gonna kick. We got you tagged now Daddy Pockets. 10 managers reporting to you? Squeeze the juice outa your check book and go with your gut. She'll love it and you will too. Enjoy it while you can. Years pass too quickly. Best to you.

If you have 10 managers reporting to you but can't spell "advice" correctly I suspect you're an ubermanager at a shovel-ready Obamanation bidness whose daughter has issues far beyond recoil.

Let her shoot deer with the 20-gauge and tell error-buddy t'were a .62 muzzleloader.

JFC, TGIF!
And...GFY!

Sorry, been a long week. Tell her to harden TFU! Before 'flave gets turgid!

P.S. My youngest son shot his first deer at 11 with a .350 Remington Magnum, because he thought it kicked like a 20 ga. He was uber pudgy 4-ft.-8-in. At time. Now 6-ft. 180 that prefers .22/250 55-gr. CL.

There's no end to the ballistic gackery that could arise! Would someone please put that Asian Ginger gif on this thread? And get me another mug 'o merlot.

Seriously , I love y'all!

I went back and checked and the post and the first time I used it advise was spelled correctly and the second time I used it I misspelled it. Shame Shame on me.

THE REST OF THIS POST IS VERY BORING AND TOTALLY OFF TOPIC!


I actually lied about the managers, I have 16 managers reporting to me but I didn't want to look like a blowhard. But things are quite often not what they seem. I've had the same admin since 1992. I have the title and she is smart enough to make it look like I run the show. Behind closed doors I pretty much answer to her. I'm 55 and she is 64. She knows me better than my mother, acts like my mother and has my signature down so well that she signs documents when I'm not in the office. No one, not even my wife of 30 years can tell the difference. And yes even though I love her I'm also scared of her. I've been in Telecom since 1989, the industry crashed in 2000 and companies have been cutting back ever since. Because of layoffs I have too many people to oversee. I run the agent channel for my company and am over Texas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona , Oregon and Washington. Each of my managers has two direct reports and manages 40 to 75 agents. It is too much. My admin told me I receive over two hundred Emails a day.

It has been a good run but my company is transitioning from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7. As such I will be unemployed September 1st for the first time since 1981, my Stock Options are worthless and my 401k is zero because the company embezzled every employee's plan. My retirement is gone and it was a VERY nice one. A year ago my wife traded me in on a younger model. BUT!

I'm currently living on seven hundred acres which I get to hunt and have 78 sections of family land to hunt five hours away. I have an incredible daughter who at 23 is already making a VERY good living, not only loves her father but likes him and thinks he's cool and likes to hunt with him also. I also have a 17 year old son who hasn't discovered yet that I'm not the smartest man in the world, likes to hang out with his Dad and chose to live with me instead of his mother. He plays lead guitar in a cover band that plays rock from the 70's. He plays songs like Black Dog, Thick as a Brick, Sweet Jane, etc. He is fun to be around. I also have some awesome friends and my faith so life is good.

I also think my baby girl is kind of pretty.