Best caliber and rifle for a youth hunter

[sksshooter]

My oldest daughter and my wife have both killed with 7mm-08s. My oldest has killed quite a few. My youngest doesnt get into hunting much but does shoot and handles the 7-08 well. I have an older marlin youth model and a savage axis2 compact. I prefer the savage hands down. Has removable mag and pretty decent trigger (accutrigger) the marlin is a blind mag and even though my daughter has been hunting for 6 years now and the last 2 on her own i still check to make sure she didnt rack another round in after ejecting her loaded round at the end of a hunt. 50% of the kills have been drt the others only ran a very short distance and were easy to track. Im shooting corelokts in one and winchester dear season in the other. When i have time to develop loads for them i plan to swap over to some noslers, hopefully both rifles like them.

I started both mine on .22 rifles with a scope before ever letting them shoot the bigger rounds. When they were able to consistantly group with the 22s we moved to the bigger stuff. Both of my daughters out shoot the majority of the men in our deer lease.

 

[Dranrab]

As far as caliber goes, how old is your child and do they have any experience at all with shooting rifles. Have they ever shot any centerfire rifle from 243 on up?

As far as which rifle, what is your budget? What size is your child right now?

 

[Xeon64]

30-30 Winchester. My son killed a doe at over 100 yards last week. Very low recoil, not very loud, and does the job. This is his third deer in a row with a 30-30. Tried 223, 350 legend, and 6.5 credmoore before. He did not like any of those and missed a lot of deer because of recoil senitivity or how loud they are.

 

[kpm]

Savage 7mm08 youth. When I take my son we only bring his gun. I have killed a deer with it and he has killed 3. Light, compact and effective. When he was smaller around 7 I used the hornady lite rounds but now he uses the 139 grain I believe. I really like the gun and he is accurate with it so that’s what matters. Good luck.

 

[falshooter]

30-30 Winchester. My son killed a doe at over 100 yards last week. Very low recoil, not very loud, and does the job. This is his third deer in a row with a 30-30. Tried 223, 350 legend, and 6.5 credmoore before. He did not like any of those and missed a lot of deer because of recoil senitivity or how loud they are.

Long Rant..

"Not Very Loud"

When I read something like this , I cringe...
My hearing was fine for the majority of my life ,then about 15 years back I started having problems . Came on kinda suddenly. Wife started telling me to turn the TV down. Then really couldn't understand people unless they were talking directly at my face.
All you Dads.... you really need to educate yourself and your children on hearing loss from gunfire. How many times I've heard....I've been shooting since I was a kid and my hears are fine, and just shake my head. It's gonna roll up on you like it did me and others I know.
There are plenty of electronic muffs , over the ear and in the ear for sale. They actually enhance you ability to hear while hunting and protect your ears when firing. Do yourself and your children a favor and wear them. There's no logical excuse to justify not wearing hearing protection. This is 2024 not 1964 when I started to shoot a lot and people were ignorant of the dangers
It ain't no fun going deaf.
Even with some of the best hearing aids on the market, my social life has changed for the worse. Can't go out to eat, movies , anywhere groups of people are talking cause all you hear is.. everyone.. talking. No way to isolate the different voices. I can use certain cell phones , but landlines are useless. I have to wear a $300 set of headphones just to watch tv now. If my wife passes before me , I'll have to get a big guard dog to sleep at night to warn me of any noises,, cause now when there are unusual noises she alerts me to check. I can't hear sh&t at night after taking them out

The internet has dozens of websites to explain how gunfire is some of the most dangerous type of exposure out there.

You and anyone else out there can continue to ignore the danger, but that don't mean is ain't real.

You know why it's "Not Very Loud"

cause the damage has already started

Rant Off


BTW.... 30-30 Is an excellent 150 yd deer rifle

 

[Baker Shake]

I am looking for the best caliber and rifle to buy for my youth hunter. I am looking for caliber that will be fatal at 150 yards and a rifle that they can use as they grow older. Thanks for all opinions in this matter.

6.5 cm
Low recoil. Daughters and wife hunt it.

 

[twinin]

Kids are usually more afraid of the boom than the recoil. You would be surprised how big of a caliber than shoot well with a suppressor

 

[vr1967]

Where in LA are you at? If around the BR area (I live across the line in MS, but work near BR) I have a .243 youth 700 y’all can handle and shoot to see if something like that would work. Best friend I believe still has a 7-08 compact that he’d let y’all handle/shoot. Got a few 30-30s and 38/357 lever guns too. Could probably round up a few other rounds/rifles to try also, before just going out and buying something.


As to caliber, I won’t get in that debate, as something is just as dead from a well placed .22lr round as a well placed .338L round.

I’d try to handle something before just running out and buying something that may or may not fit the child.

Wife killed this one about 10 years ago, 50-55 yards with a Rossi 92 16” barrel loaded with 158 gr .38 special. Dropped it in it’s tracks. Her first deer.

 

[ChiefShooter]

Both of my kids shot 7mm-08, and my wife still uses hers for rifle season, along with .350 legend for primitive. I have killed several deer with her rifle.recommend

I highly recommend 7mm-08 as well. I started 2 kids on this with a Savage Axis. It is a tack driver. Most of the deer shot with it dropped and did not run. I also recommend the low recoil rounds. Recoil is significantly less than a .243.

Good luck

 

[Bigchillin83]

Good chart that gives a recoil by pounds per caliber.. kinda gives a good idea

Rifle Recoil Table: Updated for 2024 with all popular cartridges – Backfire

backfire.tv

 

[falshooter]

Good chart that gives a recoil by pounds per caliber.. kinda gives a good idea

Rifle Recoil Table: Updated for 2024 with all popular cartridges – Backfire

backfire.tv

That's a lot of info there, but speaking from 50yrs of shooting .308, I've never shot 200+grn .308 ammo. Though it's available nowadays, it more of a specialty rd, not common or avg. as stated . I would think some of the info is for entertainment purposes only

 

[Bolt Head]

Long Rant..

"Not Very Loud"

When I read something like this , I cringe...
My hearing was fine for the majority of my life ,then about 15 years back I started having problems . Came on kinda suddenly. Wife started telling me to turn the TV down. Then really couldn't understand people unless they were talking directly at my face.
All you Dads.... you really need to educate yourself and your children on hearing loss from gunfire. How many times I've heard....I've been shooting since I was a kid and my hears are fine, and just shake my head. It's gonna roll up on you like it did me and others I know.
There are plenty of electronic muffs , over the ear and in the ear for sale. They actually enhance you ability to hear while hunting and protect your ears when firing. Do yourself and your children a favor and wear them. There's no logical excuse to justify not wearing hearing protection. This is 2024 not 1964 when I started to shoot a lot and people were ignorant of the dangers
It ain't no fun going deaf.
Even with some of the best hearing aids on the market, my social life has changed for the worse. Can't go out to eat, movies , anywhere groups of people are talking cause all you hear is.. everyone.. talking. No way to isolate the different voices. I can use certain cell phones , but landlines are useless. I have to wear a $300 set of headphones just to watch tv now. If my wife passes before me , I'll have to get a big guard dog to sleep at night to warn me of any noises,, cause now when there are unusual noises she alerts me to check. I can't hear sh&t at night after taking them out

The internet has dozens of websites to explain how gunfire is some of the most dangerous type of exposure out there.

You and anyone else out there can continue to ignore the danger, but that don't mean is ain't real.

You know why it's "Not Very Loud"

cause the damage has already started

Rant Off


BTW.... 30-30 Is an excellent 150 yd deer rifle

You are absolutely correct. Even handgun cartridges are very hard on eardrums. It doesn't even take rifle rounds, which are much worse.

My hearing is somewhat degraded and I wear hearing protection for many activities, including shooting. Loud music and power tools have contributed most to f*****g my hearing up, I believe.

 

[Bigchillin83]

My kids and myself shoot way better suppressed!!! It’s deff a game changer and is very helpful

 

[falshooter]

I have a decibel meter. I just shot 5 rds of CCI mini mags 36gr hp. Ruger American with 18"barrel. Next to my left ear an avg of 87 db.
Above 85db can cause damage to your hearing...
I live in a semi rural area on a dead end rd. The background reading was 42-45db

 

[Bigchillin83]

I don’t have no db reader but I know I can be in the back about 250 yards and shoot a deer with my suppressed subsonic 45-70 and my wife sitting outside on the porch can not hear it, nor can my buddy/neighbor who’s hunting 300yrds away…. I call that quiet, lol

 

[Bolt Head]

7mm-08 is a necked down 308. Think of a 308 case necked down to a 274 bullet. Great caliber for youth and adult. Ammo is reasonably priced and available. Decent priced kid gun....Ruger American. Buy once and they will shoot it all their life. Tikka.
Have both, very accurate. Ruger makes great option if they are a lefty. Adult or kid - the caliber works fine.

Just a simple correction:

.284" bullet in the 7mm-08

 

[Bolt Head]

Good chart that gives a recoil by pounds per caliber.. kinda gives a good idea

Rifle Recoil Table: Updated for 2024 with all popular cartridges – Backfire

backfire.tv

Cool to observe!

I read down to the point it compared common light-recoiling cartridges for deer. He mentioned both the .270 Win. and the .30-06 SPRG, with the .30-06 producing some 4 pounds of recoil over the .270, but no mention of bullet weight. They'd most likely be identical with a 150 gr. bullet with a powder charge producing the same pressure, IMO.

Same with the .35 Whelen in the chart. That's a .30-06 case toting a .358" bullet. Heavy. More recoil.

 

[twinin]

.270 Win, .25-06, and .30-06 were mentioned and are great deer cartridges. OP stated shots would be 150 yards and under and rifle for a youth hunter. Those long action cartridges would not be needed for that distance on deer, and long actions mean more weight and bigger guns (relatively speaking of course).

 

[highstandard40]

Felt recoil has to take into account the total weight of the firearm. A heavy gun has less felt recoil than a light gun for any given cartridge.

 

[AK shooter]

Me and my son have been using the 300 blackout and 7.62x39 with success for the last few years.