270. or 30-06 for a female beginer??

I am a female shooter, and I shoot a 30-06 in a tikka t3 lite with a limbsaver. It does have some kick to it. But I really like it. A .270 was recommended to me as a gun that would be good for a female. Really it comes down to what you are willing to put up with for kick. Realistically, you would be shooting 1-2 times hunting so its no so bad. if you want to shoot it more, you can get limbsavers, padded shirts, and a lead shed to take the kick out of it.
 
Go with the 270 Win, it is one of the greatest deer cartridges and will certainly handle Moose and any reasonable range. You can buy Managed Recoil loads from Remington (which they state have 1/2 the recoil of regular loads) for practice and just shoot a few full power loads to check the sight in before hunting.

I would be tempted to move up a notch in the $ arena and buy something probably with a Detachable Mag to simplify loading and unloading. Might be a good idea to get something with a wood stock as you could have the stock cut to length for her and have a good quality recoil pad put on it.

The most important thing is too make sure it is a joy for her to shoot so she will enjoy her time at the bench.

Best of luck.
 
Bishopus said:
Honestly? Neither chamberings are a good choice for a beginner, and it's a bad choice for a rifle.

If it were my 5'2" woman friend, I would urge her to look at a Tikka T3 or Stevens 200 in 7mm-08 or 6.5x55.

The '06 has pretty substantial recoil, and the .270 makes a hell of a lot of noise. Neither are good choices for a beginner.

The Remington 770 and 710 are pieces of crap. If cost is the #1 issue, the Stevens 200 is in the same ballpark and the bolt handle is much less likely to fall right off when you're using it.

The 7mm-08 and 6.5x55 are perfect deer cartridges, and while I wouldn't use either on a moose, I also wouldn't hesitate to use them on the biggest mule deer or black bear.

Don't let her scope it with anything worse than a Bushnell 3200. Bad glass can really hurt a beginner's experience at the range.
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Thats very good advice. I'll add that it's a good idea to get a new shooter broke in on several thousand rounds of .22 LR before moving up to any big game cartridge, and even better if you can get them used to a small centerfire like a .223 between the .22 and the deer rifle.

My 3 kids all used a remington 788 in 7mm08 as their first big game rifle. If you handload it's even better because you can make some really dandy low recoil 120 gr handloads for the 7mm08, and graduate to the full power 140 gr loads after a year or so.
 
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i wouldnt recommend the .25-06 as a first rifle (i have two of them now, but looking back i am sure glad i didnt get one as a first rifle - i had a .223 and shot thousands of rounds of white box winchester ammo through it at $5 a box). ammo is expensive and hard to find, and when you do find it your selection is usually limited to choosing between the 90gr or 120gr Winchester Super-X hollowpoints. IMO the .25-06 is something you get after you have 2-3 other guns and you know what you want. that said there are some good deals on .25-06's at LeBarons right now in their clearance section.

get her something that has the option of readily available, affordable plinking ammo so she can get a lot of practice in. the best thing you can do is buy her 5-6+ boxes of ammo, take her out to the range and have her shoot, shoot, shoot until she is comfortable with the gun. many guys just hand their wives or g/f's one of their softer shooting guns and think thats it -- but you can tell that the women are still nowhere near comfortable with the gun, or are even intimidated by it.
its going to take more than just asking in a forum what she should get - you have to visit gun stores and make sure the gun fits her and that she likes it. i cant stress this enough - theres so much psychology to getting the average woman to feel comfortable with a gun (if you have the non-average tomboy type who will just pick up any gun and say 'lets git'r'dun' then great). most women i know will either love or hate a gun on sight - so if you want to buy her a stainless/synthetic T3 and she goes to the gun store and falls in love with a blued/laminate Ruger (and it fits her or can be made to fit her) - dont talk her out of it and get her the T3 anyway. her liking the gun is going to go a long way towards her feeling comfortable with it.
if it needs it, have it fitted with a good aftermarket pad, and then you start taking her out to the range to get her accustomed to her gun.

check out the Ruger Compacts and Frontiers -- most women i know that typically cringe at the sight of your typical remchester instantly like them and think theyre 'cute' :runaway:
i think the laminate helps too - chicks dig the laminate :)

more food for thought: .308 and 7mm-08 both have managed recoil loads widely available for them that have less recoil than a .243.

but seriously, take her to the gun store and have her actually help pick out something she likes and that fits her, dont just choose what sounds good in a forum. your gun dealer might have some suggestions as well.
 
a light load in a 270 is fine for a beginner but a 308 or the like would be a better starter, shorter bolt throw and light recoil but good punch, i think 243 is better for a experienced hunter as shot placement is important
 
I'd suggest a 25-06 in a wood stocked Tikka, or a .257 Roberts in a Ruger 77. Both have much milder report and recoil than the .270 ann .30-06. Both are more than adequate for deer and will do a good job on moose too.

I haven't read through the thread but I'd be shocked if the 710/770 hasn't been cut down to size by my post!
 
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Tracy used her time off for a day of moose hunting before October was through. It proved to be a very productive day indeed as she connected on this great bull. As always, she was using her .257 Roberts with a 100 grain Barnes X bullet.
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Tracy was busy this year, in addition to the great moose she got in October (see above), she also took this nice muley on the last day of the season, using her .257 Roberts with a 100 grain Barnes X bullet. And yes, we finally did get cold and snow, the temperature dropped about 80 F degrees from the week before.
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What I can't figure out is all the guys saying they wouldn't/shouldn't shoot moose with a 7/08?

Since I moved to closer range areas, I've hung up the 300 ultra and taken to carrying the 7/08. with 140 gr. TSX. I don't know if the moose are tougher out where you guys live, but a shoulder pass through at 250 yards and several destroyed sets of lungs/pass throughs convnced me. :)
 
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