Best low recoil full-powered cartridge for Wife's first hunting rifle?

hawk-i said:
7-08 or 6.5 Creednmoor from your list, 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
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Yep. If the rifle your wife wants is available in either of these, they’re a great balance of shootablilty and killing power.

My wife is quite short, so I got her a Tikka Compact 243. It fits her well, and is light enough that it’s easy for her to handle. Nothing really wrong with the 243, but I’d have preferred the 708 or 6.5CM, if they’d been available in that model.
 
Years ago, I built up a Rem 788 in 243 for my wife to start hunting - made the stock slimmer and shorter - pistol grip to fit her hand, shortened the barrel to 18.5 inches from 22" so she could aim it correctly - was a Weaver K3 with dot reticle scope. She got her first mule deer with a single shot - many hundreds rounds fired that previous summer at target range. Our son used same rifle and load for his first white tail - like 15 years later. I bought a Rem 783 in 243 Win for our Grandson to start hunting deer a couple years ago. Decided if that was good enough for them, then should be good enough for me, so about last deer hunting rifle I bought for myself was a Ruger Compact in 243 Win. Is a plethora of 95 grain Partitions here for the 243's - not one of us has taken moose with 243 Win, but at least one acquaintance has - regularly - my 338 Win Mag (now 9.3x62) is my "go to" for big bush hunting, and I have taken many dozen deer with 308 Win (165 grain) and 7x57 (150 grain) - all are "good" - but I think 243 Win about "okay" for starter person or experienced person. I do know a guy who started his son to hunt with 7mm-08 - I think that "boy" (now in his 40's) still uses the same rifle for hunting most anything.
 
Northern Shooter said:
My wife just got her PAL and is looking for her first big game hunting rifle to take on our deer and moose hunts. Being slightly recoil sensitive, I am trying to avoid the likes of 30.06's, .308's, 45-70 (all of which she has shot) etc. and am ideally looking for a cartridge that produces no more than 15 ft-lbs of felt recoil.

A few options that have crossed my mind:

.260 Remington - I know very little about this cartridge and how commonly available it is. - Produces upwards of 13ft-lbs of recoil and 140 grain bullets produce 2,351 foot pounds of muzzle energy.

6.5x55 Swede - I own a Swedish Mauser in 6.5 Swede and can attest to it's soft shooting nature, however the Mauser is fairly robust hunting rifle. The 160 grain bullets produce 12.7 ft-lbs of recoil and 2,266 ft-lbs of muzzle energy.

6.5 Creedmoor - Known as a long range target cartridge, how well does the 6.5 translate into a large game hunting round? 143 grain bullets producing 12 ft-lbs of recoil and 2,315 ft-lbs of muzzle energy.

7mm-08. - Necked down version of the .308, one of the guys at our Moose camp uses his every year so I know that it will do the job. 150 grain bullet producing 13.9 ft-lbs of recoil and 2,339 ft-lbs of muzzle energy.

If one were to select a mild recoiling cartridge for a bolt action hunting rifle to be used on everything up to Moose, which of the above would you lean towards?

What are some other cartridges worth considering that I may have missed? Cost per round and availability are also factors to consider.
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Go with the cartridge that has the lowest recoil on your list.
 
Only one reasonable option from your list. Like others have said here, 7mm08 all the way. Slightly more recoil than the 6.5 CM but a much more forgiving and capable all round cartridge for the type of hunting you have specified.
 
7x57 for sure!! Then 7mm08, then 6.5’s but I wouldn’t go lower than that for moose in my experience.
 
Northern Shooter said:
There is something to be said about cross compatibility with sharing the same ammo. 6.5X55 is the only cartridge of the 4 that I personally own so that would be ideal, however the selection of affordable rifles (<$1000) in 6.5x55 Swede is limited.
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Seeing as you already have 6.5 x 55, why not keep it simple.

Go to the EE, Hunting and Sporting Rifles, find the yellow band for Intersurplus, a site sponsor and great folks to deal with. Follow the link to their site, Firearms, All Products choose 6.5 x 55, then choose sort, Low to High. They have over 150 rifles in 6.5 x 55 from $235 to $900. Something there should work.
 
I looked through most of the posts and I’ll give you what I know. My primary deer rifle is a tikka t3 in 6.5x55. I reload and my current favourite is the 120gr ttsx. The two biggest deer I’ve ever shot had the mushroom on the other side hide, smaller blasted right through. No deer has travelled far with that combo. I also like 140gr core lokt for effectiveness. 129gr sst was explosive and I wasn’t thrilled with the performance of 140gr sst, but to be honest it was a short shot with a warm 129 and a long shot with an accurate, but not pushing anything 140. I’m currently super happy with where I am.

I also have a .243. I shot deer with the 85 gr partition and it worked exceptionally well. That’s my experience with it, but felt recoil is much less than my 6.5 Swede and that is not bad. I’ve also shot deer with 45/70, 7mm rem mag and 30-30, but those are out of your zone. I can tolerate some recoil, but I don’t enjoy a lot of it on the bench.

If you handload, or spend money on good ammo, any one of those on your list is good. The Swede really shines when you handload as factory ammo is safety checked for 120 year old rifles. The creed only has new rifles so factory ammo runs something like 8k psi hotter, but a newer swede is safe there too. The 6.5’s have bullets from 95 to 160gr, 7mm goes a little higher. 175 or 180, but deer bullets work great in the 120-140 range. Lighter bullets kick less, ttsx are light, but penetrate pretty far. They are a little like the turbo Honda motor putting out v8 results.

Hard to go wrong with any of them unless you really want a creed, but get to tell your friends that it’s your wife’s rifle.
 
rascal1 said:
Only one reasonable option from your list. Like others have said here, 7mm08 all the way. Slightly more recoil than the 6.5 CM but a much more forgiving and capable all round cartridge for the type of hunting you have specified.
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In reality, there isn’t any discernible difference in terminal performance between a medium capacity 7mm and it’s 6.5mm counterpart. We’ve taken a lot of game with both, including multiples of bull moose and elk, and all else being equal, stuff just dies.
 
LittleBoyLefty said:
In reality, there isn’t any discernible difference in terminal performance between a medium capacity 7mm and it’s 6.5mm counterpart. We’ve taken a lot of game with both, including multiples of bull moose and elk, and all else being equal, stuff just dies.
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Yes they are quite similar in performance but the 7mm08 shoots flatter and carries more energy at reasonable hunting distances. These details may be important to the O.P's wife who appears to be a novice to the sport. Less room for error making her hunting and shooting experience more enjoyable and successful. I haven't read the entire thread so not sure if hand loading is an option for the OP or not but either option definitely provides lots of factory ammo options.
 
There will be virtually zero difference in on game performance between your cartridge choices, assuming appropriate bullet selection for the task.

That said, I kill deer/elk/moose/bears every year, and could hunt any thing in BC comfortably with a 7/08 Kimber Montana.

The only important aspect of any of it, is the bullet. It’s the only interaction you have with the animal that matters.
 
OP I mentioned the Youth model in 7-08. Tried wife on a bunch of diff cal's. Started with 30-30 marlin, a bolt action 30-30, went to a .375 win, tried her on my 30-06 blr. She was fine with all, problem was the balance. She found them all end heavy so to speak.

Went to the youth model and it was immediately, "her" gun. She's hunted with it for years now. Women are built different, and balance makes a difference, at least with my wife.

Mentioning to try and save you some time and $$.

(She ended up with a browning bolt youth model).
 
rascal1 said:
Yes they are quite similar in performance but the 7mm08 shoots flatter and carries more energy at reasonable hunting distances. These details may be important to the O.P's wife who appears to be a novice to the sport. Less room for error making her hunting and shooting experience more enjoyable and successful. I haven't read the entire thread so not sure if hand loading is an option for the OP or not but either option definitely provides lots of factory ammo options.
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Balistic coefficient says otherwise. Bullet by weight yields similar velocities. 160 gr in both the 7-08 and the 6.5 x 55 range between 2200 and 2600 fps depending on the powder. The 6.5 will have a higher ballistic coefficient, because they have less diameter/weight. It will retain it's velocity longer, shoot flatter, and retain more terminal energy. Make a difference to the moose; not really, but being flatter shooting, it should be easier to hit the moose in the right spot.

6.5-284 and 6.5-06 way better performance, but way more recoil, shorter barrel life.
 
Is using a soft/thick recoil pad frowned upon? My daughter is quite recoil shy, and has no problems shooting 6.5CM with soft recoil pad vs. .243 with less of a recoil pad. .243 was also shooting 100 grain bullets vs. 140 grain 6.5CM.

So what I'm trying to say, larger caliber with softer recoil pad might be one solution.
 
I picked up a 308 Tikka T3X compact for the wife, added a limbsaver recoil pad, then shipped it off to PR Cook for one of his brakes. The rifle shoots like a pussy cat, even stacked up against the 7-08 I use. Just something to consider.
 
Meroh said:
Balistic coefficient says otherwise. Bullet by weight yields similar velocities. 160 gr in both the 7-08 and the 6.5 x 55 range between 2200 and 2600 fps depending on the powder. The 6.5 will have a higher ballistic coefficient, because they have less diameter/weight. It will retain it's velocity longer, shoot flatter, and retain more terminal energy. Make a difference to the moose; not really, but being flatter shooting, it should be easier to hit the moose in the right spot.

6.5-284 and 6.5-06 way better performance, but way more recoil, shorter barrel life.
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From what I have seen, you can push a 7mm bullet faster than a 6.5mm bullet from the same size case. (looking at Nosler data, the 7mm08 is ~100fps faster than the 260 Rem with 140gr bullets. The 7mm data is using a 26" barrel vs 24" but that isn't going to make anywhere near a 100fps difference. I have seen this same general correlation before too, for instance with 150gr bullets in 270win vs 3006.) Perhaps because the 7mm has more surface area for the gases to push on? The same weight bullet will also be shorter in a 7mm, allowing the bullet to take up less of the powder space.

So while the 6.5 will have a better BC, its going to take a while for that BC to make up for the difference in muzzle velocity. Of course the 6.5x55 has a larger case than the 7mm, so with loads creating the same pressure the 6.5x55 will win out but that only matters if you're handloading (Can you get spicy 6.5x55 factory ammo? I know a lot of it is pretty anemic compared to what the caliber can do in a modern bolt action, federal's fastest load is 2650fps with a 140gr, which is well below factory 7mm08.)
 
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Meroh said:
Balistic coefficient says otherwise. Bullet by weight yields similar velocities. 160 gr in both the 7-08 and the 6.5 x 55 range between 2200 and 2600 fps depending on the powder. The 6.5 will have a higher ballistic coefficient, because they have less diameter/weight. It will retain it's velocity longer, shoot flatter, and retain more terminal energy. Make a difference to the moose; not really, but being flatter shooting, it should be easier to hit the moose in the right spot.

6.5-284 and 6.5-06 way better performance, but way more recoil, shorter barrel life.
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You won't find 160 gr 6.5 CM factory ammo. Don't think we are talking hand loading here buddy unless I missed something. You need to look at factory ammo and compare ballistics and performance from there. Factory ammo at reasonable hunting distances (300 yds or so) the 7mm08 prevails.
 
Hunter1970 said:
I picked up a 308 Tikka T3X compact for the wife, added a limbsaver recoil pad, then shipped it off to PR Cook for one of his brakes. The rifle shoots like a pussy cat, even stacked up against the 7-08 I use. Just something to consider.
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Another great option!!
 
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