first caliber rifle..considering reloadingfor a 14 year old

TwoTone said:
I was thinking along similar lines for my nephews.

The list I came up with was:

260 rem
6.5x55
7mm08

All of these are ideal for low recoil shooting in compact / light rifles and are large enough to be useful big game calibers for as many years as the young one wishes to use it, especially with the flexibility offered by handloading.
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+1


no matter how many times i get a new " toy " to play with , the 6.5x55 still gets used regularly . it's easy to shoot , accurate , and in the right rifle , very light .

it not just for new shooters :D
 
My grandson has shot the .243 and .25-06 Varminter. I am always hesitant to move a new shooter up in recoil too quickly. Once my .260 build is complete, I am sure it will be part of that gradual increase. It will probably be a couple more years before the bigger calibres become part of his progression but I can wait.
 
The 7-08 has the attraction of being an all-around big game cartridge for the rest of her life. If she decided to become a bear hunter, well, then she can buy her own gun! And if she can someday afford Africa, well, she can take you and take the 7-08 for the little stuff!
And, with a 7-08, Hodgdons has a nice youth load, moving a 130gr bullet along at around 2500 fps, -three to four hundred fps less than factory - which shoulld be nice and mild to shoot.

I have quite a few more candles on my birthday cake than does your young daughter, and I still enjoy shooting the Hodgdon reduced loads with H4895 and light for caliber bullets. It alows me to focus on my shooting, and on administering the rifle in a timely fashion. And, although I load more energetic loads for hunting purposes, I have no doubt that a 130 grain NP or similar pellet, leaving the bore at 2500fps, striking a deer or moose at anywhere near sporting ranges - you are going to teach her to hunt, too, aren't you - would be as fully lethal as any other bullet at any other velocity for a simlar hit.

You can find reduced loads for your 7 RM too, but then she would be shooting your rifle, and where's the fun in that?
 
I started with a 7x57, and worked up to killing moose with it. I would go with the 7-08, it is basically a modern 7x57
 
.243 Winchester. Model 70 lightweight carbine 20" bbl( will be used but i'm sure someone has got one)

.243 or .257 roberts. Ruger 77 RL Ultralight(used) or new hawkeye ultra

.250 Savage in Ruger 77 RL Ultralight(used) Classic 250-3000

.243 Ruger 77 compact(new) or maybe even 6.8mm SPC in same. Important 12.5 LOP, great for smaller shooters.
I always loved the older ultralights.
If you are going to reload, then make it a gem that she will let her daughter start with.

If you are reloading and going to use reduced loads then look for an older Ruger 77 ultalight with the 18.5 inch barrel and iron sights from factory. another lovely little first rifle.

Ruger laminate compact ultra in .243 or 260 REM. New. 6 1/4 pounds and again 12.5 LOP. Make it a rifle she will cherish and not something she will have to work around to shoot! :wave:
 
My grandson was 13 last summer when he came for a visit. He shot pretty much everything I own from a .22 rimfire up to my .375 Ultra, and like Bruce, I tailored the loads for each gun to suit him. The rifle he shot the most was my wife's .30/06, a lightweight carbine with a short LOP. The '06 loads were mostly 130 gr bullets loaded to 2600, although he did shoot some cast as well.
 
My 10year old girl shoots her moms 708 rem 700 with light charges behind a 120gr ballistic tip.This year i bought her and her sister a 223 the 7mm08 was getting to expensive to shoot the volumes she was shooting it.
 
A nice .243 has only 1 big issue. The common problem is when a mentor picks it as a starting rifle for someone else & then likes it so much they have to get one for themselves. Same story on a lot of other sites and notice how it jumped in so quick here.
Cheers
Jaguar
 
my Father bought me a 30.06 when I was 12 or 13 years old. I wasn't a big kid at that age but a 125grain bullet didn't smuck me around much either. By the time I was 14 or 15 I was shooting 165s and stuck to that for many years. Now I prefer 180grain.

My Father's approach was to pick me up a rifle that I can use for all big game hunting, yet use a light load at first, knowing that I would soon grow into it and not have to replace a rifle in a few short years. I also learned to reload at at age and have been doing it since.
 
H4831 said:
Since you handload you can make the ammo to suit the situation.
I taught may oldest son to shoot with a 30-06. He started at 6 years of age when he had to let the stock go under his arm, to see through the scope. I loaded cast bullets so light that recoil barely moved the rifle.
Another son started with the 243, while grandsons started with the Marlin 44 magnum. In every case the loads were light enough that recoil was not an issue, then increase the loads as they develope in size and get used to shooting.
In your case, where the daughter is already proficient witha 22-250, you are past the initial stage. So pretty well any calibre short of the magnum type would be suitable, with the proper loads. I too, think the 7-08 would be ideal, because even loaded down to recoil very little more than the 22-250, it would still be good for deer, and later good for any game with full power loads.
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I'm with H4831 here. Since you're handloading you can finetune your load to the recoil your child can handle. My daughter's shoot both my LE 303 as well as my Marlin 30-30 with cast and reduced loads. In both cases, the thrill of shooting a centrefire is there as well as the satisfying bang that even a reduced load can bring.

Not forgetting the immense savings in powder and bullets and the amount of practice everyone gets. :D The 303 is good for anything out there and so is the 30-30 at the right range, so future needs are taken care of as they grow too :p
 
I went with the savage edge. It is light has a small stock and does not bother me if it gets banged around a bit. It will be her gun for the most part.. but when I am out in the Kayak or bush bashing it will come along with me. It is the first bolt gun I have ever owned that was not a browning A-bolt.
 
update 5 years later.
Looking back through my threads and saw this old post.

Since posting this I have owned three different 7mm-08 rifles and currently own a rem 700 mountain with a Leupold VX3
the girls love the 7mm-08 and so do I
here are a few pics of game taken with the 7mm-08

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Me and my girls shoot 7-08. My friend has switched from 30-06 to 7-08 for himself and started 2 of his kids with their own 7-08s. His daughter took a nice 4pt at 200yds with H4895 reduced loads and 120Nosler Ballistic tip. They upped the velocity a bit for this fall still only 2500 ish and shot 2 more 4pt Muley's with it. At reduced velocity the BT is performing amazing.

Here's my girl, the 7-08, and her cow elk

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Downloaded 7mm08 worked really well for starting 2 daughters and 1 son.
120gr Sierra Pro-Hunter bullet, 38.0 gr IMR4064. 2525 fps in a 20" barrel Remington 788. Light recoil, flat shooting to 150-175 yds, and a good deer bullet.
 
Another vote for the 7mm-08 or 7x57. I could never condone the 243 in the hands of a novice. Anything less than perfect shot placement and angle is asking for problems. Worse, the 243 maxes out, hard, at deer and frankly would not be my choice for Saskatchewan or Alberta deer. So you start off with a marginal cartridge at best and work down from there. A 7mm-08 is more than capable of cleanly taking elk and moose which the youngster will eventually graduate to. So how is there any discussion?
 
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