juniour deer rifle

Dont forget the 6.5 x 55 Swede - low recoil, good varmit & deer cartridge with the proper bullet selection, and lots of reasonably priced rifles that pop up on the exchange section.

Started my daughter on one at age 12 - we have killed three deer with three shots with it!
 
I'd buy him a Stevens in .243 with a good Leupold and teach him how to handload.

A few years down the road, the 243 would be replaced with something like a nice 270 topped with the original Leupold.



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I think Supercub has the right idea. The other thing to remeber of course, is that there are lots of rounds that will fit the killing/recoil requirements. Stock design, and how it fits the shooter is the more critical part. The youngster will develop good habits, and shoot better sooner, if the rifle geometry allows for a good natural head and hand position. He won't notice recoil to the same extent,a nd he'll hit what he's aiming at- a sure recipe for success. I call this shootability, and I think it gets overlooked way too often. Having said all of that, a Rem youth rifle in .243, or maybe .260, with Paul's leupold sitting ontop of it, would allow you to simply put a full sized stock on it when he grows out of the youth furniture... The other thing that I think is going to make a big difference to folks handloading for beginning shooters, is Barnes has introduced the 130 tsx. Sounds really light for caliber, and it is, but it will hold together on game, and it should be very light in the recoil department if folks put it over a mild charge of of 4895, or the like...
 
Chas said:
Dont forget the 6.5 x 55 Swede - low recoil, good varmit & deer cartridge with the proper bullet selection, and lots of reasonably priced rifles that pop up on the exchange section.

Started my daughter on one at age 12 - we have killed three deer with three shots with it!
Click to expand...

X2 on that!
 
I started one of my boys with a 308 model 600 rem with a good pad and some very light 120 gr and it was the best starter as he is now up to full load 120gr and he is starting on 150 gr out of the same rifle that he is familiar with. I have a model 7 in 243 that my 10 year old shoots very well and has shot a very nice whitetail with. He loves it. If you don't reload I would go with the 243. Reloading opens up an entire new group of cartridges that can be loaded to suit and the shooter can stay with the familiar gun. The 25-06 is a great example as well.
 
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