What caliber for my 14 year old son?

My son has been shooting a 30-06 since he was 12. I bought a used stock and cut it down for him.Reduced loads until now (he's 14). And full stock. He now has a gun that's good for coyotes or moose, and anything in between.
 
6.5x55SE or .260Rem, both excellent choices.
If your son is not recoil shy, why not .30-06.
Some kids shoot shotgun, where there is more recoil,
so .30-06 may just be a ticket.
 
aulrich said:
260 or 6.5x55, mind you I like the find the rifle first then figure out the chamering advice, to many rounds will work Picking the rifle first will filter the list down. One thing that caught my eye was the weatherby youth model it comes with both a youth and adult stock.
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I agree with the above. Get a rifle that fits first. Figure out the chambering afterwards!
 
If you reload or know someone who does, I'd go with a 308 or 30-06. My son started with a 308 using 110 grain hornady R/N with 12 grains of H110. After he shot his first moose (a 300 yard shot) when he was 11 years old, with his moms 308 using Federal "high energy" loads, I asked him what he thought of the recoil and he said "what recoil". He's now 17 and has his own 338 WM, which he shoots very well. We were at the range the day before yesterday, and he fired a 30-378 weatherby. He hit the gong at 200 yards and said it was very nice.
A friend's son was afraid of his 308 and the dad asked me to load some practise loads for his son. His 13 year old son road his bike over a few days later and asked me if I could "refill" them. I loaded him up a batch and said I wanted a roast from his first moose. That fall he road over on his bike and handed me a roast.
When my son was 12, he fired a very nice 243 at the range. At that point he hadn't fired any hunting loads except while hunting. He said it was a nice rifle but kicked a lot more than his 308. 30-06 works well with 15 grains of H110.
 
X whatever for the 7-08. I understand that this is a great excuse to buy another gun so I would also consider the 260 or the 257. FWIW I have used my 7-08 to hunt moose and never felt undergunned.
 
308 would be my first choice. I started my son with a 270 when he was 13 and the recoil bothered him. I didn't let him take any really long shots, in retrospect I would have got him a 308 and loaded good 165 gr bullets for everything.
 
260, 6.5x55, 7mm08, and 308 would all be on the list if it where me. However, I did something a little different for my wife and went with a round that is not my list. I got her a Ruger M77 mkII in 7.62x39. It is a fantastic training rifle due to low recoil and more importantly low cost. She can shoot herself silly with this rifle and not hurt the back account. To top it off it is a great little deer round, just to be sure I used it myself for the 2006 hunt and took two deer with it. The only down side is trying to find a modern hunting rifle in 7.62x39.
 
Lots of good suggestions so far, comes down to a personal choice and price fit. I just wanted to throw in 1 more option, the .270 Weatherby, confidence builder as a tack driver and soft on the shoulder, maybe start him with the accubrake and just remove it as he gets older and not worried about recoil as much, as stated just throwing out another option.
 
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