What youth rifle for my son?

[Alfred Crouch]

My 260 has a 25" barrel and my grand son's has a 23" barrel. Can't speak to how much recoil or muzzle blast the 20" barrel will deliver compared to the longer ones. . That is an aspect that will need to be considered. Interesting point. Will be intersted in seeing what those who have used the shorter barrels have to say on this.

[MontanaRifleman]

Some good options on the table. Here's another one... Vanguard youth.

Vanguard® Series 2 Synthetic Youth | Weatherby.com

I would pick the 7-08. When he grows out of it, sell it and fix him up with something else, or get it a B&C medalist for it and re barrel.

Mark

[Red Sparky]

I have the same questions about my 12 year old daughter. A youth model fits her without having to modify the stock. I reload so that is not a problem to reduce recoil for target shooting. I have her shooting a muzzle loader with light loads all summer at the range then I load it up for hunting season ( of course I don't tell her that). I would look at what you are going to be hunting and what ammo is readily available. I know you said deer but what about elk? Here the .243 is the minimum legal caliber for elk but I do not want to have her hunting elk with it. I am going to get her a 7-08 for antelope, deer and elk. I would really like to get her the 6.5X284 Norma but wonder if it will take off and become popular enough to have longevity.

[Smoak352]

I went to the shooting range a few days ago and next to me was a couple shooting a rifle. The wife looked to be about 120lbs (nice body ) and she was shooting a 7mm-08. When she fired the rifle it looked like she was shooting a 300 magnum. I would suggest getting him a 243.

[257WTBY]

Well i started my daighter out with a 44mag lever gun, shooting 44 specials all summer. She shot a nice fat 4X4 white tail. Her picture is in the bottom of all my posts. She turned 12 this year and i bought her a Howa 1500 243. It came with the youth and adult stock and honestly I was impressed with its out of the box accuracy. The trigger kind of sucked but i fixed that it is a crisp 3 lbs. I know i want her to grow with it but i also know that here the minimum caliber for elk starts at .25. I have a couple of 25-06's one feather weight she could use if i take her before she gets to grown up.

I know u like the 7mm 08 but i had my older daughter shoot one in a youth when she was younger and it kicked the crap out of her. i mean if u reloaded now u could load some lower power rounds. I will tell u this at a decent range with quality bullets the 243 will whack a mulie no sweat.

Just my 2 cents

[toddc]

Originally Posted by 257WTBY

Well i started my daighter out with a 44mag lever gun, shooting 44 specials all summer. She shot a nice fat 4X4 white tail. Her picture is in the bottom of all my posts. She turned 12 this year and i bought her a Howa 1500 243. It came with the youth and adult stock and honestly I was impressed with its out of the box accuracy. The trigger kind of sucked but i fixed that it is a crisp 3 lbs. I know i want her to grow with it but i also know that here the minimum caliber for elk starts at .25. I have a couple of 25-06's one feather weight she could use if i take her before she gets to grown up.

I know u like the 7mm 08 but i had my older daughter shoot one in a youth when she was younger and it kicked the crap out of her. i mean if u reloaded now u could load some lower power rounds. I will tell u this at a decent range with quality bullets the 243 will whack a mulie no sweat.

Just my 2 cents

Why do we put muzzle brakes on or guns and not our wives/kids? Whatever I bought over a 243 it would have a brake. Heck a light enuf 243 will kick ya in the teeth.

[MontanaRifleman]

Factory loads are gonna be a bit on the warm side. If you load up 120 gr bullets over a mild charge of powder, it wouldn't be any more than a 243. In fact a 243 is a necked down 7-08. Also the Vanguard has an excellent trigger and the youth stock has a very forgiving recoil pad. If it was me, i would probably get the regular Vanguard with 24" barrel vs the 20" youth barrel for more weight and replace the stock with the youth stock. That would be a rifle that a kid could grow into and the load could be progressively increased as he/she got bigger.