Brake Install - so my 7yo can step up in caliber

[308Bronco]

Hi everyone, After seeing the picture of Shawn's little one shooting his .260, I got the gears turning in my head. My little girl is the same age and so far she has shot my 22 and 222, Id like to let her shoot my .308(heavy barrel varmint) with some reduced loads and see how she likes it. BTW she shoots a singleshot 20ga if I help her abit. Now for my question should I have a brake installed on this and if I do with light loads do you think she would be able to shoot it ok? I really like the design that Shawn has and his place isnt all that far from mine. What do you think the total cost and timeframe would be? I kinda want her to be able to hunt with this fall after getting some practice in thru the summer. Any input would be very helpful.

[Supermag]

Although a muzzle brake would reduce the recoil, it might create another problem. The muzzle blast and increased noise from a brake might prove to be more of a problem with flinching than the recoil itself. I think you should stick with a good reduced recoil load for the 308 instead of putting on a muzzlebrake.

[James Jones]

I agree with Supermag on this one , the heavy 308 shoulden't kick nearly as hard as a 20ga shotgun and if your using reduced loads then it realy shoulden;t be any trouble.
At the most i would put a Limbsave recoil pad ,they work realy well with helping suck up the recoil.

In most cases the actual recoil doesen't bother the kids as much as the muzzel blast ,make sure that her ear plugs fit right and make sure that her form is good

[Buffalobob]

Being more than just a little wimpy, I use one of these things.

[LewisH]

All the above plus a regular program of dry firing.

IMHO dry firing is the best way to tame any movement associated with trigger let-off.

[J E Custom]

308

remington sells what they call redeuced recoil amo

If you reload use lighter bullets and this will reduce
recoil.

Example:
308 with a 168gr at 2600fp/s in a 8.5lb rifle= 14.8 ft-lbs
of recoil and 10.6 ft/s recoil velocity.

Same rifle
308 with a 125gr serria at 2600 fp/s= 9.1ft-lbs of recoil
and 8.3 ft/s recoil velocity.

Hope this will help
J E CUSTOM

[41mag]

Well my grandson isn't much more than a popcorn fart. He is shooting reduced loads from our Ruger Compact in .308. The loads are straight off the Hodgdon website using 125gr Nosler BT's. I am getting just over 2300fps form the 16.5" barrel, and as much as I hate it, they group better than just about anything I have loaded for this rifle.

Getting ready for the shot,

50 yd group

185 yd steel

So far he as taken one feral hog and killed a LOT of paper. Fully loaded the rifle only weighs 6.5 pounds. The recoil isn't so much that it bothers him, nearly as much as the noise from the short barrel does. We use both ear plugs and muffs on most occaisions, and when we hunt I put the electronic muffs on his so he can hear me when I am whispering.

So far he is pretty decent out to 200yds with these loads on paper. We haven't made the jump to game at this range yet, but with the hog population on the rise again, it won't be much longer till her squares off on another one.

First hog @ 50yds


I would give that load a try before doing any mods on the rifle. You might be really suprised at how tame they are. Just make your shooting seccions short with only a few rounds at first. Be forewarned though, once they get past the "big gun" thing, your gonna need more bullets. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]