Deer rifle choice for kids

Thank You, it is on order.

My buddy set up a 7mm-08 with Remington managed recoil ammo for his 12 yr old daughter and she had taken 2 deer and a bear with it and has no issue with the kick

My nephew took his first 2 deer with a .223. He took his shots inside 200 yards and both bucks took 1 step and dropped. He is 15 now and shoots a .243.
My 3 choices would be a .223, .243, or a 6.5. There are a lot of good, light weight 6.5 options out there now. I would personally lean towards a Tikka Lite

I would do a 6mm of some variety ex: 243 win, 6mm rem or 6mm creedmoor. Low recoil and does great on deer or lighter game.

Tidus56 said:

I would do a 6mm of some variety ex: 243 win, 6mm rem or 6mm creedmoor. Low recoil and does great on deer or lighter game.

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Same here. You mite like the bergara b-14 in 6.5 creedmore. The ruger american predator has 6.5 grendel.

Try a .25-06 with a 100 grain bullet..My nephew started with mine when he was 8 or 9.
It worked fine...

I really like the 7mm-08 for the kids. A few friends have bought them for their sons and daughters and not much recoil and they could use them for a long time.

Hard to go wrong with a 243, 6.5CM or 7mm-08. It's always appeared to me that the stock fit and practice are more important than caliber.

I started my daughter off with a Winchester compact 243 . I had to cut the stock and add a nice recoil pad to it. She was 7 when she started hunting deer . She harvested 12 deer by the time she was 10. We mounted 3 of the bucks for her ( maybe for dad ) good luck. Also most of our practice time came from a ruger 22 hornet . While hunting she never noticed the difference

I really like that ruger american predator in 6.5 for young ones. That rifle,will shoot sub moa and has a threaded barrel to throw a brake on. 6.5 is already mild recoil when you add a brake it's very light recoil

Ruger is also making a bolt rifle in 6.5 Grendel. I have two ARs in 6.5 Grendel and I am running a KAW leaner break which is not meant to reduce recoil but project muzzle blast down range and neither of my rifles has any more perceived recoil than ARs in 223. If you run a true brake there is zero recoil but ear protection is a must. The 6.5s don't have to be going super fast to really hold up down range. The 6.5 Grendel will easily push Hornady 123 SST 2550 fps from 18" barrels which still allows 1000 foot pounds of energy to at least 400 yards and it is still supersonic at 1000 yards. This round is more effective than the 243 Win. especially when you get over 300 yard shots on deer size game. Go to YouTube and watch some of the deer and pig hunts using the 6.5 Grendel.

As many others have said a 6.5 CM, .243, 6mm CM, 7mm-08 are all great choices. I would personally stay away from the pistol cartridges myself, as there is less performance with similar recoil as those listed above. A muzzle break or suppressor is always a good option to further reduce the recoil.

7mm-08 here, but can't go wrong with a .243..