Building a rifle for a "little person"

[Coyboy]

Our local non-profit outdoor club holds an annual free hunter saftey class. We had a student who is about 40" tall and will never see much more. He is a very nice young fellow and deserves to have a well fitted rifle.

During our last class he would not shoot a 20 gauge shotgun because the fear of recoil. I was asked if I could build him a rifle for deer hunting.

It will have to be short relativly light, and easy on the shoulder. All ATF rules apply for minimum lengths.

I have a caliber in mind, he will be woods hunting so shots will most likely be under 100 yards.

I'm thinking 6mm-222, loaded with 85 grain gameking hp.

Any suggestions?

 

[James Jones]

Cowboy , I have an 14.5" upper for one of my AR's thats chambered in 6mm-223 and it works great on deer out to 100yds with a 95gr Ballistic tip. Velocity is around 2800fps if memory serves

I'm currently building a rifle for my son that he will start shooting next spring at the age of 3 1/2 yrs old and around 36" tall. Its going to be an Encore with a wood stock that will be cut down in 3/4" increments to 10"LOP that way I can add a little as he grows. If your case it would not be needed. Domonic will be starting off with a thin 16" barrel 22lr to get the shooting fundamentals down and when he is profecient with that I'll move him up to a bigger caliber which will likely be a 6x47 with a 20" light weight barrel.

The 6x47 is a great little round inbetween the 6mmBR and 243 power wise , the old 243 is a great round for smaller folks also.

 

[Coyboy]

James, 243 is too much for this fellow. With his small hands I will have to make a stock from scratch so he can grip the wrist and still reach the trigger.
I was thinking a 16 inch barrel but may have to go longer depending on the length of the comb. I ran some numbers and seems like this round should work well with limited range. It is still over 1000 ft lbs and 2300fps at 100 yards,(muzzle vel of 2650) so bullet expansion should still be good.

 

[BountyHunter]

Cowboy

what you want already is there. TC contender carbine, youth butt stock and in 7-30 waters. LOP is either 12 or 12.5 inches, 21" barrel, under 5 lbs, red dot sight is the easiest for him.

call seirra and get load data for "reduced loads around 1600-2000 fps with 110 gr for practice and 130 single shot pistol bullet for deer.

I started my daughters at 8 and 10 with that and super easy to carry, shoot and very accurate with low recoil.

Best part, off the shelf and around $450 for the gun.

BH

 

[Wild_Bill]

6.8spc

hi build a 6.8spc the hornady and remington factory ammo is perfect and designed for use in 16" barrels. if he can hunt with an AR go with a 16" top end and M4 stock then use an eotec sight it will be able to be used for anyone as the eye relief is not critical and the lop can be changed for short to tamm shooters.

If no ar's are allowed get a rem in 6.8 cut down the barrel and recrown then get a stock made the required length with a small grip and use the eotec.

Cheers Bill
Australia

 

[Qzilla]

Here is what I did for my 3.5 yr old!!

I took a TC Contender, yes the old one due to weight. I suppose a G2 would work as well.

I cut the stock down and use the min. barrel length required by law.

This gun is chambered in 223 and I use a special load that Shawn Carlock helped me to develop.

I also had Shawn fit one of his brakes on it. The gun also has a Kick Eeze or however you spell it pad on it.

To test the recoil, I fired the rifle with the pad against my lips. Nothing, been hit harder by a grandma!!!

Now, if you do not like 223, you should be able to take the same idea and run with it.

I think the TC is the perfect rifle to start with. It is light weight, inexpensive (relatively) and you could make it any caliber you want.

I highly recommend Shawns brakes. I have tried tons of brakes and for some reason his just abosultely work better and muzzle jump is non-existant.

I have confirmed kills on close range Axis deer and Whitetail deer with the light loaded 223. It is all about shot placement.

Also, to take the fear out of getting hit with a scope I used an aimpoint type device with 0X magnification. Doing this allows almost any head position to work and you can use as much eye relief as possible.