Help deciding on a rifle for my daughter

[Ghostwolf308]

My daughter turns 12 next summer and enjoys shooting my 22's and my AR. So I think it is time she has her own rifle. I am thinking 243 for the caliber so when we can get out to ND to hunt with grandpa she would be set. Now I have been looking at the Savage Arms Model 11 trophy hunter youth I like that I can do a barrel swap myself when the time comes. I currently own two Rem700 308's, one is my wife's the other is mine so I like the 700's as well. Is there a better choice to look at? Is there a different caliber I should look at? She wants to start shooting longer ranges with her mom and I. Any help is much appreciated guys. I want her to be able to learn the fundamentals and start working her way out So we can enjoy hunting together.

 

[Barrelnut]

Might consider the 6.5 Creedmoor for the reasonably priced and accurate match and hunting ammo for it. Barrel life would be a bit better than the .243.

 

[Engineering101]

A buddy of mine wanted something similar for his 13 year old daughter this past season. With a little thought, we got onto a pretty good idea. He got her a Savage in 7mm-08 even though full power loads might be a bit much for her right now in that light weight rifle. So we stuffed the case full of US869 and put a 150 grain Accubond Long Range on top. It turned out to be very accurate (just under 1 MOA) and with the bullet traveling about 2,000 fps, recoil was non existent and she really liked shooting it. The very soft ABLR bullet worked perfectly as she dropped a nice whitetail doe in its tracks. As she gets a bigger over the years we will up the velocity until we get to full power loads.

 

[jimbires]

I agree with a 7mm-08 . I use a reduced recoil load for my girlfriend . I use a 120 grain nosler ballistic tip with H4895 powder . it's a very accurate load in her X-bolt . I figured the recoil on quickload and used a powder charge that gives the same recoil as a 243 load with a 100 gr bullet . this could be loaded much lighter .

links to hodgdon .

https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895 Reduced Rifle Loads.pdf


Hodgdon Reloading | Home

 

[Ghostwolf308]

The 7mm-08 looks interesting and since mom and I both shoot 308 I have plenty of brass. But how is factory ammo availability?

 

[8andbait]

My daughter was shooting my 6.5 creedmoor yesterday with 140 bergers.

She had only shot .223 and 22 up to this point.

With the 6.5 she put the first two at 200 yards about 3/4" apart right where they should have been. Then I spotted for her and she had first round hits at 330, 554 and 710 on steel. It was pretty cold so she only made a total of 5 shots but they all would have been kill shots.

My opinion would be a 6.5 creed and you can load it down with 100 or 120 bullets then move up to full 140 loads when she gets a little heavier.

While watching the recoil when my daughter shot the rifle with 140's, it only moved about 1.5" toward her face. I made sure it was touching her shoulder and all was good. My only concern was that she might not have enough mass and get hit in the head with the scope but no problems and it never got close to her.

 

[dmj]

Maybe look at the 260. My wife shoots one in the rem. model 7 and it seems to be a decent rifle. The recoil seems to be fairly mild. And seems to be accurate, although she has never shot it much past the 300 yard mark.

 

[crazyelkaholic]

I bought my wife a Savage lady hunter in 7mm-08 a couple of years ago that she really likes. It does have a little more recoil than would be ideal for her due to the light weight but shoots extremely accurate with my reloads. my vote would be one of the lighter cartridges in that rifle.

 

[RT2506]

For barrel swap down the road the Savage platform can't be beat. Let me suggest something that may help your caliber decision. Since you already have two 308s and you are a hand loader get some 125 Nosler ballistic tips and load them down in the 308. It depends on the weight of the rifle but even with full house loads the 125s have much less recoil than 150s to me. I have used 46 grs IMR 4895 with the 125 BT for 3000 fps from my 21.5" Heart varmint barrel 700 Rem action rifle for years on white tail and it is a tack driver and a deer hammer out to a touch over 300 yards so far and recoil is not any more than a 243. This bullet also works exceptionally on deer from my 14" barrel Contender 30-30AI pistol starting out at 2670 fps. I also shoot this bullet at 2850 fps from my 30x47 rifle and have also killed lots of deer with it. Hodgdon also has reduced load data on their web site but you can also work with starting loads from regular data. Starting that 125 out 2700 to 2800 fps will do you fine out to around 300 yards for deer size game.

 

[hawk45]

If you are going Savage, then I would go .243. It's a nice mild round that can get things done with a good shot at appropriate distances. Being it's a Savage, if you/she decide you want to step up to a heavier caliber down the line, just order a barrel for the swap.
Nothing worse for a new shooter than being over gunned and starting off with a flinch.
Other option would be pick a heavier caliber and put a brake on it.
It's a good thing you are doing.. be proud.
Best of luck!

 

[Ghostwolf308]

I agree with a 7mm-08 . I use a reduced recoil load for my girlfriend . I use a 120 grain nosler ballistic tip with H4895 powder . it's a very accurate load in her X-bolt . I figured the recoil on quickload and used a powder charge that gives the same recoil as a 243 load with a 100 gr bullet . this could be loaded much lighter .

Would you be willing to look and see if I could down load it with 4064? And possibly i could do the same with a 308

 

[Ghostwolf308]

Wonder if light loads and a limbsaver recoil pad would dull down a 308 enough? I could get a slip on limbsaver and let her shoot my 308.

 

[jimbires]

Would you be willing to look and see if I could down load it with 4064? And possibly i could do the same with a 308

I've never tried to reduce IMR4064 loads below book min .you have to be careful with reduced loads using certain powders , you can get hang fires , and over pressure from detonation . H4895 works well for reducing loads .

I've been thinking on this , since you already have all the 308 stuff you might want to just buy her a 308 . start her out with reduced loads and work her up as she gains skill .
I worked with a savage axis 308 for a new shooter . awful trigger but it shot well . if you want to reduce 308 loads I did this for a young girl a few years ago . her dad tried to get her to shoot factory 150 grain ammo , it was way to much . she couldn't handle the factory reduced recoil ammo either . I got this info from my speer #13 manual , it is light recoil , and accurate in her rifle . I used a 125 ballistic tip , IMR4198 powder , cci200 primer , min 25.0 gr @ 1969 FPS - max 29.0 gr @ 2185 FPS . I forget what the powder charge was I used for her ( I might have it in my notes ) but I just played with seating depth and dialed it right in . I have pics of the targets showing seating depth changes .






the heavy trigger got me on this one .





she shot it well too I made a scope adjustment between the two groups .

 

[jimbires]

Wonder if light loads and a limbsaver recoil pad would dull down a 308 enough? I could get a slip on limbsaver and let her shoot my 308.

Yes , you can for sure . you posted this while I was posting above . any questions just ask . I really need to learn to type . HA