Light Weight Rifle for Smaller Hunters?

[T3ninja]

My daughter will be 5 this year. I'm really hoping she will want to try deer hunting this year. As far as shooting goes, I cut down an old single shot .22 and she was shooting and hitting clay pigeons at 20 yards with the rifle in a vice. Literally a bench vice. I wanted to make sure there was zero chance of accident from dropping and zero recoil. Now she's 4 and she's has shot my AR in .223 and .300 BLK. I like letter her shoot the AR since I can collapse the stock short enough. She is learning how to aim by herself now and is becoming a very good marksman considering she is only 4. About once a week we shoot the crossbow and I just put it in the bogpod "death grip" tripod and she does the rest. She's able to understand the BDC lines in the scope and make hits on a 6" bullseye out to 50 yards. As far as hunting in 2020, I'll most likely have her setup with my .300 BLK with a suppressor. It will fit her, and recoil is minimal.



So for me and what I've seen, it's hard to beat an AR for youngster to start out with. They can be built lightweight, and the recoil is manageable in pretty much all the calibers. Add an adjustable gas block to tune it even more. 6mm ar, 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 Spc, .300 BLK . All are perfectly capable deer calibers, some even at 3-400+ yards is set up correctly

 

[scottpt]

I found a Tikka 260 REM in The Bargain Cave at Cabela's. Took it out of there their ****** plastic stock and ordered an adjustable stock from Boyd's that allows you to adjust the length of pull as well as the cheek rise. I got a break put on it as well and gave it to my 12 year old daughter who's less than a hundred pounds and she shoots it off the bag lights out. The stock is a little heavier but that helps to manage the recoil. With all due respect to everybody regarding weight of the rifle... I am a golfer. Why don't you try carrying a set of 40 pound golf clubs 4-5 hours during a game of golf. People complaining about a 10 lb rifle? Seriously??? Carrying your gun is just part of what it takes to be a hunter. A pound or 2 here or there ain't gonna matter ... work on your fitness. It does matter alot with regards to recoil. Use a heavier rifle and allow your shooter to develop good shooting habits.

 

[drdool]

.22 > .223 > .243 > .308
Teach them technique, dry fire a lot, don't want them to develop a flinch so move them through that progression as long as they can stay on target and in the scope, them move up but not before if possible. Will make them more capable in the long run.

 

[nicholasjohn]

I have taught quite a few women and youngsters to shoot including my own family, I always start them off with a 223 at the range, When they are comfortable with it I will move them up to a 7lb scoped 7mm-08 with a reduced recoil load . When they are comfortable here move them up to a full power load . Some have stayed with the reduced recoil load quite awhile hunting and killing deer and hogs the whole time seems to work very well

That sounds pretty good to me. With lighter bullets, the 7mm-08 can be loaded to pretty much duplicate the 243 Winchester's ballistics. That seems to be a commonly-recommended cartridge for youngsters and smallish lady shooters, and the 7mm-08 can be loaded down to that level for their first couple of years of hunting. Since they may want something bigger than the 243 later on, loading the larger cartridge to full power when they're ready for it would accomplish that quite nicely.

 

[Pinoniper]

I have seen several posts referring to ultra light weight rifles "for my wife", "for my girlfriend", "for my kid", etc. These mentions are often in the rifles for sale. Sako's website advertises their Finnlight as "an excellent choice for women and younger shooters". Some others offering light weight rifles say the same.

This seems counter-intuitive to me, though. Assuming we are referring to smaller people less able to handle heavy or bulky items (not all wives and kids are smaller and weaker, we're talking averages here), wouldn't they do better with a heavier rifle to help reduce recoil? Seems like you could more easily discourage somebody from shooting if you start them off with a higher recoil rifle.

I'm helping my brother-in-law getting his youngsters started in hunting and I advised him away from the ultra light rifles for this reason. I remember in my own young sons' case that the 9-10 lb .270's they began with were almost too much recoil as they were, but the weight of the rifle was fine for them.

What are your experiences or advice?

Over the years, and with some expensive mistakes along the way, I am learning a lot more about matching the cartridge to the rifle and the rifle to both the purpose and the shooter. In general, I would not match a light rifle to a stoutly-recoiling cartridge, with the possible exception of for a large and experienced shooter who will have to carry it and a pack for miles and needs to save some weight. A smaller human needs a lighter hunting rifle to carry over the miles, and most will be much better served by light recoil. We are living in great times now, when a .264 or even a .257 bullet can be both aerodynamic and constructed for good (if not great) penetration. These calibers, and not in the most powerful cartridges available, can be paired with lightweight rifles and still keep recoil in the tolerable zone. As we all know, the Number One factor of successful hunting shots is bullet placement, and excessive recoil is the enemy of that. If not hunting/carrying, then one can go up in weight, but for a smaller person, I still recommend against a high recoil cartridge.

 

[el Pollero]

Key is to think ahead and give them a good opportunity when they get a chance.
My 9 yr old shoots really well but doesn't have the arm strength to hold a rifle very long on a target so we improvised this year with a couple of the more productive stands and got her a tripod that weights more than the dang rifle to hunt with . This plus the non recoiling Grendel has made for a good deer season

 

[if4not]

As I've done this a few times with younger shooters, I've began to think of them in 2 groups "kids" and "youth". Adding gender (just 2) into the mix, and generally females have about a third less upper body strength than males. Then factor in the variables of the type of hunting, shooting is going to be done. One size doesn't fit all.

With cartridges like the 6.5 Grendel one can have a lightweight rifle that can be carried by less physically developed. Learning to handle firearms safely from point A-B, being an important part of the experience in my mind.

^^^^
This. 6.5 Gendel in a Howa 1500 Mini action is a great deer/hog rifle for 250+ yards with almost no recoil. Kicks less than my AR-15 and weighs in Less than 6lbs with a 3-9x40 1" scope mounted.

 

[30BR]

I had a female friend who was sold a wonder-nine as her first gun, and when I took her to the range it was obvious she was scared stiff of it.
I started her off on my Ruger Mk 4, and after the session was done, she literally hugged me to death and kissed me for allowing her to learn HOW to shoot before learning how to shoot a 9mm handgun.
Start slow to learn the basics without dealing with blast and recoil.

 

[Buano]

I agree that punishing recoil will quickly turn off most new shooters. Because of this I picked up a used Rem Model 7 with a youth stock in .260 Rem when my daughter started deer hunting (age 9). A .243 would have been even better, but I stumbled across the .260 for a reasonable price. She took 2 deer with it before she turned 10.

 

[jbo829]

I'm comfortable with a rifle in the 10lb-12lb range I do hike some and hunt off a self climber stand I let my 9 year old step son shoot it and he says it's to much for him so a lighter rifle would be worse for him before I got my promotion I to carry my scaffold harness 10 hours a day with tools and all it's around 60 pounds

 

[Rich Coyle]

Now that we are talking about teaching, I will tell about my experience "teaching" teenage boy. The only rifle I had for someone to use was a 7-.300 Weatherby. I loaded twenty rounds with about fifteen grains of some kind of pistol powder and a 120 grain bullet. They were placed into a ammo box so he could use up a whole box of ammo. I took him to the small river that ran through the property and threw sticks out into the water. He then proceeded to try to hit them. A week later he came over again. This time we had a whole box of a light load of 3031. We did the same thing. He never noticed the difference. We did this until he was firing 175 grainers at 2,700 feet per second.

AT this time we put up a target about 100 yards away for him to fire at off hand. I took this opportunity to dial his scope in for his shooting. He was able to hit paper plates regularly.

 

[zog]

At risk of wandering off my own subject - now talking about carrying a heavy gun on trails . . . Here's the same son a couple years later carrying an 11 lb rifle - 1958 Winchester M70 .270 given to him by his grandfather. I got this eberle stock gun pack and it is just fantastic to carry. This is about 3 miles from a road. I don't think he would have cared if it was 5 lbs heavier. For him and I both the problem with a sling isn't so much the weight as we just can't keep a sling slung on our shoulder. This pack actually makes the gun feel lighter.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I guess I see the difference in the way he carries an eleven pound rifle and the way I carry a seven pound four ounce rifle. I carry mine in either one hand or the other ALL the time.

I would put money on him not carrying that rifle in one hand or the other for two miles, much less three.

 

[JASmith]

At risk of wandering off my own subject - now talking about carrying a heavy gun on trails . . . Here's the same son a couple years later carrying an 11 lb rifle - 1958 Winchester M70 .270 given to him by his grandfather. I got this eberle stock gun pack and it is just fantastic to carry. This is about 3 miles from a road. I don't think he would have cared if it was 5 lbs heavier. For him and I both the problem with a sling isn't so much the weight as we just can't keep a sling slung on our shoulder. This pack actually makes the gun feel lighter.View attachment 167629

That's an excellent solution -- even if one can snag a 5-lb rifle!